Making Data Meaningful – Economic Insights for Policymakers, Investors and Senior Mgmt

Marlene Amstad is Professor of Practice in Economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-SZ) and Co-Director of the Centre for Financial Technology and Social Finance at the Shenzhen Finance Institute. She serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors at the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and as a Member of the Board of Directors at Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. Previously, Marlene worked at Bank for International Settlements in Hong Kong (on behalf of the 11 largest Asian central banks), the Swiss National Bank in Zuerich, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Credit Suisse (Zuerich) and the Swiss Economic Institute (KOF/ETH Zuerich). Marlene regularly holds research fellowships at central banks, most recently with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Bank of Japan, Bank of Finland and BIS. Through her work she is very well connected within academia and the business world around the globe with a focus on China and Switzerland.

Marlene’s research interests are Money, Banking and Financial Markets with an emphasis on central banks, asset management, and financial institutions. Her research is published in refereed and policy-oriented journals such as Journal of International Money and Finance, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Economic Policy Review and BIS Quarterly Review. She is editor of the “Handbook on China’s Financial System” (publication early 2019 in Princeton Press) joint with Sun Guofeng, Peoples’ Bank of China Head of Research Institute, and Princeton Professor Wei Xiong. Marlene teaches the courses “Financial Markets in China and the World” and “The Economics of Money and Financial Institutions – from the classic textbook to FinTech” in the Master of Finance program at CUHK-SZ and the Shenzhen Finance Institute. Since 2007 she teaches “Money, Institutions and Financial Markets”, and later “Financial Institutions and Regulations” at the University of Bern and in the “MBA in Finance” at Tsinghua University, Beijing.

Marlene’s particular field of expertise is developing new economic indicators for policy makers and investors based on big data. She created the “Fed New York staff underlying inflation gauge (UIG)” which is published monthly by Federal Reserve Bank of New York and regularly covered by the major media outlets (Bloomberg Ticker: UIGDATA). Recently, she developed a similar gauge for China in collaboration with People’s Bank of China. At Credit Suisse she established a credit rating system for corporate clients and at the Swiss Business Cycle Institute (KOF/ETH) a recession indicator based on a Markov switching model and survey data of Swiss companies.

Marlene was deputy director at the Swiss National Bank (SNB). As Head of the Investment Strategy and Financial Market Analysis she was responsible for the investment strategy of the SNB reserve portfolio (USD 250bn at the time including equities and corporate bonds). At the Bank for International Settlement (BIS) based in Hong Kong she coordinated the Asian Bond Fund initiative (ABF) – a milestone in central bank cooperation in Asia to broaden and deepen the Asian bond markets – for the 11 leading Asian central banks (Reserve Bank of Australia, The People’s Bank of China, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Bank Indonesia, Bank of Japan, The Bank of Korea, Bank Negara Malaysia, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Monetary Authority of Singapore, Bank of Thailand).

A native Swiss, Marlene received her master in economics (magna cum laude) from the University of Bern, her doctorate in econometrics (summa cum laude) from the University of St. Gallen and pursued her management education at INSEAD and IMD. Her career in Switzerland, the U.S.A. and China has given her a unique perspective on central banking, asset management and financial institutions in a global context.

Marlene is married and lives with her husband in Hong Kong, China (Shenzhen) and Switzerland. 

          Professor Dr. Marlene Amstad
          born 20.9.68 in Bern, Switzerland, Swiss citizen

2018 – now Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors, FINMA (Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority)
           Co-Director, Centre for Financial Technology and Social Finance, Shenzhen Finance Institute, CUHKSZ
2016 – now Professor of Practice in Economics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-SZ)
           Member of the Board of Directors, Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong
           Research Fellow, Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY)
2016 – 2018 Member of the Board of Directors, FINMA (Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority)
2016 – 2017 Research Fellow, Bank of Japan (BoJ) and Bank of Finland
2007 – 2018 Part time Lecturer for Monetary Policy, Financial Institutions and Financial Markets, University of Bern
2012 – 2015 Regional Adviser Asset Management, Bank for International Settlements, Hong Kong
            Managing the Asian Bond Fund (pooled reserves of the 11 largest Asian Central Banks)
2006 – 2011 Deputy Director, Head of Investment Strategy and Financial Market Analysis,
            Swiss National Bank (SNB) (CHF 250bn AuM) Member of the Investment Committee of the SNB reserves
2004 – 2005 Visiting Resident Scholar, Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY)
2002 – 2004 Senior Economist, Research Department, Swiss National Bank (SNB)
2000 – 2002 Credit Portfolio Manager, Quantitative Research and Credit Risk Management, Credit Suisse
1996 – 2000 Senior Researcher, Swiss Economic Institute (KOF/ETH)
           Executive Officer, Centre for International Research on Economic Tendency Surveys (CIRET)
1994 – 1996 Researcher, Swiss Economic Institute (KOF/ETH)

Education
1996 – 2000 Doctorate, University of St. Gallen, Dr. oec. HSG (summa cum laude)
           Thesis on ‘Business Cycle Turning Points: Dating and Forecasting – Chronology of different types of            turning points and development of an early warningsystem based on Markov switching models of Swiss            survey data’.
1988 – 1994 Masters in Economics, University of Bern, lic. rer. pol. (magna cum laude)
           Major subject: econometrics, minor subjects: political science and sociology.

Further Education (selection)
 INSEAD, ‘Global Investors Workshop’, 9.-13. June 2008, Fontainebleau
 IMD, ‘High Performance Leadership’, 18.-23. November 2007, Lausanne, Prof. G. Kohlrieser

Languages German (native speaker), English, French, Mandarin Chinese (basic)

Coding Matlab, Gauss, R, C++, Python