European Central Bank

European Central Bank European Central Bank Bulgarian: Европейска централна банка Czech: Evropská centrální banka Danish: Den Europæiske Centralbank Dutch: Europese Centrale Bank Estonian: Euroopa Keskpank Finnish: Euroopan keskuspankki French: Banque centrale européenne German: Europäische Zentralbank Greek: Ευρωπαϊκή Κεντρική Τράπεζα Hungarian: Európai Központi Βank Irish: Banc Ceannais Eorpach Italian: Banca Centrale Europea Latvian: Eiropas Centrālā banka Lithuanian: Europos centrinis bankas Maltese: Bank Ċentrali Ewropew Polish: Europejski Bank Centralny Portuguese: Banco Central Europeu Romanian: Banca Centrală Europeană Slovak: Európska centrálna banka Slovene: Evropska centralna banka Spanish: Banco Central Europeo Swedish: Europeiska centralbanken Logo of the European Central Bank European Central Bank headquarters Headquarters Frankfurt, Germany Coordinates 50°06′34″N 8°40′26″E / 50.1095°N 8.6740°E / 50.1095; 8.6740 Established 1 June 1998 President Jean-Claude Trichet Central bank of Eurozone Austria Belgium Cyprus Estonia France Finland Germany Greece Ireland Italy Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Portugal Slovakia Slovenia Spain Currency Euro ISO 4217 Code EUR Reserves €526bn in total €43bn directly €338bn (Eurosystem incl. gold) €145bn (forex reserves) Base borrowing rate 1.00% Base deposit rate 0.25% Website www.ecb.int Preceded by 17 national banks National Bank of Austria National Bank of Belgium Central Bank of Cyprus Bank of Estonia Bank of Finland Banque de France Deutsche Bundesbank Bank of Greece Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Banca d'Italia Central Bank of Luxembourg Central Bank of Malta De Nederlandsche Bank Banco de Portugal Bank of Slovenia National Bank of Slovakia Bank of Spain The European Central Bank (ECB) is the institution of the European Union (EU) which administers the monetary policy of the 17 EU Eurozone member states. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. The current President of the ECB is Jean-Claude Trichet, former president of the Banque de France. Contents 1 History 2 Powers and objectives 3 Organisation 4 Independence and future 5 Location 6 See also 7 References 8 External links History Further information: History of the euro The European Central Bank is the de facto successor of the European Monetary Institute (EMI). The EMI was established at the start of the second stage of the EU's Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) to handle the transitional issues of states adopting the euro and prepare for the creation of the ECB and European System of Central Banks (ESCB). The EMI itself took over from the earlier European Monetary Co-operation Fund (EMCF).1 Wim Duisenberg, first President of the ECB. The ECB formally replaced the EMI on 1 June 1998 by virtue of the Treaty on European Union (TEU, Treaty of Maastricht), however it did not exercise its full powers until the introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999, signalling the third stage of EMU. The bank was the final institution needed for EMU, as outlined by the EMU reports of Pierre Werner and President Jacques Delors.1 It was established on 1 June 1998.2 The first President of the Bank was Wim Duisenberg, the former president of the Dutch central bank and the European Monetary Institute. While Duisenberg had been the head of the EMI (taking over from Alexandre Lamfalussy of Belgium) just before the ECB came into existence, the French government wanted Jean-Claude Trichet, former head of French central bank, to be the ECB's first president. The French argued that since the ECB was to be located in Germany, its President should be French. This was opposed by the German, Dutch and Belgian governments who saw Duisenberg as a guarantor of a strong euro.3 Tensions were abated by a gentleman's agreement in which Duisenberg would stand down before the end of his mandate, to be replaced by Trichet, an event which occurred in November 2003. There had also been tension over the ECB's Executive Board, with the United Kingdom demanding a seat even though it had not joined the Single Currency.3 Under pressure from France three seats were assigned to the largest members, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Despite such a system of appointment the board asserted its independence early on in resisting calls for interest rates and future candidates to it.3 When the ECB was created, it covered a Eurozone of eleven members. Since then, Greece joined in January 2001, Slovenia in January 2007, Cyprus and Malta in January 2008, Slovakia in January 2009, and Estonia in January 2011, enlarging the bank's scope and the membership of its Governing Council.1 On December 1, 