Vítor Constâncio

Vítor Constâncio
Constâncio at Chatham House in 2013
Vice President of the European Central Bank
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 June 2010
President	Jean-Claude Trichet Mario Draghi
Preceded by	Lucas Papademos
Governor of the Bank of Portugal
In office February 2000 – 31 May 2010
Preceded by	António de Sousa
Succeeded by	Carlos Costa
Personal details
Born	(1943-10-12) 12 October 1943 (age 73) Lisbon, Portugal
Political party	Socialist Party

Vítor Manuel Ribeiro Constâncio, GCC, GCIH (born 12 October 1943) is a Portuguese economist and politician, Vice President of the European Central Bank. Constâncio graduated in economics from the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa.

Constâncio was secretary-general of the Socialist Party from 1986 to 1989. He lost the legislative elections of 19 July 1987, but remained in office. He resigned the following year, being replaced by Jorge Sampaio.

Constâncio was governor of the Banco de Portugal, the Portuguese central bank, for the first time in 1985-86, having been appointed vice-governor in 1977, in 1979, and in the period from 1981 to 1984.

From 1993 to 1994, Constâncio served as chairman of Lisboa 94, the entity in charge of organizing the commemorative events of Lisbon as European Capital of Culture.

Between 1995 and 1999, Constâncio was a member of the Portuguese Council of State. During the same period, he served as Member of the Board (Executive Director) of Banco Português de Investimento (BPI), a leading private Portuguese banking group, with responsibility for Budget, Accounting and Control of Financial Market Risks. In this capacity, he represented BPI as non-executive member of the board of Portugal Telecom and subsequently as non-executive member of the Board of Energias de Portugal.

Constâncio served once more as governor of the Banco de Portugal from 2000 to 2010, having been re-appointed in 2006. Under his presidency the Bank of Portugal spent one third of its original holdings of 600 tons of gold to 400 tons, approximately.