Erwin Nierop
Deputy General Counsel
Head of Financial Law Division
European Central Bank

Erwin Nierop studied Dutch civil law as well as international law at the State University of Leiden, the Netherlands. After completion of his military service in the Dutch Royal Navy, he joined the legal department of De Nederlandsche Bank, the central bank of the Netherlands, in Amsterdam. Subsequently, he became member of a team which established the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London, United Kingdom; in this capacity he contributed to the institutional set-up of the EBRD and to its public sector lending as well as private sector investment operations in the Central and Eastern European Countries; member of the Secretariat of the Committee of Governors of the Central Banks of the Member States of the European Economic Community at the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, which created the basis for the European Monetary Institute (EMI); and Deputy General Counsel of the EMI in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, which prepared for the establishment of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and the European Central Bank (ECB) as well as for the introduction of the euro; in this capacity he contributed to the institutional set-up of the ESCB and ECB and the development of the ESCB’s regulatory framework.

At present, Erwin Nierop is Deputy General Counsel of the ECB and Head of its Financial Law Division. The main focus of his current activities are the legal aspects of monetary policy, payment and securities settlement systems, foreign reserves, prudential supervision, financial regulation, financial markets and the implementation of the acquis communautaire in these areas in the European Union Accession Countries.