Lorenzo Bini Smaghi

Lorenzo Bini Smaghi is Chairman of Société Générale and one of Europe’s most experienced voices on monetary policy, financial stability and institutional governance.

From 2005 to 2011, he served on the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, spanning a period that tested the credibility of the euro and the limits of Europe’s institutional design. Earlier, he played a central role in the creation of the ECB itself as Head of the Policy Division at the European Monetary Institute, before moving to the Italian Treasury as Director-General for International Financial Relations, where he acted as G7 and G20 Deputy and Vice-Chair of the EU’s Economic and Financial Committee.

Alongside public service, Smaghi has led complex, regulated organisations in both the financial and industrial sectors. He has chaired SACE, SNAM and Italgas, served on the boards of institutions including the European Investment Bank and Morgan Stanley International, and has been Chairman of Société Générale since 2015.

What distinguishes Lorenzo Bini Smaghi is his focus on institutional incentives and unintended consequences. He is sceptical of policy built on assumptions rather than behaviour, and of regulation that substitutes form for function. His writing on Europe consistently returns to questions of credibility, coordination and sovereignty — whether in fiscal policy, banking regulation or, more recently, digital finance and tokenisation.

As a regular contributor to the Financial Times and Corriere della Sera, and the author of several books on European economic governance, Smaghi is known for challenging comfortable narratives without resorting to polemic. His arguments on stablecoins and financial innovation, for example, emphasise systemic risk, market structure and monetary control, rather than technology alone.

Beyond finance, he is Honorary Professor at University College London’s Policy Lab and has held leadership roles in major cultural institutions, reflecting a broader interest in how economic systems interact with political legitimacy and social trust.