Profile: Christian Upper

Position: Head of Financial Markets

After my PhD at the European University Institute in Florence, I spent seven years at the Bundesbank in Germany, eventually heading up the Capital Markets Unit in the Economics Department. This meant that I knew quite a lot about the BIS before joining: in fact, I'd attended eight or nine meetings here.

I considered joining the BIS as far back as 2000, but decided against it: to be honest, I thought it was a small organisation with a low turnover of people, and was worried about being stuck with the same faces for the rest of my career. As the years passed, I came to know the BIS more and it began to change significantly, so that my concerns were no longer relevant. I think it's fair to say that nowadays it's a much more dynamic organisation with a higher turnover of staff, many of whom stay for two or three years before moving upwards in their careers.

The people here tend to be very well educated and technically able, but they also have an ability to think collaboratively on big topics and issues. And that's what really makes the BIS unique: it's a fairly small place undertaking big picture analysis. When I was at the Bundesbank, I was an expert on the German financial system, but it's so nice to have a more international perspective now and work on so many different topics.

At the moment, I'm the editor of the BIS Quarterly Review. The aim is to publish BIS research about international banking and financial market developments, and to communicate with a more diverse audience than would be reached by an academic paper. About a third of the readers are bankers, a third academics and a third are people in the markets, so the writing has to be original, interesting and easily digested. I believe that any of our articles should be readable in 10 minutes on an aeroplane, without resorting to the temptation to dumb things down. Of course, it helps that I have fairly regular exposure to many central banks, and can focus on topics that crop up during the bimonthly meetings of governors and other senior central bankers.

Finally, the other great thing about the BIS is its location in Basel. Obviously I spoke German before I arrived, although not the local dialect, so there was no problem settling in from that point of view. But it's a really cosmopolitan place, with a lot of diversity: in my street everybody seems to be a musician, so all my family have now taken up instruments. I live right at the other end of Basel - which means I have to cycle 10 minutes to get to work! I'm also close to the French border, so I visit France regularly. I couldn't ask for a better place to live!