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ESRB adviser hiring process 'dreadful'

Thursday 31 March 2011 - by Will Henley

An influential MEP has blasted the recruitment process for a key panel of academic experts who will advise the EU on threats to financial stability.

Sharon Bowles, chair of the Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee, told Global Financial Strategy that the European Commission had failed to reach "outside the box".

The British EU parliamentarian said a three-week advertisement period last month for appointments to the European Systemic Risk Board's advisory scientific committee was "dreadful".

"It struck me that that was a very, very short timescale," she said, adding that it was not designed to look beyond "the usual suspects".

"If you are trying to go outside the box - beyond those who spend their lives hunting around European Commission websites looking for odd jobs - then it takes longer than three weeks."


"Without any disrespect to those they have appointed, my guess is that they are the usual suspects."

The ESRB announced the 15 members of its advisory scientific committee - drawn from 128 applications - at its first regular meeting in Frankfurt earlier this month.

Led by University of Bonn professor Martin Hellwig, the committee will advise on the build-up of systemic risks and design methodologies to prevent future crises.

Members are given a renewable four-year mandate and are charged with delivering a "state-of-the-art" policy ESRB framework.

Bowles, who as Econ chair was one of the principle proponents of the scientific committee, however expressed disappointment that the commission had not "cast its net wider".

She said that with 15 academics - including Polish economist Leszek Balcerowicz and Dutch finance professor Dirk Schoenmaker - all schooled in economic and financial theory there is a danger of "group think".

"My test is have we got non-financial people? If we haven't, then we have failed from my perspective."

"I was trying to step outside the financial world - I wanted an engineering mathematician who understood about correlations and when things collapse."


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