The Bundesbank mourns the passing of Alexandre Lamfalussy, one of the euro’s founding fathers, who died on 9 May at the age of 86. "With Alexandre Lamfalussy, we have lost an important pioneer of European monetary union," said Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann. "His name will always be closely associated with the euro."

A Hungarian-born Belgian national and economist by training, Lamfalussy was President of the European Monetary Institute (EMI), the forerunner of the European Central Bank (ECB), from 1994 to 1997. During this time, he made key contributions to the birth and growth of European monetary union. Under his watch, the main foundations for the establishment of the ECB and the introduction of the euro (on accounting ledgers in 1999 and in physical form in 2002) were laid. His name was given to the "Lamfalussy process", a process developed under his stewardship which accelerated the legislative procedure in the European Union (EU). It was introduced in the EU in 2002 in order to speed up the adoption of directives and regulations in the securities sector, and was later extended to cover the EU’s entire financial sector.

Lamfalussy occupied himself intensively with European financial market integration not only as a practicioner but also as an academic researcher. He taught at Yale University and the University of Louvain-la-Neuve and also published a sizeable body of research.