Only one day after the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) and president of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) sat before the European Parliament Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in his inaugural hearing, the Official Journal of the EU published a Call for expressions of interest for external experts to be appointed as members of its Advisory Scientific Committee. Further to this selection, 15 members of the Committee will be appointed in order to advice the ESRB.

The European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) is an EU level body responsible for the macro-prudential oversight of the financial system within the Union in order to contribute to the prevention or mitigation of systemic risks to financial stability in the Union that arise from developments within the financial system. Within its operational structures, the ESRB is to be assisted by an Advisory Scientific Committee chaired by a president and composed by 15 members, expert in a wide range of areas.

In order to appoint these external experts of the Advisory Scientific Committee, the ESRB has publishes in the OJEU a Call for expressions of interest for external experts, which will be open for submission 21 calendar days after this publication. Interested applicants may submit their applications either by registered post or private courier to ESBR postal address or, as recommended, by e-mail to ESBR e-mail address.

Members of the ESBR Advisory Committee will, at the request of the ESRB Chair, provide analytical and consultative tasks to the Board:

• Analytical tasks: contribution on how to improve analytical methodologies to detect risks and assess potential impacts of their materialisation; a contribution on how to design and calibrate effective macro-prudential policy tools, including improving existing tools or models as well as proposing new and/or complementary analytical tools and models.
• Consultative tasks: open, independent and analytical review of macro-prudential strategies and operational frameworks, in order to contribute to a continuously state-of-the-art ESRB policy framework.

Selected experts will demonstrate an in-depth expertise of the financial sector and its relationships with the wider economy and a general competence on systemic risk issues, in particular at the EU level. In selecting candidates, their scientific contributions to the understanding of the interplay between sectors mentioned in Regulation (EU) No 1092/2010, will be taken into account as well as a Ph.D. in finance, economics or another relevant field or equivalent qualifications, a solid academic experience in a university in one or several fields of relevance to the ESRB and/or a strong publication record.

ESRB president before EP's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Just one day before the publication of this Call for experts for the ESRB Advisory Committee, the president of the Board and president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Jean-Claude Trichet, sat before the members of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament, focusing on a new policy area: macro-financial oversight.

According to Mr. Trichet, the focus of this new financial supervision mechanism which is starting to operate in 2011, must be on the prevention or mitigation of systemic risks at the EU level as a whole, in specific countries that pose a threat to the entire Union and to global developments that might have a negative impact in the Union. The subjects of controls by the ESRB will be wide ranging, Mr. Trichet said, will try to make optimum use of the specific knowledge of the members of the ESRB, including not only central banks but also financial supervisors. Monitoring will take place on a quarterly basis and the results will be shared with Parliament, either behind closed doors with the chair and vice-chairs of the committee or in an open discussion in the committee.