Sharon Donnery was appointed Deputy Governor, Financial Regulation on 1 July 2022. She is an ex-officio Member of the Central Bank Commission and is a member of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank (ECB). As Deputy Governor, Financial Regulation, Sharon is responsible for leading credit institutions supervision; insurance supervision; policy and risk; and prudential analytics and inspections directorates.
Sharon was previously Deputy Governor, Central Banking from 1 March 2016 to 30 June 2022 and was the Governor's Alternate on the Governing Council of the ECB. She is also a member of the General Board of the European Systemic Risk Board having been appointed by the ECB Governing Council in December 2016. Sharon was appointed as co-chair of the Standing Committee on Supervisory and Regulatory Cooperation Open-ended Funds Working Group (OEFWG) in January 2023.
Sharon was Acting Governor from 1 June 2019 to 31 August 2019. She has chaired a number of European Committees including being Chair of the ECB Budget Committee (BuCom), Chair of the ECB High Level Group on Non-Performing Loans (NPLs), Chair of the European Banking Authority's (EBA) Consumer Protection Group and Vice-Chair of the EBA Standing Committee on Consumer Protection and Financial Innovation.
Sharon joined the Central Bank in 1996 as an Economist in the Monetary Policy Division and has held a range of senior positions. From February 2013 to August 2014, she held the statutory position of Registrar of Credit Unions and from April 2014 to May 2016 was Director of Credit Institutions. Prior to joining the Central Bank, Sharon lectured in economics at the National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Sharon holds a B.A. in Economics and Politics and a M.A. in Economics from University College Dublin and a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors. In 2019, she was admitted to the Institute of Directors in London as a Chartered Director. In 2020, she was appointed as an Adjunct Professor of Economics in Trinity College Dublin.
Roundtable Room 2 (Level 2)
Decoding Digital Assets and Payments
This roundtable considers the work that the BIS Innovation Hub Eurosystem Centre, Singapore Centre, together with the central banks of France, Italy, Malaysia, and Singapore are pursuing to determine how FX will look like in a world of digital money.
The discussion will support this work, with the objective to:
- Promote understanding and share insights on the integration of digital currencies in the FX market.
- Identify challenges and explore opportunities presented by the intersection of FX, DeFi, and wholesale CBDCs.
- Encourage collaboration among stakeholders to shape a forward-looking FX framework that accommodates digital innovations.
This roundtable is closely tied to the work on Project Rialto, which aims to improving instant cross-border payments using wholesale CBDC settlement, details of which are available in the agenda brief. Operating under the theme of Decoding Digital Assets and Payments, this roundtable will explore the inefficiencies in today's foreign exchange markets, and the various initiatives that are being pursued to address these.
Attendees who wish to familiarise themselves with the history of the topic may refer to the reference materials here.