Mais Lecture 2025: Financial literacy and monetary policy transmission

This years Mais Lecture will be delivered by Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank (ECB) on "Financial literacy and monetary policy transmission".

Central banks conduct monetary policy by setting interest rates, which are then transmitted to financing conditions, economic activity and inflation. This speech analyses how financial literacy influences people’s responses to changes in monetary policy. We show that, in many cases, higher financial literacy strengthens the impact of monetary policy on financing conditions, consumption, risk-taking and inflation expectations, making monetary policy more effective. Hence, the promotion of financial education not only improves individual well-being but also the ability of central banks to steer inflation and maintain price stability.

Hosted by the Centre for Banking Research, the annual Mais lecture is regarded as the City of London’s foremost event for the banking and finance community, and is attended by senior practitioners and academics.  Since its inception in 1978, the Mais has maintained a tradition of prestigious speakers including Mark Carney, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Mervyn King and George Osborne. The last lecture took place in March 2024 with The Rt. Hon Rachel Reeves MP.

Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank (ECB)

Isabel Schnabel has been a Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) since 2020 where she is responsible for Market Operations, Research and Statistics.

She is currently on leave from the University of Bonn, where she has been Professor of Financial Economics since 2015. From 2014 to 2019 she served as a member of the German Council of Economic Experts. Isabel Schnabel holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Mannheim.

She is a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Moreover, she is a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts as well as the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.