Axel Weber

Axel Weber served as President of the Deutsche Bundesbank from 2004 to 2011 and as a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. He was widely considered a frontrunner to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet as ECB President, but resigned from the Bundesbank in 2011 — surprising markets — citing disagreement with the ECB's Securities Markets Programme (SMP), which involved purchasing sovereign bonds of distressed eurozone member states. Weber opposed unconventional monetary policy on grounds of both efficacy and central bank mandate, representing the orthodox German monetary tradition. After leaving the Bundesbank, he joined UBS Group AG, eventually becoming Chairman of the Board from 2012 to 2022. His tenure at UBS coincided with significant restructuring of the bank's investment banking operations following the 2008 crisis losses and a 2011 rogue trading scandal. Weber is considered one of the most prominent representatives of traditional hawkish central banking philosophy within the European monetary debate.