Biography

Veerle’s academic background is law, which she studied at the University of Ghent, Belgium, and at New York University, NY, USA. In 2009, she obtained a PhD in law at the University of Ghent, focused on banking regulation. She started working in 2009 for the National Bank of Belgium, developing prudential policies after the great financial crisis of 2008, at Belgium, European and Basel Committee level. Her concentrations were remuneration policies, “fit and proper” screening of bank directors, anti-money laundering supervision and banking group supervision. In 2016, she joined the European Central Bank, helping to start up European Banking Supervision, a new competence of the ECB since end 2014. From an expert position, she moved into project management, for example as idea-owner and PMO lead for an online platform to submit regulatory applications across the Euro area, which helped moving away from very different national application practices and unlocking data analytics potential. As of 2020, she took up a management position in the Authorisation Division at the ECB, in the Directorate Supervisory Governance and Operations, dealing for example with FinTech applications, equity fund acquisitions in banks, the new holding company licensing regime or restructurings in banking groups after Brexit. Since 2021, she co-leads, as Head of Division – Non-financial Risks, the second line of defence for European Banking Supervision in the Directorate Supervisory Strategy and Risk, assessing the quality, consistency and effectiveness of European Banking supervision. “Good governance” has been present throughout her career and is still her professional passion, whether it is about governance for banks, in the organization of banking supervision or in the dynamics of a team.  She believes that good governance is the engine for reflection, improvement and creativity at work.