The European Central Bank has launched: ESRB traineeship - Economist profile

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Your team

You will be part of the Secretariat of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), an independent EU body responsible for the macroprudential oversight of the EU financial system and the prevention and mitigation of systemic risk.

The ESRB brings together representatives from around 80 institutions as well as independent experts. It collects and analyses information on a wide range of financial institutions and markets, monitors macro-financial developments, and issues warnings and recommendations to policymakers and supervisors. Further information is available on the ESRB’s website.

The ESRB Secretariat is part of the European Central Bank (ECB). The Secretariat provides analytical, statistical, logistical and administrative support to the ESRB. Our tasks include identifying and analysing systemic risks to the EU financial system, assessing and proposing macroprudential policies, preparing ESRB warnings/recommendations and monitoring their implementation, cooperating with supervisory and other macroprudential authorities, supporting ESRB working groups and preparing documents for meetings of the ESRB General Board and its substructures. 

As a trainee, you will join one of our topical teams. These teams focus on risk identification, banking and non-bank financial intermediaries. They provide analytical input into risk and policy reports, working closely with other team members, including financial stability experts, analysts and trainees. The content of the traineeship will depend on the team you will be part of and your skill set.

The ECB is an inclusive employer and we strive to reflect the diversity of the population we serve. We encourage you to apply irrespective of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or other characteristics.

Your role

As a trainee you will:

• support the analytical and policy work of the topical teams of the ESRB Secretariat;
• analyse developments in the EU financial system, leveraging on various datasets and sources of information;
• contribute to the identification and monitoring of financial stability risks related to the banking sector, non-bank financial intermediaries and financial markets infrastructure;
• conduct empirical and conceptual analyses; 
• provide input into the development and assessment of macroprudential policies in the EU;
• participate and contribute to the work of the ESRB substructures, including expert groups and task forces.

The position offers you excellent opportunities to work on financial stability topics related to the whole financial system, and the development and implementation of macroprudential policy in the EU. You will gain experience of both financial stability analysis – with regular use of data analysis tools and models – and policy work by contributing to key ESRB reports. You will be part of a multicultural team that strives for continuous innovation to make a positive impact on the lives of European citizens. 

Qualifications, experience and skills

Essential:

• a bachelor’s degree or higher in economics, econometrics, banking, business administration, finance, statistics, or a related field;
• a keen interest in financial stability analysis and macroprudential policy;
• the ability to communicate the results of complex analytical work to expert and non-expert audiences;
• proficiency in technical empirical analysis and awareness of the wider economic, financial and political context;
• advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office, particularly Word, Excel and PowerPoint;
• experience in using statistical packages in empirical analyses (e.g. EViews, Stata, MATLAB, R, Python, SAS, Excel VBA);
• an advanced (C1) command of English and an intermediate (B1) command of at least one other official language of the EU, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Desired: 

• knowledge of economic policy, financial markets, banking, investment funds, monetary policy, financial supervision, and insurance and pension funds;
• experience in managing and processing complex datasets (with relevant knowledge of SQL and VBA) and data visualisation software (such as Tableau or R Shiny);
• familiarity with financial market data sources (e.g. Bloomberg, Refinitiv Datastream and S&P Global Market Intelligence), official financial sector, economic and banking statistics (e.g. those of the ECB, Eurostat and the Bank for International Settlements), and/or micro-level data (e.g. firm-level data);
• published academic papers.

You are curious and eager to learn, and want to further develop your ability to analyse complex information. You are keen to collaborate with others, pursue team goals and learn from other people’s diverse perspectives. You strive to know and anticipate stakeholder needs, and will signal any need for change and propose alternative solutions.

You are motivated to contribute to the ECB’s mission, to serve the citizens of the EU as a member of a public institution and to work with colleagues from all over Europe. You are keen to be part of our team and to use your skills and competencies to achieve the objectives of this position.

Who can apply:

EU nationals eligible for our traineeship programme.

All candidates should:

• be a national of a Member State of the EU or of an acceding country;

• be at least 18 years old;
• have completed at least a first cycle qualification (minimum bachelor’s degree);
• be fluent in English and in another official language of the EU.

Following their most recent qualification candidates should:

• have a maximum of 12 months’ professional experience;
• have been a trainee for no more than six months;
• not have been an ECB trainee or have worked for the ECB previously.

Closing date: 14.03.2022

Further information

The duration of the traineeship will be between 4 and 12 months in total. The starting date is expected to be in summer or autumn 2022.

Application and selection process

Further information on how to join us is available on our website.

The recruitment process for this position will include a remote written exercise in the pre-selection phase and – if you are invited to participate in the subsequent selection phase – an online interview via Webex. 

If you are not selected for this position but are still considered suitable, you will be placed on a reserve list for 12 months from the closing date for applications, from which you might be considered for similar positions within the ECB.