pablo hernandez de cos : closing ceremony of the academic year 2022 - 2023 speech by mr pablo hernandez de cos, governor of the bank of spain, at the center for monetary and financial studies ( cemfi ), santander, 30 june 2023. * * * good afternoon dear colleagues and friends. and good afternoon class of 2023. it is a pleasure for me to participate in this graduation ceremony, together with rafael repullo, long - standing director of cemfi, and nezih guner, who is due to take over from him in september. as such, this graduation ceremony is special. indeed, very special. because it will be the last one with rafael repullo as director. after 36 years of service, he is going to step down, to be replaced by nezih guner. at the same time, the deputy directors manuel arellano and samuel bentolila will also step down, to be replaced by monica martinez - bravo. i would like to thank rafael, manuel and samuel for " making a miracle " to use the title of a famous paper published in 1993 by the nobel laureate robert lucas. while lucas was referring to episodes of very rapid income growth in asian countries, i would like to draw attention to the miracle of their transformation of a small venture at the banco de espana's training centre into one of the top european graduate schools for economics and finance. i would also like to take this opportunity to thank nezih and monica for accepting the challenge of taking this great institution forward. cemfi is the outcome of the ambition of the leadership of the banco de espana in the late 1980s, who saw the possibility of innovating in the organization of a graduate programme comparable to the best programmes in europe. it was luis angel rojo, at that time the banco de espana's director general of research, who invited rafael repullo to lead this venture. precisely as a token of appreciation for his decisive contributions in the early days of cemfi, the prize for the best master student bears his name. the banco de espana is very proud of its ongoing support and collaboration with such a special institution providing first - class graduate education and research, contributing a host of public goods to the spanish economy and generating valuable ideas for public policymaking. an excellent example of this collaboration is the co - organisation of the biennial financial stability conference that concluded this morning at the banco de espana. demonstrating an outstanding academic

five of them at cemfi, while the rest have found or are about to find jobs in accordance with their high qualifications. it is for me a great privilege and honour to be given the opportunity to present the certificates of the master degree in economics and finance to the students in the graduating class. i am also pleased to announce the winner of the " luis angel rojo prize " for the best student of the class of 2023 of the master in economics and finance. the winner is : kenneth lai. congratulations to kenneth and to all the students in the graduating class. finally, i would like to conclude my remarks by once again thanking manuel arellano, samuel bentolila, and rafael repullo for their commitment to cemfi over more than 30 years. i would also like to thank the faculty and administrative staff for their sterling work, and to congratulate the students of the class of 2023 of the master in economics and finance, for whom i wish the very brightest of futures. thank you very much. 2 / 2 bis - central bankers'speeches