Ewald Nowotny

Ewald Nowotny (German pronunciation: [ˌeːvalt noˈvɔtniː]) (born June 28, 1944, in Vienna) is an Austrian economist and social democratic politician and former governor of Austria's central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank.

[1] Since September 2008 Nowotny has served as Governor in Austria's central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank[2] and as a member of the ECB governing council.

With the 2011 round of the Greek financial crisis, "[s]ome analysts [saw] signs of growing tensions between European officials and the ratings agencies" and Nowotny gave voice to the concern, saying "that rating companies were making it more difficult to stabilize the Greek debt situation.

We have proved this in the case of Ireland, Greece and Portugal, with regard to what kind of collateral we accept.”[4] In May 2015, with a new round of the Greek government-debt crisis, Nowotny said while discussions "may be refreshing by bringing in new ideas" "but at the end of the day, they must [end in] results", adding that discussions are "not about playing games" and are "more a political question than an economic question."

He said at the same time that he "doesn't see the ECB's role as creating a federalized financial government inside the euro zone.