Erkki Liikanen

Erkki Antero Liikanen (born 19 September 1950) is a Finnish social democratic politician and a former Governor of the Bank of Finland.

Liikanen was elected to the Finnish Parliament in 1972 when he was only 21 years old.

Erkki Antero Liikanen obtained a bachelor’s degree in Political Science (Economics) from the University of Helsinki in 1975.

Liikanen was appointed as the Minister of Finance in the Holkeri Cabinet in 1987.

He left Parliament in 1990 to become the first Finnish Ambassador to the European Union.

In 1994 he became the first Finnish Member of the European Commission.

He was Commissioner for Budget, Personnel and administration, which included responsibilities for translation and information technology.

Liikanen served as Governor of the Bank of Finland from 12 July 2004.

As such he also became a Member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (2004–2018) and Governor of the International Monetary Fund for Finland (2004–2018).

Liikanen was also the chairman of Finnish Red Cross between June 2008 and June 2014.

In February 2012, EU Commissioner Michel Barnier asked Liikanen to chair a group of experts to assess the need for structural reforms to the EU banking sector.

Their works is known as the Liikanen report was published on 2 October 2012.

In early 2019, a Reuters poll of economists found that while Benoît Cœuré was considered best-suited for the role as President of the European Central Bank, the most likely compromise candidate was Liikanen.

Liikanen is married to Hanna-Liisa Liikanen and they have two daughters.