ECB Lagarde scolds her colleagues and confiscates their phones ‎to prevent leaks

Two sources said that European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde confiscated the mobile phones of fellow policymakers at a meeting last week, reprimanding them for leaking important information before making a policy decision.

According to Reuters, this is the unprecedented and boldest step taken by Lagarde to stop the leaking of information from the bank’s Board of Governors, a problem that she has faced since the beginning of her presidency, just as her predecessor, Mario Draghi, faced.

The two informed sources said that the 26 members of the bank’s governing board were asked to hand in their mobile phones on Wednesday, the first day of the meeting, in which policymakers were about to choose Claudia Buch to become the highest banking supervisor at the European Central Bank. .

They added that the phones were returned after the announcement of Buch’s nomination to head the unified supervisory council, which supervises more than 100 of the largest banks in the euro area.

The two sources said that the decision to confiscate the phones was taken because the selection of the current president of the Council, Andrea Enria, in 2018 was reported in the media before it was officially announced.

Lagarde’s move came a day after Reuters alone revealed that the European Central Bank would raise key inflation expectations, paving the way for raising interest rates, last Thursday.