2025 "Triffin Lecture": Are global markets heading towards financial fragmentation?

The Robert Triffin International (RTI) aims to preserve and boost the lifework of the Belgian/US economist Robert Triffin (1911-1993), who became internationally renowned for his “Triffin dilemma”. The theory in which conflict can arise if a national currency (in this case, the US dollar) also acts as the international reserve currency. 

On this occasion, a “Triffin Lecture” was delivered by Isabel Vansteenkiste (Director General, International & European relations, ECB). Prior to this, she was the Deputy Director General in the Directorate Monetary Policy as well as the Directorate General Economics. In her research she focusses mainly on international and applied macroeconomics in addition to monetary economics. 

This event focused on the implications for the international role of the euro and whether global markets are headed towards financial fragmentation and was followed by a reception.