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Javier Santamaría is the Chair of the

European Payments Council

since June 2012, and has been one of its members since its creation in 2002. During decades as a bank employee, Mr Santamaría accumulated a broad and balanced expertise in the intertwined dimensions of payments – business-related, operational, technical, regulatory – across different client segments and product lines, in the legacy and the innovative spheres, which he now further develops as an independent professional. He has been immersed in both cooperative and competitive environments. Besides payments, he is interested in other banking fields and continues to be actively engaged in academic matters. Mr Santamaría is also Chair of the Iberpay Board, member of the Board of Directors at the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (Basel-Frankfurt) and member of the Supervisory Board of Western Union International Bank (Vienna). Former Head of Operations and Business Services, he was Senior Vice President at Banco Santander until December 2016. He was a member of the Board of the Euro Banking Association (

European Banking Authority

, Paris-Brussels) and of the Board of Directors at the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication cooperative (SWIFT, Brussels) until the end of 2016. 

Graduated in Political Science, she worked at the Italian National Central Bank (Banca d’Italia) and then at the European Central Bank from its creation in 1998 until 2002, with the responsibility of coordinating the Oversight Unit within the Payment Systems Policy Division. Her main responsibilities covered wholesale and retail systems, payment instruments, multi-currency foreign exchange settlement systems. In the areas of responsibility, she represented the ECB at meetings of the

European Union

and G-10 central banks, in the contacts with banking supervisors, the

European Union

Commission and national authorities as well as in the ECB’s market contact groups. Back in Italy, she joined the Italian Banking Association, where she works as Head of Payment Systems. Over the years she was Project Manager of ABI’s PSD,

Single Euro Payments Area

and

The revised Payment Services Directive

projects – coordinating and supporting Italian banks in their activities to ensure compliance with the PSD/

The revised Payment Services Directive

, as well as migration to

Single Euro Payments Area

. 
She represents Italian banks in various fora at national and European levels, and in particular in various EBF groups,

European Payments Council

working groups and

Euro Retail Payments Board

-related ones.
From January 2021, she is Chair of the Payment Systems Committee of the European Banking Federation.