Jacob Aharon Frenkel (; born 8 February 1943) is an Israeli economist and the chairman of

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational financial services, finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is List of largest banks in the United States, the largest ba ...

International. He served as governor of the Bank of Israel between 1991 and 2000.

Biography

Frenkel was born in

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

. He earned a B.A. in

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

and

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. He earned his Ph.D. in 1970 with a thesis titled
Money, Wealth and the Balance of Payments in a Model of Accumulation
'.

Banking and financial career

Frenkel is currently the chairman of

International, which executes the international strategy of the American financial services firm. He also serves as chairman and CEO of the Group of Thirty (G-30), which is a private, nonprofit, consultative group on international economic and monetary affairs. Frenkel served from 2004 to 2009 as vice chairman of American International Group (AIG) and from 2000 to 2004 as chairman of Merrill Lynch International, as well as chairman of Merrill Lynch’s Sovereign Advisory and Global Financial Institutions Groups. Between 1991 and 2000 he served two terms as the governor of the Bank of Israel. He is credited with reducing inflation in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and achieving price stability, liberalizing Israel’s financial markets, removing foreign exchange controls, and integrating the Israeli economy into the

global financial system The global financial system is the worldwide framework of legal agreements, institutions, and both formal and informal agent (economics), economic action that together facilitate international flows of financial capital for purposes of investme ...

. During 1995–1996, Frenkel served as chairman of the board of governors of the Inter-American Development Bank and, during 1999–2000, as vice chairman of the board of governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Between 1987 and 1991, he was the economic counselor and director of research at the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...

, and between 1973 and 1987 he was on the faculty of the

, where he held the position of the David Rockefeller Professor of International Economics and served as editor of the '' Journal of Political Economy''. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society, a foreign honorary member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

, a member of the board of directors of the

National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic co ...

, a former member of the international advisory board of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

, a member of the Trilateral Commission, a member of the board of the council for the United States and Italy, a member of the investment advisory council of the Prime Minister of Turkey, and a member of the international advisory council of the China Development Bank. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics. In June 2013 he was nominated to be the governor of the Bank of Israel for a second time. In July 2013, following official inquiries into an event that took place in Hong Kong Airport in November 2006, he withdrew his nomination. Frankel denied any wrongdoing but authorities in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

stated that he had been arrested at the airport for suspected theft of a suit bag from a duty-free shop. Frenkel did not disclose the incident to the Committee on Senior Appointments, which vetted his nomination for a new governor of the Bank of Israel.

Other activities

Frenkel serves on the Leadership Council for Concordia, a nonpartisan, nonprofit based in New York City focused on promoting effective public-private collaboration to create a more prosperous and sustainable future. In early 2021, he was appointed by the G20 to the High Level Independent Panel (HLIP) on financing the global commons for pandemic preparedness and response, co-chaired by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,

Tharman Shanmugaratnam Tharman Shanmugaratnam (born 25 February 1957) is a Singaporean politician and economist who has been the current and ninth President of Singapore since 2023. Prior to his presidency, Tharman served as Senior Minister of Singapore between ...

and Lawrence Summers.

Awards and recognition

Frenkel won the 2002

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

in Economics. He received the Tel-Aviv University Hugo Ramniceanu Prize for Economics, the Czech Karel Englis Prize in Economics, the “Order de Mayo al Merito” (in the rank of Gran Cruz) decoration from the Government of Argentina and the “Order of Merit” (in the rank of Cavaliere di Gran Croce) decoration from the Republic of Italy. He is also a recipient of several Honorary Doctoral degrees and other decorations and awards, including the “1993 Economic Policy Award” by “Emerging Markets” and the “1997 Central Banker of the Year Award” by “Euromoney”.

Published works

* Frenkel, Jacob A. "Current Problems of the International Monetary System: Reflections on European Monetary Integration." Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv 111 (No. 2, 1975): 216–21. * All NBER publications by Jacob Frenkel

References

External links

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Frenkel, Jacob A. 1943 births American International Group Fellows of the Econometric Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Governors of the Bank of Israel Group of Thirty Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Social Sciences alumni International Monetary Fund people Israel Prize in economics recipients Israeli chief executives Israeli economists Israeli expatriates in the United States Israeli Jews Israeli officials of the United Nations Jews from Mandatory Palestine JPMorgan Chase people Living people Merrill (company) people Peterson Institute for International Economics University of Chicago alumni University of Chicago faculty Journal of Political Economy editors