The General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Pablo Hernández de Cos, has been invested Doctor Honoris Causa by CEU USP during the Academic Ceremony held to mark the Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, patron saint of universities and students. Hernández de Cos was honored in recognition of his outstanding merits in the field of economics and finance, as well as the notable prestige and international standing he has achieved.
In his address, Hernández de Cos called for a clear mandate to ensure price stability, central bank independence and accountability, stating that these are “the anchor, the hull and the mast of the ship of monetary policy”. However, he added, “a sturdy ship also requires sails, a rudder, a compass and charts: the frameworks that central banks use to determine monetary policy”.
In this regard, Hernández de Cos emphasized that, to navigate an “increasingly challenging macro-financial landscape”, central banks must also ensure that their monetary policy frameworks are robust, flexible and realistic. “Decisions must be based on careful analysis. For central banks to uphold these three principles, they must base their decisions on analytical rigor, which in turn requires access to high-quality data and highly skilled human capital,” he underlined.
In his closing remarks, Hernández de Cos stressed that fiscal policy must ensure the sustainability of public finances, supported by structural policies that promote long-term growth. He also recalled that financial stability is a necessary condition for price stability. “Ensuring it requires a sound financial sector, underpinned by appropriate regulation and supervision that are internationally coordinated,” he concluded.
The laudatio was delivered by Ricardo Palomo, Professor of Financial Economics and Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. In his address, he stated that the distinction “recognizes an exceptional career in the service of economic institutions, characterized by intellectual rigor, technical independence and a deep sense of public responsibility. These values are fully aligned with the mission of CEU USP: to educate principled individuals, outstanding professionals and committed citizens in the service of society.”
Palomo also highlighted four defining traits that justify the award: Hernández de Cos’s intellectual rigor and technical expertise; his institutional independence; his academic vocation; and his contribution to enhancing the international prestige of Spanish and European economics.
For her part, the Rector, Rosa Visiedo, emphasised the celebration of Saint Thomas Aquinas as one of the events that best embodies the spirit and vocation of CEU USP: “To be a genuine university community, united by a shared identity and a common goal: an interest in and passion for educating in accordance with the principles and values of our educational project, which draws from the sources of Christian humanism and the Magisterium of the Church.”
In her speech, Visiedo underlined that “his appointment as Doctor Honoris Causa emblematizes the profile of our University, representing in condensed form our project for the coming years: to be a university firmly committed to higher education and to relevant research that generates new knowledge and innovation for transfer to society; but also a university closely connected to the business world, concerned with the employability of its students, helping them to build their life projects and, through them, to contribute to the progress of companies and institutions.”
The Vice-Rector for Institutional Relations and Secretary General of the University, María Bellido, was responsible for reading out the Rector’s Decree conferring the honorary doctorate.
Pablo Hernández de Cos thus joins a select group of national and international intellectuals who have received this distinction from CEU USP, including: Helmut Kohl; John Martin Scott; Gordon Tullock; Antonio María Rouco Varela; Mario Monti; Vicente Palacio Atard; Francisco Rodríguez Adrados; Margaret Foti; José Antonio Escudero; Eduardo García de Enterría; Joseph H. H. Weiler; Herman Van Rompuy; Raimundo Bassols; Joseph A. Bellanti; S. G. O. Johansson; Alberto Campo Baeza; Antonio Fernández de Buján; Rémi Brague; José Luis Gutiérrez; Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau; Marcelino Oreja Aguirre; José María Álvarez-Pallete; José María Ordovás; and, most recently, Her Majesty Queen Sofía.
The University’s Grand Chancellor, Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza, closed the Academic Ceremony by congratulating Pablo Hernández de Cos, describing him as “a public servant who, through his career, has helped to improve the society we share”. He also recalled that economics “is not only about figures, but about establishing and strengthening trust in one’s word, the validity of rules, and the responsibility of institutions and those who lead them”.
New Doctors
During the celebration of the feast of the patron saint of universities and academics, Visiedo also addressed the 32 new doctoral graduates of the 2025/2026 academic year, reminding them that, as holders of the highest academic degree, they must always seek “truth with scientific rigor, in a stimulating convergence of science, reason and faith”.