Antonio Sáinz de Vicuña has been General Counsel of the European Central Bank from 1998 to 2013. He has been the Chairman of the Legal Committee (LEGCO) of the ESCB, and Chairman of the European Financial Market Lawyers Group, throughout that period. He was formerly a member and rapporteur of the Working Group of Legal Experts of the European Monetary Institute. He is a graduate in Law and in Economic Sciences of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and has a Master's in International Law from Cambridge University. He entered the Government Legal Service in 1974, and was subsequently posted as legal counsel in the ministries of Finance, of Economy and of Foreign Affairs, where he became Chief Legal Adviser from 1985 to 1989. After a five-year period in a commercial bank, in 1994 he joined the European Monetary Institute as General Counsel. He is the author of one book and of various publications in the field of community, international and banking law. Since 2014, he is a member of the Board of Directors of a Spanish commercial bank. He is Vice-President of the Committee on International Monetary Law (MOCOMILA).