Mr. Watanabe served as AMRO Deputy Director, responsible for CMIM support as well as strategy and coordination from June 2016 to September 2019.

He brings more than twenty years of extensive experiences in the fields of international finance and development finance, regional financial cooperation and financial regulation since he started his career at the Ministry of Finance, Japan, in 1992. Before joining AMRO, Mr. Watanabe served as Assistant Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency (2013-2016) in charge of various areas including international cooperation, international financial market, financial reporting issues and trade negotiations such as TPP, RCEP and Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA/WTO).

He also held the positions at Multilateral Development Banks Boards such as Alternate Executive Director at the Asian Development Bank (2008-2011) and Senior Counselor at the Inter-American Development Bank (1998-2001). He also served as the Vice Chairman of the sixth policy committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) from 2014 to 2016.

Mr. Watanabe holds a Master of Arts in International/Development Economics from Yale University.