The Government will appoint Minister José Luis Escrivá as the new governor of the Bank of Spain

September 3 () –

The Government will appoint the Minister for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, José Luis Escrivá, as the new governor of the Bank of Spain, replacing Pablo Hernández de Cos, according to information provided by ‘Cadena Ser’ and confirmed by sources consulted by Europa Press.

Although there is still no official confirmation from the Government, Escrivá’s name will be presented tomorrow in the Congress of Deputies as the candidate proposed by the Executive for the post of governor, despite the rejection of the PP. The Minister of Economy, Trade and Business, Carlos Cuerpo, has asked to appear before the Lower House to inform of the appointment.

In July, the Government proposed to the PP the name of the current Minister of Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, José Luis Escrivá, as Governor of the Bank of Spain, a proposal that was already flatly rejected by the PP because it came from the Executive itself.

The appointment of the new governor of the Bank of Spain does not have to be approved by the Council of Ministers, as it is made at the proposal of the President of the Government, and therefore only needs to be published in the Official State Gazette, after approving the dismissal of Escrivá as minister.

Although it is an unwritten agreement, it is usual for the renewal of the positions of governor and deputy governor of the Bank of Spain to be agreed between the PSOE and the PP, in such a way that the party in government appoints the governor and the opposition party proposes the deputy governor.

However, and in view of the imminent appointment, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, warned the Executive this Tuesday that his party “cannot be counted on” for this appointment, which he described as a “new invasion of the Bank of Spain.”

Pending an official announcement tomorrow, Escrivá has cancelled his participation in a course run by the digital association Ametic, which is being held this week in Santander.

DISAGREEMENTS WITH THE BANK OF SPAIN

Escrivá, who was Minister of Social Security in the last legislature, has had several disagreements with the Bank of Spain and its governor regarding studies that the organisation has published on the sustainability of the public pension system and the need for reforms, in some cases in the opposite direction to those proposed by the Executive.

José Luis Escrivá has extensive training and professional experience in the field of macroeconomics and finance. A graduate in Economics and with postgraduate degrees in Economic Analysis and Econometrics, in addition to his positions as Minister, first of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration in the last legislature, and now in charge of the Digital Transformation department, he has been head of the Monetary Policy Division of the European Central Bank (1999-2004) and advisor to the European Monetary Institute (1993-1999).

At the Bank of Spain, he held the position of Deputy Director of the Monetary and Financial Studies Department and was head of the Monetary Research Unit at the agency located on Calle Alcalá in Madrid.

He has also been President of the Network of Independent Fiscal Institutions of the European Union (2015-2019) and President of the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) (2014-2020), as well as Chief Economist and Director of the BBVA Research Department (2004-2010).

During the last legislature, Escrivá had several clashes with the Bank of Spain regarding the monetary authority’s studies on the viability and sustainability of the public pension system. Specifically, in May 2022, the minister went so far as to say that the Bank of Spain’s analyses suffered from a “lack of sophistication” and did not provide “any new elements” on the future of pensions.

IN MAY ESCRIVÁ REJECTED THIS POSSIBILITY

Last May, Escrivá’s name was mentioned as a possible replacement for Hernández de Cos and the minister himself stated on that occasion that being governor of the Bank of Spain was not a position he was “thinking about”, nor something he had “in mind” or that was “relevant”.

“I honestly don’t want to tell you that story,” he told reporters at an event on the digitalisation of SMEs held in Madrid in May of this year.

Following the appointment of the Government, Escrivá will become the first minister in the exercise of his functions to directly occupy the post of governor. There is only one similar precedent, when Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez, under the mandate of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, moved from the Secretary of State for Finance to the Bank of Spain as its top manager.