Villeroy de Galhau started his career at the Inspection générale des finances. From 1990 to 1993, he was European politics adviser of the Finance Minister of France and then of the Prime Minister of FrancePierre Bérégovoy; he got several departments at the Direction du Trésor in Bercy and then in Brussels, as conseiller financier in the Permanent Mission of France. Under the Government of Lionel Jospin, he was directeur de cabinet of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 1999 bis 2000 of [Christian Sautter and from February 2000 to 26 August 2003 director general of the :fr:Direction générale des Impôts|Direction générale des Impôts. In 2003, he became general manager of Cetelem, a BNP Paribas company giving retail credits, and from 2011 to 2015 he was general manager for domestic markets at BNP Paribas. In May 2015, Prime MinisterManuel Valls appointed him to lead a committee scanning the financing of investments. He delivered his report on 26 September 2015. On 8 September 2015, the President of France, François Hollande, nominated him as next Governor of the Banque de France, succeeding Christian Noyer. As such, he presides over the General Council, the body responsible for deliberating on all matters relating to non-Eurosystem activities. He conducts the three main missions of the Banque de France: monetary strategy, financial stability and the provision of economic service to households and small businesses. Upon his arrival, Villeroy de Galhau amplified the transformation plan of his predecessor Christian Noyer, which he named "Ambition 2020". His results have proved remarkable as the Banque de France surrendered an amount of 4.5 billion euros to the French state in 2016, then 5 billion euros in 2017 and 5.6 billion euros in 2018. He is also a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank.
Villeroy de Galhau has supported Mario Draghi's policy of "easy money" and complimented Draghi's policy during the European debt crisis of 2012. He has called German inflation fears "exaggerated and irrational". He has taken many public positions as governor of the Banque de France, for instance on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin which he recalls is not a currency, unemployment, social expense, public service payroll, the banking union, over-indebtedness, and contactless payment. In the traditional letter from the governor of the Banque de France to the French President, he called on Emmanuel Macron to use the economic recovery to pursue political reforms and defend the European social model as a shield against social inequalities, in 2017. In 2018, he underlines the urgent need for the public expenditure to be contained. In 2019, he celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Euro, calling the currency a success that has helped increase the average purchasing power of the French people.
Publications
Books
Développement des activités financières au regard des exigences éthiques du christianisme, Librairie Vaticane, 1994
