Central bank chiefs from around the world

These leaders run the institutions that control interest rates and monetary policies that have been making recent headlines.

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Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on implementation of the financial regulation law passed in 2010. The soft-spoken Bernanke, a former professor at Princeton University and a scholar of the Great Depression, has been Fed chairman since 2006.

Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg

Mario Draghi took over as the president of the European Central Bank on Nov. 2. Prior to this role, Draghi was the governor of the Bank of Italy.

Francois Lenoir / Reuters

Masaaki Shirakawa, governor of the Bank of Japan, speaks at the Institute of International Finance's annual membership meeting in Washington. Shirakawa spent more than three decades at the Bank of Japan before being named to its top job in 2008.

Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg

Philip Hildebrand announced in January that he would resign from his post as chairman of the Swiss National Bank. His resignation came amid controversy over private currency deals that he and his wife profited from. SNB posted a consolidated loss of 19.17 billion Swiss francs ($20.81 billion) for 2010 after the strong rise of the Swiss franc hit the central bank's bottom line.

Christian Hartmann / Reuters

Stefan Ingves, the head of Sweden's Central Bank, speaks to Reuters reporters during an interview in Stockholm on June 16. He said the economy was developing in line with expectations and he had no worries about the impact of Greece's debt crisis on his own country.

Bob Strong / Reuters

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, speaks at the opening of the Integrating Global Financial and Economic Reforms conference in Washington. Zhou, who has been in his post since 2002, has said China will gradually increase the flexibility of the yuan, which U.S. officials say could reduce the United States' massive trade deficit with China. But he has called for the dollar to be replaced as the world's currency by a new type of benchmark controlled by the International Monetary Fund.

Joshua Roberts / Bloomberg

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of Canada, participates in a session on the second day of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Carney, a former Goldman Sachs employee, has been in his post since February 2008.

Tomohiro Ohsumi / Bloomberg

Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, speaks during the bank's quarterly inflation report press conference in London in February 2011.

Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg

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WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 27: Christian Slayton, 12 prays to a fallen soldiers memorial as motorcycles from the Rolling Thunder event pass by in Washington, DC on May 27, 2012. Slayton, who is from Raleigh, NC ran out to the makeshift memorial to say a prayer of thanks for all the veterans living and fallen. He said he wanted to thank them for letting us be free and able to have the rights that some countries never had. Riders from across the nation come together every year to ride from the Pentagon over to the National Mall as a rememberance those POW and MIAs in the Vietnam War. (Photo by Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

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WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 24: Aaron Rubinstein, center, with fellow students, lights candles before the annual Mass for family members of the cadavers used in anatomy studies on May, 24, 2012 in Washington, DC. At right are Steven Kazuska and Meghan Kuska. (Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

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FAIRFAX, VA - MAY 23: US Army Veteran Sandra Strickland embraces her daughter, Heaven, 8, after dinner Wednesday May 23, 2012 in Fairfax, VA. After losing her job, custody of her children and being evicted from her apartment, Strickland moved into a home for homeless female veterans provided by Final Salute, Inc. (Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

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Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament Volodymyr Litvin (Bottom) looks on as deputies of the Ukrainian opposition fight with deputies of the pro-presidential majority during a session of parliament in Kiev, as opposition parties protest a bill proposed by the ruling party which would make Russian an official state language along with Ukrainian. AFP PHOTO/STRINGERSTR/AFP/GettyImages

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Red Panda Bears sleep in the Panda Bear enclosure at the Beijing Zoo on May 22, 2012. The zoo grounds were originally a Ming Dynasty imperial palace and finally opened to the public in 1908. The zoo's history states that during the WWII, most of the zoo's animals died of starvation with only 13 monkeys and one old emu surviving the war. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTONMARK RALSTON/AFP/GettyImages

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Central bank chiefs from around the world

These leaders run the institutions that control interest rates and monetary policies that have been making recent headlines.

Featured Photo Galleries