Stefan Ingves

Stefan Ingves served as Governor of the Riksbank — the world's oldest central bank — from 2006 to 2022. Sweden under his leadership was one of the first countries to introduce deeply negative interest rates and implement quantitative easing on a significant scale relative to GDP. Ingves also chaired the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision for many years, contributing to international banking regulation reform post-2008. Sweden's experience with negative rates under Ingves became one of the most closely studied examples of unconventional monetary policy. Before leading the Riksbank, he served as Deputy Governor of the Swedish central bank and at the IMF, where he contributed to work on financial sector surveillance. His tenure produced a fascinating natural experiment: the Riksbank initially cut rates into negative territory in 2015, then raised them in 2018-2019 before cutting again during the pandemic. The divergence from peers and the eventual reversal of negative rates generated substantial academic debate about the effectiveness and side effects of sub-zero interest rate policy. He retired in January 2023 and was succeeded by Erik Thedéen. His long involvement with the Basel Committee gave him unusual international stature among Nordic central bankers.