ECB president
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The president of the European Central Bank is the head of the European Central Bank (ECB), the main institution responsible for the management of the euro and monetary policy in the Eurozone of the European Union (EU). The current president of the European Central Bank is Christine Lagarde, previously the chair and managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Lagarde has served as the president of the ECB since 1 November 2019. She is the first woman to hold the post.


Role and appointment

The president heads the executive board, Governing Council and General Council of the ECB, and represents the bank abroad, for example at the G20. The officeholder is appointed by a
qualified majority vote The procedures for voting in the Council of the European Union are described in the treaties of the European Union. The Council of the European Union (or simply "Council" or "Council of Ministers") has had its voting procedure amended by subsequ ...
of the
European Council The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. It is composed of the heads of state or government of the EU member states, the President of the E ...
, ''de facto'' by those who have adopted the euro, for an eight-year non-renewable term.


History


Duisenberg

Wim Duisenberg was President of the
European Monetary Institute The European Monetary Institute (EMI) was the forerunner of the European Central Bank (ECB), operating between 1994 and 1997. History The EMI was created 1 January 1994 to oversee the second stage in the creation of monetary union. The EMI itself ...
(EMI) when it became the ECB, just prior to the launch of the Euro, on 1 June 1998. Duisenberg then became the first President of the ECB. The French interpretation of the agreement made with the installation of Wim Duisenberg as ECB President was that Duisenberg would resign after just four years of his eight-year term, and would be replaced by the Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet. Duisenberg always strongly denied that such an agreement was made and stated in February 2002 that he would stay in office until his 68th birthday on 9 July 2003. In the meanwhile Jean-Claude Trichet was not cleared of legal accusations before 1 June 2002, so he was not able to begin his term after Duisenberg's first four years. Even on 9 July 2003 Trichet was not cleared, and therefore Duisenberg remained in office until 1 November 2003. Duisenberg died on 31 July 2005.


Trichet

Jean-Claude Trichet became president in 2003 and served during the European sovereign debt crisis. Trichet's strengths lay in keeping consensus and visible calm in the ECB. During his tenure, Trichet has had to fend off criticism from French President
Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...
who demanded a more growth-orientated policy at the ECB. Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel supported Trichet in demanding the bank's independence be respected. However, he was also criticised from straying from his mandate during the crisis by buying the government bonds of eurozone member states. ECB board members
Axel A. Weber Axel Alfred Weber (born 8 March 1957) is a German economist, professor, and banker. He is currently a board member and chairman of Swiss investment bank and financial services company, UBS Group AG, and has announced his resignation effective 7 A ...
and
Jürgen Stark Jürgen Stark (born 31 May 1948 in Gau-Odernheim, Germany) is a German economist who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2006 to 2011 and concurrently as ECB chief economist. Within the Executive Board, he w ...
resigned in protest at this policy, even if it helped prevent states from defaulting.
IMF The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...
economist Pau Rabanal argued that Trichet "maintained a relatively expansionary monetary policy," but even "sacrificed the ECB's inflation target for the sake of greater economic growth and jobs creation, and not the other way round." While straying from his mandate, he has however still kept interest rates under control and maintained greater price stability than the
Deutsche Bundesbank The Deutsche Bundesbank (), literally "German Federal Bank", is the central bank of the Federal Republic of Germany and as such part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). Due to its strength and former size, the Bundesbank is the most ...
did before the euro.By Xavier Vidal-Folch (translated by Anton Baer) 6 October 201
What it would have cost without Trichet
EL PAÍS, on
Presseurop Presseurop was a multilingualism, multilingual Paris-based web portal, news portal that translated and published Europe-related news articles daily from over two hundred sources into ten European languages, including English language, English. It w ...
The euro crisis: Is anyone in charge?
The Economist 1 October 2011
As well as defending the ECB's independence and balancing its commitment to interest rates and economic stability, Trichet also fought Sarkozy for automatic sanctions in the EU fiscal reforms and opposite Merkel's against private sector involvement in bail outs so as not to scare the markets. He had however made some mistakes during the crisis, for example by: raising interest rates just after inflation topped out and just prior to the recession triggered by the Lehman Brothers collapse; also by its early timidity in buying eurozone state bonds. In his final appearance (his 35th) before the European Parliament, Trichet called for more political unity, including; significant new powers to be granted to the ECB, the establishment of an executive branch with a European Finance Ministry and greater oversight powers for the European Parliament. He also asserted that the ECB's role in maintaining price stability throughout the financial crisis and the oil price rises should not be overlooked. He stated, in response to a question from a German newspaper attacking the ECB's credibility following its bond-buying;


Draghi

Although Axel Weber was tipped as one of the possible successors, he resigned from the ECB in protest at the bail out policies. Mario Draghi was chosen to become the next President of the ECB on 24 June 2011. Draghi was president from 1 November 2011 until 31 October 2019 (succeeded by Christine Lagarde).
Pascal Canfin Pascal Canfin (born in Arras, 22 August 1974) is a French politician of La République en marche (LREM) who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament (EUP) since 2019. In the 2019 elections for the UE Parliament, he was elected in ...
, Member of the European Parliament for France, asserted that Draghi had been involved in swaps for European governments, namely Greece, trying to disguise their countries' economic status. Draghi responded that the deals were "undertaken before my joining
Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...
ndI had nothing to do with" them, in the 2011 European Parliament nomination hearings. In December 2011, Draghi oversaw a €489 billion ($640 billion), three-year loan program from the ECB to European banks. The program was around the same size as the US Troubled Asset Relief Program (2008) though still much smaller than the overall US response including the Federal Reserve's asset purchases and other actions of that time. In February, 2012, a second, somewhat larger round of ECB loans to European banks was initiated under Draghi, called long term refinancing operation (LTRO). One commentator,
Matthew Lynn Matthew Lynn (born 1962) is a British thriller writer, financial journalist and publisher. He is the author of the ''Death Force'' series of novels. He has also written under the name James Harland. Early life Lynn was born in 1962 and grew u ...
, saw the ECB's injection of funds, along with Quantitative easing from the US Fed and the Asset Purchase Facility at the
Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
, as feeding increases in
oil prices The price of oil, or the oil price, generally refers to the spot price of a barrel () of benchmark crude oil—a reference price for buyers and sellers of crude oil such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), Brent Crude, Dubai Crude, OPEC Refe ...
in
2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
and
2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
. In July 2012, in the midst of renewed fears about sovereigns in the eurozone, Draghi stated in a panel discussion that the ECB "...is ready to do ''whatever it takes'' to preserve the Euro. And believe me, it will be enough." This statement led to a steady decline in bond yields (borrowing costs) for eurozone countries, in particular Spain, Italy and France. In light of slow political progress on solving the eurozone crisis, Draghi's statement has been seen as a key turning point in the fortunes of the Eurozone.


List


Presidents


Vice presidents


References


External links


Organisation of the ECB
*


EU Treaties; Section 6 Article 282 on ECB
{{DEFAULTSORT:President of the European Central Bank European Central Bank Eurogroup European Union