Swedish central banker af Jochnick to leave Riksbank for ECB post

STOCKHOLM: The Swedish Central Bank said on Thursday that Kerstin af Jochnick will leave her position as first deputy governor and member of the Riksbank's rate-setting board to take up a position at the European Central Bank.

Af Jochnick will be one of three new ECB representatives on the board of the central bank's banking supervision arm, along with Edouard Fernandez-Bollo and Elizabeth McCaul.

"Kerstin af Jochnick will therefore leave her post as First Deputy Governor of the Riksbank," the central bank said in a statement.

Af Jochnick, who the ECB said separately had been appointed to a five year term, became one of six board members at the Swedish central bank in 2012 and saw her term extended in 2017 to run until the end of 2023.

During her stint as deputy governor the Riksbank has adopted an ultra-dovish monetary policy stance, with negative interest rates since 2015. It has hiked rates only once - at the end of last year - since she joined the bank.

"She has allied herself with (Governor Stefan) Ingves and shared his views on how the monetary policy should be conducted. There will be no major shift, but on the margin it may lead to a slightly different view of the interest rate policy," Olle Holmgren, economist at SEB said.

Before joining the Riksbank, af Jochnick worked at the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and the Swedish Bankers' Association and also held positions at institutions such as the Basel Committee and the Danish financial watchdog.

The General Council of the Riksbank will now determine the details for the transition and begin the work of lining up a replacement for af Jochnick.

"I am very pleased to have been entrusted with the task of becoming (an) independent member of the Supervisory Board of ECB Banking Supervision," af Jochnick said in a statement.

"The ECB's supervision of the larger banks in Europe plays a very important role in creating stable financial markets."

The Single Supervisory Board is chaired by Andrea Enria and includes five representatives from the ECB, including designated deputy chair Yves Mersch, and one from each of the euro zone's 19 national banking watchdogs.