Sebastiano Laviola was born in Rome on 20 November 1960.
Since 2016, he has served as Principal Director at Banca d'Italia. As of April 2025, he is Head of the Anti-Money Laundering Supervision and Regulation Unit.
He studied Economics at 'La Sapienza' University of Rome, where he graduated with honours in 1984, and at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International Studies and Development on a scholarship from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, obtaining an MSc in international economics in 1990.
He joined the Italian National Institute for Economic Studies (ISCO) in 1985 and Banca d'Italia in 1986. Between 1988 and 2012, he worked in the Supervisory Regulations and Policies Directorate. He became Deputy Head of the Research and Analysis Division in 1997, where he conducted economic analysis supporting changes in prudential regulation, performed statistical and econometric assessments of credit and market risks for banks, coordinated stress tests on Italian banks for the first IMF Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) on Italy, and oversaw the banking and financial supervision section of Banca d'Italia's Annual Report for several years.
He became Head of the International Cooperation Division in 2005. In this capacity, he managed, among other things, the coordination of policy proposals for Banca d'Italia's top representatives in international forums on banking and financial regulation and financial stability.
Between 1991 and 2012, he was an active member of several international supervisory committees and chaired multiple working groups, including those of CEBS/EBA, the ECB's Banking Supervision Committee (BSC), the Advisory Technical Committee European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), and the main subgroups of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.
In September 2012, he was seconded to the Permanent Representation of Italy to the EU in Brussels, where he negotiated the financial services legislation, particularly the Banking Union framework (SSM and SRB Regulations; BRRD and DGSD Directives; CRR and CRD). During Italy's Presidency of the EU (July-December 2014), he coordinated all negotiations on financial services legislation, chaired EU Council working groups and represented the Council in trilogues with the European Parliament and EU Commission.
From May 2019 to April 2024, he was a member of the Single Resolution Board (SRB), where he was responsible for resolution policy, strategy and cooperation. In this capacity, he chaired the SRB Resolution Committee on cooperation between the SRB and National Resolution Authorities, and represented the SRB in the Financial Services Committee of the Council of the EU, in the EBA Board of Supervisors and in the ESRB. From December 2019 to April 2024, he chaired the European Banking Authority Resolution Committee (ResCo), and represented the SRB in the Senior Staff Tripartite Principal Level Group (TPLE), a crisis management forum for cross-border banks involving the US, the UK and Banking Union supervisory and resolution authorities.
Between May 2019 and March 2025 he was a member of the Financial Stability Board's Resolution Group and, between November 2022 and March 2025, he chaired its main working group on crisis management of cross-border banks.
Between May 2024 and March 2025 he has held the position of Principal Advisor to the Director General for Economics, Statistics and Research, focusing on Banca d'Italia's participation in international committees and bodies dealing with financial stability.
He has published numerous articles on banking and financial regulation in both Italian and international journals, as well as contributions to blogs and policy discussions on prudential supervision and bank resolution.
