Mark Sobel served at the U.S. Department of the Treasury for nearly four decades, including as deputy assistant secretary for international monetary and financial policy from 2000 to early 2015. From 2015 through early 2018, he was U.S. representative at the IMF. He now serves as U.S. chairman at the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF). At Treasury, he led the Department’s work in preparing G7 and G20 finance minister and central bank governor meetings, formulating U.S. positions in the IMF, and coordinating the work of Treasury and regulatory agencies in the Financial Stability Board (FSB). He was also chief U.S. financial negotiator in the G20 from 2008-2015, including for the 2009 London Economic Summit. Sobel founded the U.S./EU Financial Market Regulatory Dialogue and chaired an international group of private and official sovereign debt experts that developed enhanced collective action clauses. He managed the $100 billion-plus Treasury Exchange Stabilization Fund and played a key role on U.S. foreign exchange policy as well as helped coordinate Treasury’s semi-annual Foreign Exchange Report. During transitions and other periods, Sobel often represented the United States as the G7/20 finance deputy, G7 finance sous-sherpa, and Treasury FSB representative. He testified before Congress on Chinese exchange rate issues, global financial market regulation, and the IMF’s role in the European crisis. In the three years following this role at Treasury, Sobel served as U.S. representative in the IMF Board, articulating U.S. positions on topics ranging from IMF financing issues such as quotas and backup resource lines and the Fund’s balance sheets to general policy issues such as the renminbi’s entry in the special drawing right (SDR) basket. Earlier in his career, he headed Treasury’s International Monetary Policy Office and served in the U.S. office in the IMF during the Asian Crisis.
Commentary by Stephanie Segal, Gerard DiPippo, and Mark Sobel — March 14, 2023
Commentary by Mark Sobel — January 10, 2023
Event — November 29, 2022
Commentary by Mark Sobel — March 10, 2022
Report by Matthew P. Goodman, Mark Sobel, Chen Dongxiao, Xiong Aizong , Kevin P. Gallagher, Ye Yu, Mary E. Lovely, and Wang Zhongmei — December 7, 2021
Commentary by Mark Sobel — October 29, 2021
Commentary by Mark Sobel — July 13, 2021
Event — November 20, 2020
Commentary by Mark Sobel and Matthew P. Goodman — November 10, 2020
Commentary by Mark Sobel and Matthew P. Goodman — June 12, 2020
