The European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Jorg Asmussen will leave the bank to join the new German governing coalition.
Mr. Asmussen, one of the most influential member of the ECB and a Mario Draghi ally, will become deputy labor minister in the new German government and will shortly resign from his post at the ECB. As a key person in the ECB Executive Board, which implements monetary policy for the euro area, his departure could leave a hole in the ECB’s policy team.
Personal reasons are behind his decision since, as Mr. Asmussen stated, “the seat of the ECB in Frankfurt with his family with his two very young children in Berlin was not compatible over the long term”.
His successor is expected to be Sabine Lautenschlaeger, vice-president of the Bundesbank, who was publicly opposed to Mr. Draghi’s programme , namely last year’s sovereign bond-buying scheme. Mr. Asmussen’s decision could complicate the ECB’s efforts to convince Germany to support its current ultra-easy monetary policies.
The ECB is now under pressure to find a replacement up to the task.