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BCN-10
ECB-EU-EUROZONE-GERMANY
ECB board member resigns amid stimulus tensions
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Sept 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The European Central Bank
said Wednesday that Sabine Lautenschlaeger would resign from its executive
board at the end of October, amid tensions over its president Mario Draghi’s
extraordinary stimulus measures.
Lautenschlaeger, who is German and widely seen as a “hawk” opposed to
monetary easing, told Draghi that she would “resign from her position on 31
October 2019, prior to the end of her term of office”, the ECB said in a
statement.
Lautenschlaeger is the sole woman on the six-member executive board.
She has served on the board and the central bank’s governing council since
January 2014, and was until February vice chair of the supervisory board of
the Single Supervisory Mechanism, which performs oversight of more than 100
“significant” banks in the single currency area.
Draghi “thanked her for her instrumental role in helping set up and steer
Europe-wide banking supervision, a key pillar of banking union, as well as
her unwavering commitment to Europe”, the bank added.
It gave no reason for her departure and declined to comment.
But the surprise move comes amid serious divisions within the bank’s
leadership over Draghi’s decision this month to unleash a huge stimulus
package aimed at propping up the flagging eurozone economy.
ECB governors pushed the deposit interest rate further into negative
territory and relaunched net purchases of government and corporate debt.
A deep split among the central bankers burst into the open a day after the
monetary policy meeting.
Seven of the 25 members of the ECB governors — including Lautenschlaeger
— were against relaunching the quantitative easing programme of purchasing
20 billion euros ($22 billion) worth of debt monthly from November, sources
told AFP.
German central bank president Jens Weidmann, in a rare public broadside,
accused Draghi of “overshooting the mark”, adding that “such a far-reaching
package was not necessary”.
Ahead of the meeting, several eurozone central bankers, including
Weidmann, had openly warned against unleashing a new round of stimulus so
swiftly.
Lautenschlaeger’s departure follows a string of German board members
exiting the ECB prematurely over the years including Juergen Stark and Joerg
Asmussen.
Her replacement will be named by the European Council ,made up of the
leaders of the EU member states, in consultation with the European Parliament
and the governing council of the ECB.
Draghi himself is due to step down on October 31, when former IMF chief
Christine Lagarde will take over.
BSS/AFP/HR/1035