Stijn Claessens is Senior Adviser in the Division of International Finance of the Federal Reserve Board. Mr. Claessens, a Dutch national, holds a Ph.D. in business economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and M.A. from Erasmus University, Rotterdam.He started his career teaching at the New York University business school and also taught at the University of Amsterdam. He has worked for sixteen years at the World Bank in various positions, ending as Senior Adviser in the Financial and Private Sector Vice-Presidency. From 2007-2014, he was Assistant Director in the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund. His policy and research interests are in finance, including corporate governance, risk management, globalization, and business and financial cycles. Over his career, Mr. Claessens has provided policy advice to many countries. His research has been published in many journals and he has written and edited several books. He is an associate editor at the IMF Economic Review and other journals, and a CEPR fellow.

Thorsten Beck is professor of banking and finance at Cass Business School in London. He is also a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the CESifo. He was professor of economics from 2008 to 2014 at Tilburg University and the founding chair of the European Banking Center from 2008 to 2013.Previously he worked in the research department of the World Bank and has also worked as consultant for – among others - the European Central Bank, the BIS, the IMF, the European Commission, and the German Development Corporation. His research, academic publications and operational work have focused on two major questions: What is the relationship between finance and economic development? What policies are needed to build a sound and effective financial system? Recently, he has concentrated on access to financial services, including SME finance, as well as on the design of regulatory and bank resolution frameworks. In addition to numerous academic publications in leading economics and finance journals, he has co-authored several policy reports on access to finance, financial systems in Africa and cross-border banking. His country experience, both in operational and research work, includes Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Egypt, Mexico, Russia and several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to presentation at numerous academic conferences, including several keynote addresses, he is invited regularly to policy panels across Europe. He holds a PhD from the University of Virginia and an MA from the University of Tübingen in Germany.