ECB Officials Get Impatient for Lagarde to Clear Up Future Plans

European Central Bank policymakers are getting impatient with Christine Lagarde’s refusal to offer clarity on her future, people familiar with the matter said.

Cumulative frustration from months of speculation has been fueled by the president’s cryptic answers on her possible early exit, said the people, who declined to be identified because discussions on the matter are private.

There is also concern that the saga is a bad look for the ECB, they added, while others highlight the release of Lagarde’s memoir in January and her willingness to promote it while in office as an area of unease.

Some officials are less bothered about the lack of clarity on her plans, insisting that policymaking can carry on unaffected, the people said.

A spokesperson for the ECB declined to comment on how colleagues view the president’s actions.

One issue that may be impeding Lagarde’s exit before the end of her term next October could be France’s current bond troubles. With market tensions persisting and the ECB moving toward a third increase in interest rates, she and colleagues have focused on those issues in public while skirting the matter of the presidency.

Signals over a possible early departure by Lagarde, and impending vacancies for two other roles, mean however that leadership is very much a live issue.

On Thursday, Reuters reported that the World Economic Forum could appoint her chair in a vote by its trustees as soon as next month, citing people close to the organization. The ECB spokesperson declined to comment on that.

Speculation that Lagarde might quit for that job in Geneva has swirled for more than a year. Questioned on her plans in July, the president told journalists that they wouldn’t “see the back of me before 2027” and that “when there are clouds on the horizon, the captain stays on the ship.”

That answer implicitly allowed for an exit before her term ends. At the press conference last month, she offered no further hints.

“When there is something to report about me personally, you will be the first one to know — after my grandchildren,” Lagarde said then. “There is nothing to report.”

In a newspaper interview published Sept. 30, she declined to rule out leaving “a few months” before her term concludes. Two days later, Italian Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said that “it would be opportune to clear up this matter.”

While Greece’s prime minister has predicted a “grand bargain” between nations over the presidency and the two other seats coming due, only that of Isabel Schnabel is currently up for grabs. Nominations are due by Oct. 28, with Germany likely to want to keep its place on the Executive Board.

What is clear is that EU nations are getting ready for the requisite negotiations. If Lagarde does leave early, “we will be prepared,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the Financial Times in an interview published Thursday.

Germany Wants to Keep Schnabel’s Markets Portfolio at ECBSchnabel ECB Job Deadline Set as Lagarde Plans Stay UnclearMerz Will Meet Frontrunners for Lagarde Job as ECB Race Heats UpFour ECB Scenarios Sketch a Succession Plan for Post-Lagarde Era

Lagarde’s plans to publish a memoir, the sort of thing many famous people do after the end of their career, is another twist in the story.

The president said at the ECB press conference last month that she won’t market the book, due out at the end of January, on the central bank’s time. Lagarde went on to “strongly encourage” reporters to buy it.

Disquiet at the level of ECB employees broke out into the open this week. In a letter to the institution’s chief compliance officer, the head of the staff committee asked how the president’s publishing plans and talks to gain another role stack up ethically.