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<p>The trust placed in a central back is considered its most important asset – especially in turbulent times for monetary policy. In order to avoid any appearance of conflicts of interest, the European Central Bank (ECB) felt motivated to tighten its Code of Conduct for high-level officials at the beginning of 2023. However, an analysis of current self-disclosures by the members of the ECB’s Governing Council on their financial investments indicates a lack of clarity in the new investment rules, which seems to result in inconsistent and partly contradictory disclosures – especially with regard to “legacy assets”. The clarity and comprehensibility of the rules as well as their consistent implementation should therefore be reviewed in order to prevent an erosion of confidence in the ECB.</p>
</abstract>

The trust placed in a central back is considered its most important asset – especially in turbulent times for monetary policy. In order to avoid any appearance of conflicts of interest, the European Central Bank (ECB) felt motivated to tighten its Code of Conduct for high-level officials at the beginning of 2023. However, an analysis of current self-disclosures by the members of the ECB’s Governing Council on their financial investments indicates a lack of clarity in the new investment rules, which seems to result in inconsistent and partly contradictory disclosures – especially with regard to “legacy assets”. The clarity and comprehensibility of the rules as well as their consistent implementation should therefore be reviewed in order to prevent an erosion of confidence in the ECB.

New Code of Conduct for Members of the ECB’s Governing Council – Need for Clarification

Wirtschaftsdienst

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Neuer Verhaltenskodex für EZB-Ratsmitglieder erzeugt Klärungsbedarf

The trust placed in a central back is considered its most important asset – especially in turbulent times for monetary policy. In order to avoid any appearance...

New Code of Conduct for Members of the ECB’s Governing Council – Need for Clarification

Published Online: Sep 21, 2023

Page range: 635 - 641

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/wd-2023-0176

© 2023 Arne Hansen, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.