Yves Mersch (born 1 October 1949 in Luxembourg City) is a Luxembourgish jurist and lawyer who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2012 to 2020.

[1] Mersch served as assistant to the IMF’s Belgian executive director between 1976 and 1978 and later held a short-term position as financial counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg in New York.

[5] The Government of Spain under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had previously blocked Mersch’s appointment, instead putting forward ECB lawyer Antonio Sáinz de Vicuña for the role.

On 19 March 2008, Mersch admonished banks for inappropriate risk management, but perhaps more unusually struck a doveish tone with regard to the future path of the European economy.

[10] While in May 2010 he voiced concerns over Jean-Claude Trichet’s unconditional debt-purchasing programme, he – unlike Jens Weidmann of Germany – supported Mario Draghi’s conditional plan to buy government bonds.