Martin Hüfner is chief economist at HypoVereinsbank AG in Munich, where he has served since 1998. Dr. Hüfner is also chairman of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the Banking Federation of the European Union, and chairman of the Committee for Economic and Monetary Policy of the Association of German Banks. Following two years of studying journalism with the Mainzer Allgemeine Zeitung, he studied economics in both Paris and Munich. Thereafter he worked for various banks, including Deutsche Bank from 1975 to 1988, where he was appointed head of the Economics Department in 1986, and from 1988 to 1998 in the Bayerische Vereinsbank.