The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's most important central banks with a balance sheet total of around 7 trillion.
The Deutsche Bundesbank is the German member of the Eurosystem and has been the monetary authority for Germany from 1957 to 1998, issuing the Deutsche Mark (DM). It succeeded the Bank deutscher Länder, which had introduced the DM on 20 June 1948.
The president of the European Central Bank is the head of the European Central Bank (ECB), the main institution responsible for the management of the euro and monetary policy in the Eurozone of the European Union (EU)
Theodor Waigel is a German politician of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). He represented Neu-Ulm in the Bundestag from 1976 to 2002.
Axel Alfred Weber is a German economist, professor, and banker. He is currently a board member and chairman of Swiss investment bank and financial services company, UBS Group AG, and has announced his resignation effective 7 April 2022.
Hans Tietmeyer was a German economist and regarded as one of the foremost experts on international financial matters. He was president of Deutsche Bundesbank from 1993 until 1999 and remained afterwards one of the most important figures in finance of the European Union.
Rainer Brüderle is a German politician and member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). He served as Minister of Economics and Transport of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1987–1998. On 28 October 2009, he was appointed Federal Minister for Economics and Technology in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Following his election in May 2011 as chairman of his party's parliamentary group, Brüderle resigned as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Technology.
TARGET2 was the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system for the Eurozone from its phased introduction in 2007-2008 until its replacement with T2 in March 2023. As such, it was one of the Eurosystem's TARGET Services, replacing the original TARGET RTGS introduced in 1999. Like the other TARGET Services, it was developed and owned by the Eurosystem.
Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde is a French politician and lawyer who has been the President of the European Central Bank since 2019. She previously served as the 11th Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2011 to 2019. Lagarde had also served in the Government of France, most prominently as Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry from 2007 until 2011. She is the first woman to hold each of those posts.
Jürgen Stark is a German economist who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2006 to 2011 and concurrently as ECB chief economist. Within the Executive Board, he was responsible for Economics and for Monetary Analysis and resigned before expiration of his term in opposition to ECB's bond-buying programme.
Yves Mersch is a Luxembourgish jurist and lawyer who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2012 to 2020. He previously served as first Governor of the Central Bank of Luxembourg from 1998 to 2012.
Uwe Corsepius is a German diplomat, and former Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union. He was succeeded by Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen.
Jörg Asmussen is a German economist and politician who served as State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance from 2008 to 2011 and Parliamentary State Secretary for the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs from 2014 to 2016. He has been serving as Chief Executive Officer of the German Insurance Association (GDV) since 2020.
Klaas Henderikus Willem Knot is a Dutch economist and central banker who is the current president of the Dutch central bank De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). In this capacity he serves as a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), as well as of the board of governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Knot also holds a position as Professor in Monetary Stability at the University of Amsterdam and honorary professor at the University of Groningen.
Claudia Maria Buch is a German economist who serves as Chair of the ECB Supervisory Board since 2024. She previously was a Vice President of the Bundesbank from 2014 to 2023.
Sabine Lautenschläger is a German jurist who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2014 to 2019. She previously served as vice-president of the Deutsche Bundesbank from 2011 to 2013.
Jakob von Weizsäcker is a German economist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as State Minister of Finance in the government of Minister-President of the Saarland Anke Rehlinger since the 2022 state elections.
Thomas Mirow is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party who served as president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 2008 to 2012.
Michael Meister is a German mathematician and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state Hesse since 1994. From 2018 until 2021 he also served as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Joachim Nagel is a German economist who has been serving as President of the Bundesbank since 2022. Before he was a senior manager of the Bank for International Settlements since 2020, having been a member of the board of the Deutsche Bundesbank from 2010 to 2016 and then a member of the board of the KfW Bankengruppe from 2017 to 2020. He was appointed President of the Deutsche Bundesbank on 1 January 2022, to replace Jens Weidmann. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), along with the President who appointed him to serve initially under SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
