Frankfurt School hosts event in honour of the 90th Birthday of Otmar Issing

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management honoured one of Europe’s most influential central bankers witt a special event on 30 September 2026. Following Professor Otmar Issing’s 90^th birthday earlier in the year, the Centre for Central Banking (CfCB) together with Aktionskreis Stabiles Geld hosted an event highlighting Issing’s contribution to monetary policy and central banking in Europe.

Emanuel Mönch, Professor of Financial and Monetary Economics and CfCB Co-Director, welcomed Otmar Issing and Claudio Borio, former Head of the Monetary and Economic Department at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and the audience. He highlighted Issing’s role in shaping European monetary policy: following an academic career and membership of the German Council of Economic Experts, Issing became Chief Economist of the Deutsche Bundesbank in 1990. In 1998, he joined the first Executive Board of the European Central Bank, where he served as its first Chief Economist and played a central role in developing the ECB’s original monetary policy strategy. Today, Issing is a Distinguished Policy Fellow at Frankfurt School’s Centre for Central Banking.

Claudio Borio, one of the most influential voices in central banking over the last two decades, delivered the keynote speech, “Inflation, deflation and monetary policy frameworks”. Borio reflected on the limits of monetary policy and argued for frameworks that give greater consideration to longer-term financial stability.

Central banking requires humility

The centrepiece of the event was a fireside chat between Issing, Borio and Jens Weidmann, Professor of Practice in Central Banking and CfCB Co-Director. Introducing the conversation, Weidmann paid tribute not only to Issing’s academic and professional achievements but also to his willingness to defend his convictions while remaining loyal to the institutions he helped shape.

Their discussion ranged from the future of money and technological change to central bank communication, monetary aggregates, fiscal policy and central bank independence. Issing emphasised in particular the need for humility in monetary policymaking. Central banks, he argued, need to recognise the limits of what they can know and achieve – while still being prepared to take decisions under uncertainty.

The conversation also addressed how central bank communication has evolved. Issing cautioned against treating complete transparency as an end in itself. Communication, he argued, should remain a tool of monetary policy rather than becoming an objective of its own.

Looking back at the institutional foundations of the European Monetary Union, Issing also stressed the importance of sound public finances and central bank independence. Ultimately, he said, institutional safeguards alone cannot guarantee independence: it also depends on broader political and public support for monetary stability.

The fireside chat concluded with questions from students and other members of the audience on deglobalisation, inflation, accountability and the future of central banking, before discussions continued at the reception.