- Pablo Hernández de Cos appointed as General Manager of the BIS for a five-year term, starting on 1 July 2025.
- Mr Hernández de Cos succeeds Agustín Carstens, whose term ends in June 2025.
The Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) today announced the appointment of Pablo Hernández de Cos as its next General Manager. His appointment takes effect on 1 July 2025 and is for a five-year term.
Mr Hernández de Cos was previously Governor of the Bank of Spain, a position he held from 2018 until June 2024. He will take over the position of BIS General Manager from Agustín Carstens whose term concludes at the end of June 2025.
The Board of Directors is delighted to announce the appointment of Pablo Hernández de Cos as the next General Manager of the BIS. It was essential for the Board to find an excellent leader to succeed Mr Carstens, who has been extremely successful in leading and transforming the BIS in these challenging times. Mr Hernández de Cos is a person of remarkable calibre and global experience, and we are fully confident that he will embody the spirit of international trust and technical excellence on which the BIS is built. The Board looks forward very much to working closely with him when he assumes his new role in July 2025.
The BIS Board also recognised the outstanding contribution of Mr Carstens to the BIS and thanked him for his continued leadership until the end of his term. The Board acknowledged the significant transformation and strengthened performance of the BIS during his tenure. Under his leadership, the Bank has delivered its ambitious Innovation BIS 2025 strategy. This has included collaborating with its members on financial innovation, exploring the development of public goods through a new Innovation Hub and advancing its analytical, capacity-building and banking services to support central banks.
Biographical note: Pablo Hernández de Cos
Mr Hernández de Cos was previously Governor of the Bank of Spain, a position he held from 2018 until June 2024. During his Governorship, he was a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) and was also Chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision from January 2019 to June 2024. Also during his tenure as Governor, he was a member of the Financial Stability Board and the BIS Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision and served as Vice Chairman of the Spanish Macroprudential Authority Financial Stability Council. He served as Alternate Governor for Spain at the International Monetary Fund, Chair of the Board of Governors of the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA) and President of the Board of Trustees for the Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros (CEMFI). He is the Chair of the Advisory Technical Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board and is a member of its Board and Steering Committee. He is currently Professor of the Practice of Management of Economics at the IESE Business School and a non-resident fellow of Bruegel and the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Mr Hernández de Cos began his career at the Bank of Spain in 1997. Prior to becoming Governor, he served in senior roles at the Bank of Spain, including as Director General Economics, Statistics and Research, and served on the boards of the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies (ICMB) and the Foundation for Applied Economic Studies (FEDEA). He previously chaired the ECB Working Group on Public Finances and has been a member of the Economic and Financial Committee and the Economic Policy Committee of the European Union. He also served as an Adviser to the Executive Board of the ECB.
Born in Madrid, Spain in 1971, Mr Hernández de Cos holds a PhD in economics from the Complutense University of Madrid, specialising in macroeconomics, fiscal and monetary policy and financial stability. He has a degree in economics and business administration from CUNEF Universidad and a degree in law from the UNED.
