President Emmanuel Macron plans to appoint the current secretary general of Bercy, Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, as president of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), to succeed Robert Ophèle whose mandate ended at the end of July, announced the Élysée on Thursday, September 29.
The National Assembly and the Senate have yet to decide on his appointment, proposed to the President of the Republic by the Prime Minister. A graduate of the ENA, Ms. Barbat-Layani would be the first woman to hold this position. His appointment would reconnect with the tradition of appointing an enarque at the head of the French stock market policeman, Robert Ophèle was the first president of the AMF not to have followed this course.
Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, 55, has a career she described as “very varied” at “dominant public sector” in an interview given in 2020 to the ENA alumni association. She has also worked for the private banking sector.
Passionate about “financial regulation, Europe”
She was Chief Executive Officer from 2014 to 2019 of the French Banking Federation (FBF), an organization that defends the interests of the banking sector, and had previously held the position of Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the National Federation of Agricultural Credit for three years, where she dealt with financial, banking, legal, tax and European affairs.
On her Linkedin account, she says she is passionate about “financial regulation, Europe, transformation, sustainable development”. Appropriate subjects of interest in view of the issues that should occupy his mandate: European regulation of crypto-assets, support for the rise of sustainable finance and the fight against “green washing” in this domain.
Before her post as Secretary General of the Ministry of the Economy, which began in December 2019, Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani had had her first experience in government as deputy director of François Fillon’s cabinet, during her last two years spent at Matignon. A former student of Sciences Po Paris and the ENA – Léon Gambetta class (1991-1993) –, Ms. Barbat-Layani spent a long time in the management of the Treasury, from 1993 to 1997 then from 2002 to 2007 and worked three years at the General Inspectorate of Finance from 2012.