, france and italy. and it is also true of your professional life. you have held various political offices in which you worked towards a prospering europe, not least during the six years you spent serving as a member of the european parliament. with that background, you joined the bundesbank ’ s executive board at the end of 2016. of your various responsibilities, i would like to mention the significant directorates general it ( information technology ) and banking supervision. there, you were the right person at the right time – for two reasons. first, when you joined the bundesbank, you were already familiar with the inner workings of the financial sector thanks to your past leadership positions at the gesamtverband der deutschen versicherungswirtschaft and the association of sparda banks. and second, you have a passion for innovation. some people tend to fear innovation and change. joachim wuermeling seems to particularly enjoy those things. during the covid ( coronavirus disease ) - 19 pandemic, he therefore put into practice the advice attributed to winston churchill : “ never let a good crisis go to waste. ” by that, i certainly don ’ t mean to imply that the pandemic was “ good ” in any way. organising supervision remotely, having supervisors monitor banks from their desks – it worked surprisingly well. and joachim wanted to firmly anchor this digitalisation push forced upon us by the pandemic. he thus became a driving force behind a digital agenda for banking supervision in germany. [ 12 ] a digital agenda that would significantly improve … • frst, how banks provide data to supervisory authorities ; • second, how information other than traditional reporting data could be used by supervisors ; • and third, how these data should be linked and analysed. with this digital agenda, joachim also sought to enhance supervisors ’ analytical capabilities and the overall supervisory process. the digital agenda for banking supervision was created jointly by bafin ( bundesanstalt fur finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht ) and the bundesbank – not least thanks to joachim ’ s commitment to cooperation and digitalisation. however, a digital agenda was needed for the bundesbank as well. here, too, joachim has been a strong driving force. together with jens weidmann, he chaired the first committee within the bundesbank tasked with shaping and accelerating the digital transformation of the entire organisa ‐ tion. and joachim proved to be

. 11. see buch, c., evidenzbasierte wirtschaftspolitik [ https : / / www. bundesbank. de / de / presse / reden / evidenzbasierte - wirtschaftspolitik - 827310 ], keynote speech delivered at the 8th conference for social and economic data, berlin, 2 march 2020. 12. wuermeling, j. and r. roseler ( 2020 ), ein update fur die bankenaufsicht : die digitale agenda von bafin und bundesbank [ https : / / www. handelsblatt. com / meinung / gastbeitraege / gastkommentar - ein - update - fuer - diebankenaufsicht - die - digitale - agenda - von - bafin - und - bundesbank / 26734100. html ], in : handelsblatt, 26 december 2020. 13. see auswirkungen virtueller wahrungen auf die finanzmarkte [ https : / / www. bundesbank. de / de / presse / reden / auswirkungen - virtueller - waehrungen - auf - diefinanzmaerkte - 711074 ], speech delivered in frankfurt am main on 15 january 2018 ; digitalisierung : fur eine balance von innovation und soliditat [ https : / / www. bundesbank. de / de / presse / reden / digitalisierung - fuer - eine - balance - von - innovationund - soliditaet - 762104 ], speech delivered in mainz on 24 september 2018.