Vojtěch Belling appointed Vice Chair of ESMA

The Board of Supervisors of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has appointed Vojtěch Belling as its Vice Chair. Mr Belling, who is the Executive Director of the Financial Market Regulation and International Cooperation Department of the Czech National Bank (CNB), will serve the remainder of the ongoing two-and-a-half-year Vice-Chair term from 21 November 2022, until 15 June 2024.

“I would like to congratulate Vojtěch Belling on his election as ESMA Vice Chair. I regard this success as recognition of the way he has represented the Czech National Bank in the management of this European supervisory authority so far. His appointment again confirms that the CNB has among its ranks experts who are extremely erudite and well-respected in the Czech Republic and abroad,” said CNB Governor Aleš Michl.

Vojtěch Belling replaces Erik Thedéen, Director General of the Swedish Finansinspektionen (FI), who will leave his post shortly to take up the post of Governor of the Swedish Riksbank.

Verena Ross, Chair, said: “I am happy to announce the appointment of Vojtěch Belling as Vice Chair of ESMA. As a member of the Board of Supervisors and of the Management Board since December 2020, he has demonstrated his commitment to ESMA, and I look forward to working with him as Vice Chair. I also want to take the opportunity to thank Erik Thedéen for the valuable role he has played for ESMA, as a member of the Board of Supervisors, the Management Board and most recently also as ESMA’s Vice-Chair.”

Biography

Mr Belling is a member of the Board of Supervisors of ESMA, a member of the International Relations Committee of the European Central Bank and an alternate member of the Economic and Financial Committee of the EU. He was also a member of the Management Board of ESMA until September 2022.

Mr Belling is active in the academic sphere, lectures law and political science at Charles University in Prague and Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí and Labem. In the past, he was also a lecturer at the University of Heidelberg. He holds a Master’s degree in Law from Charles University in Prague, a PhD degree in Political Science from Charles University in Prague, and Associate Professor degree from Masaryk University in Brno. He published several academic books and many articles, including in the European Law Journal, the International Organizations Law Review and the Zeitschrift für Öffentliches Recht.

European Securities and Markets Authority

• More information and a recent photograph can be found on the ESMA website (external link).
• The Board of Supervisors is the main decision-taking body of ESMA, consisting of the heads of the 27 national supervisors chaired by Verena Ross, ESMA Chair.
• ESMA’s mission is to enhance investor protection and promote stable and orderly financial markets.
  
  It achieves these objectives through four activities:
  1. assessing risks to investors, markets and financial stability;
  2. completing a single rulebook for EU financial markets;
  3. promoting supervisory convergence; and
  4. directly supervising specific financial entities.
• ESMA achieves its mission within the European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS) through active cooperation with the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), the European Systemic Risk Board, and with national authorities with competencies in securities markets (NCAs).