René Smits is professor emeritus Recht van de Economische en Monetaire Unie (EMU). Na zijn studies rechten en sociologie aan de Vrije Universiteit werkte hij (1977-2001) bij De Nederlandsche Bank, waar hij onder meer general counsel was. Van 2001 tot 2024 vervulde hij diverse juridische functies bij de Nederlandse Mededingingsautoriteit (thans ACM). Hij schreef de eerste Engelstalige juridische analyse van de ECB: The European Central Bank – Institutional Aspects (PhD, 1997). Hij was lid van de Administrative Board of Review van de Europese Centrale Bank (2014-2024) en assessor bij de Belgian Competition Authority (2013-2020).

Momenteel is hij consultant op het gebied van EMU-recht, Europese bankenregulering, duurzame financiering en financiële sancties. Smits is lid van de Committee on International Monetary Law van de International Law Association (MOCOMILA) en deskundige bij P.R.I.M.E. Finance.

René Smits is verantwoordelijk voor een online overzicht van jurisprudentie inzake banken­toezicht door de Europese Centrale Bank en resolutie door de Single Resolution Board: he Banking Union and Union Courts. Dit overzicht biedt transparantie over rechterlijke procedures tegen de ECB en de SRB.

René is getrouwd met Anneke de Blieck; zij hebben twee kinderen en vijf kleinkinderen.

René Smits wrote the first English-language legal analysis of the ECB: The European Central Bank – Institutional Aspects (PhD, 1997) and many more legal contributions. Among his recent academic publications: Bank Holding Company Regulation in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa: A Comparative Inventory and a Call for Pan-African Regulation, co-authored with John Taylor, Journal of Banking Regulation, Volume 18, 2017, 1-36, and at SSRN; The invisible core of values in the European integration project, From the Board (editorial), Legal Issues of Economic Integration 45, no. 3 (2018): 221-228, available here; Towards a single standard of professional secrecy for supervisory authorities – A reform proposal, co-authored with Nikolai Badenhoop, published in: (2019) 44 E.L. Rev. 295-318, also at SSRN; SSM and the SRB accountability at European level: room for improvements? Banking Union Scrutiny paper for the European Parliament’s Economic Governance Support Unit (EGOV), April 2020, available here; The ECB's mandate in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss, 2022, at SSRN, chapter 8 in: René Smits (editor), Sustainable Finance and Climate Change - Law and Regulation, Edward Elgar Publishing 2024; The ECB’s E-Road ahead, chapter 17 in:  The ‘New’ European Central Bank: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead, Thomas Beukers, Diane Fromage and Giorgio Monti (editors), 2022; Financial sanctions: the development of an EU practice, at SSRN, chapter 3 in International Sanctions: Monetary and Financial Law Perspectives, a book by members of the Committee on International Monetary Law of the International Law Association (MOCOMILA), edited by Chiara Zilioli, General Counsel, European Central Bank; Professor of Law, Goethe University Frankfurt, Régis Bismuth, Professor of Law, Science Po Law School and Luc Thévenoz, Professor of Law, University of Geneva; Reflections at this juncture, paper for the International Colloquium in memoriam of Luís Silva Morais Capital Markets and Banking Unions, Law and the Courts (Challenges and Perspectives), delivered at the Università di Bologna, 13 February 2025.