Reuters-Lagarde seized ECB colleagues handsets to prevent leaks
September 16, 2023 3 min 532 words
这则报道揭示了欧洲央行主席克里斯汀·拉加德采取的一项大胆行动，以遏制政策信息泄露问题。拉加德在会议上没收了她的同僚政策制定者的手机，并责备他们在政策决策前泄漏重要信息。这是她采取的最大胆的举措，旨在制止信息泄漏问题，这一问题一直困扰着她的领导以及前任马里奥·德拉吉的领导。 报告指出，这一决定是因为在2018年，现任主席安德烈亚·恩里亚的选择在官方发布之前已经出现在媒体上。拉加德的行动发生在路透社独家报道了欧洲央行将本周提高一项关键通货膨胀预测的一天后，这为周四的利率上调铺平了道路。这一消息导致许多经济学家和交易员改变了他们的看法。 值得注意的是，拉加德继承了德拉吉时期分裂的央行管理委员会，而德拉吉以其极易宽松的货币政策和粗暴的管理风格，让欧元区北部的所谓“鹰派”感到不满。她一直在努力营造更加和谐的氛围，而一些消息来源称她在很大程度上取得了成功。然而，正如报道中指出的那样，随着借款成本的上升，越来越多的政策制定者对进一步的升息表示担忧。 总的来说，这篇报道突显了拉加德为维护央行的机密性所采取的坚决行动，同时也反映了欧洲央行内部的分歧和挑战。拉加德在努力改善内部合作的同时，也面临着舆论压力和不同意见的挑战。这一举措对于维护央行的独立性和效力至关重要，但也需要在透明度和内部合作之间取得平衡。
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde seized the mobile phones of her fellow policymakers at this week's meeting and rebuked them for leaking crucial information ahead of a policy decision, two sources told Reuters.
The unprecedented move is the boldest step that Lagarde has taken to stop information leaking out from the Governing Council, an issue that has plagued her presidency as well as that of her predecessor, Mario Draghi.
The 26 members of the Governing Council were told to hand over their mobile phones on Wednesday, the first day of the meeting, as policymakers were about to pick Claudia Buch as the ECB's top banking supervisor, the sources familiar with the matter said.
The handsets were returned after Buch's nomination as chair of the Single Supervisory Board, which oversees more than a hundred of the euro zone's biggest lenders, had been announced, the sources added.
The decision was taken because the choice in 2018 of the current chair, Andrea Enria, appeared in the media before the official release, the sources said.
An ECB spokesperson declined to comment.
Lagarde's move came a day after Reuters exclusively revealed the ECB would raise a key inflation forecast this week, which paved the way for an interest rate hike on Thursday.
Most economists and traders had expected the ECB to keep rates on hold, but many changed their view after the Reuters report was published late on Tuesday.
Lagarde stigmatised the leak at the start of the two-day meeting, a criticism that was echoed by several colleagues.
Lagarde inherited a divided Governing Council from Draghi, who had alienated so called hawks in the euro zone's north with his ultra-easy monetary policy and abrasive management style.
She has steadily tried to create a more harmonious atmosphere and several sources agree she has largely succeeded.
Ironically, her efforts were helped by painfully high inflation over the past two years, which reduced the room for dissent and effectively forced the ECB to embark on a streak of interest rate hikes.
But as borrowing costs were pushed higher, more policymakers expressed reservations about further hikes, the sources said.
Lagarde said on Thursday the latest increase was backed by "a solid majority of the governors", compared to all of them for the previous rise in July and a "very, very broad consensus" a month earlier.
Lagarde has spared no effort in trying to woo her colleagues.
Weeks into her term in 2019, they gathered at a German mountain castle where she pledged to spend more time listening, and not to front-run decisions before policymakers had weighed in, as Draghi was often accused of doing.
In return, she asked for governors to stop trashing policy decisions once taken, keep internal disputes out of the media and put their phones away while colleagues were speaking.
She also set informal guidelines last year instructing colleagues to present the majority view to the public after the ECB's policy decisions, which are published on Thursdays, and hold back "personal" views until the following Monday.