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Sharon Donnery

Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Ireland

Sharon Donnery was appointed Deputy Governor, Financial Regulation in the Central Bank of Ireland on 1 July 2022. She is an ex-officio Member of the Central Bank Commission and is a member of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the General Board of the European Systemic Risk Board

As Deputy Governor, Financial Regulation, Sharon is responsible for leading the regulation and supervision of credit institutions, credit unions and payments/electronic money institutions and the insurance sector.  She is responsible for overseeing the Bank’s horizontal risk, data and analytics and regulatory policy functions and is responsible for leading the Bank’s regulatory policy at national, European and global level.  Sharon also currently co-chairs the Financial Stability Board’s Open-ended Funds Working Group.

Sharon was Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland from 1 June 2019 to 31 August 2019.

Sharon was previously Deputy Governor, Central Banking from 1 March 2016 to 30 June 2022 and was the Governor’s Alternate on the Governing Council of the ECB.  She was responsible for leading the Bank’s work on economic analysis, monetary policy, financial operations and statistics.  She also led the establishment of the Bank’s resolution and crisis management function following the transposition of the Bank and Recovery Resolution Directive (BRRD). 

Sharon has extensive experience chairing international committees, including being the Chair of the ECB Budget Committee (BuCom), Chair of the ECB High Level Group on Non-Performing Loans (NPLs), Chair of the European Banking Authority's (EBA) Consumer Protection Group and Vice-Chair of the EBA Standing Committee on Consumer Protection and Financial Innovation.

Sharon has held a range of senior positions in the Central Bank. She was Director of Credit Institutions Supervision with responsibility for supervision of the Irish banking sector when the Single Supervisory Mechanism was being established. She was also an alternate member of the Supervisory Board at that time. She previously held the statutory position of Registrar of Credit Unions and was the Head of Consumer Protection.

Sharon joined the Central Bank in 1996 as an Economist in the Monetary Policy Division. Prior to joining the Central Bank, Sharon lectured in economics at the National University of Ireland Maynooth.

Sharon holds a B.A. in Economics and Politics and a M.A. in Economics from University College Dublin and a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors. In 2019, she was admitted to the Institute of Directors in London as a Chartered Director. In 2020, she was appointed as an Adjunct Professor of Economics in Trinity College Dublin.

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