Nico Valckx is Senior Economist in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the IMF. He focuses on structural financial sector developments. Previously, he worked on euro area monetary and financial sector policies in the European Department of the IMF, and in Financial Stability and Research at the European Central Bank and De Nederlandsche Bank. He holds an M.Sc. from KU Leuven and a Ph.D. in applied financial economics from UFSIA, University of Antwerp.