2009 Treaty of Lisbon entered into force, ECB according to the article 13 of TEU, gained official status of an EU institution. Powers and objectives The ECB has the exclusive right to authorise issuance of banknotes. The primary objective of the ECB is to maintain price stability within the Eurozone, or in other words to keep inflation low. The Governing Council defined price stability as inflation (Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices) of below, but close to, 2%.4 Unlike for example the United States Federal Reserve Bank, the ECB has only one primary objective with other objectives subordinate to it. The key tasks of the ECB are to define and implement the monetary policy for the Eurozone, to conduct foreign exchange operations, to take care of the foreign reserves of the European System of Central Banks and promote smooth operation of the financial market infrastructure under the Target payments system5 and being currently developed technical platform for settlement of securities in Europe (TARGET2 Securities). Furthermore, it has the exclusive right to authorise the issuance of euro banknotes. Member states can issue euro coins but the amount must be authorised by the ECB beforehand (upon the introduction of the euro, the ECB also had exclusive right to issue coins5). In U.S. style central banking, liquidity is furnished to the economy primarily through the purchase of Treasury bonds by the Federal Reserve Bank. Because the European Community does not have system-wide bonds backed by a system-wide taxation authority, it uses a different method. Member banks, of which there are several thousand, bid for short term repo contracts of two weeks' to three months' duration. The member banks in effect borrow cash and must pay it back; the short durations allow interest rates to be adjusted continually. When the repo notes come due the participating banks bid again. An increase in the quantity of notes offered at auction allows an increase in liquidity in the economy. A decrease has the contrary effect. The contracts are carried on the asset side of the European Central Bank's balance sheet and the resulting deposits in member banks are carried as a liability. In lay terms, the liability of the central bank is money, and an increase in deposits in member banks, carried as a liability by the central bank, means that more money has been put into the economy.6 To qualify for participation in the auctions banks must be able to offer proof of appropriate collateral in the form of loans to other entities. These can be the public debt of member states, but a fairly wide range of private banking securities are also accepted.7 The fairly stringent membership requirements for the European Union, especially with regard to sovereign debt as a percentage of each member state's gross domestic product, are designed to insure that assets offered to the bank as collateral are, at least in theory, all equally good, and all equally protected from the risk of inflation. The economic and financial crisis that began in 2008 has revealed some relative weaknesses in the sovereign debt of such member countries as Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain.8 These securities are not limited to the countries of issue, but held in many cases by banks in other member states. To the extent that the banks authorized to borrow from the ECB have compromised collateral, their ability to borrow from the ECB—and thus the liquidity of the economic system—is impaired. This threat has drawn the ECB into rescue operations. But weak sovereign debt is not the only source of weakness in the ECB's operations, as the collapse of the market in U.S. dollar denominated collateralized debt obligations has also led to large scale interventions in cooperation with the Federal Reserve. Rescue operations involving sovereign debt have included temporarily moving bad or weak assets off the balance sheets of the weak member banks into the balance sheets of the European Central Bank. Such action is viewed as monetization and can be seen as an inflationary threat, whereby the strong member countries of the ECB shoulder the burden of monetary expansion (and potential inflation) in order to save the weak member countries. Most central banks prefer to move weak assets off their balance sheets with some kind of agreement as to how the debt will continue to be serviced. This preference has typically led the ECB to argue that the weaker member countries must (a) allocate considerable national income to servicing debts and (b) scale back a wide range of national expenditures (such as education, infrastructure, and welfare transfer payments) in order to make their payments. The European Central Bank had stepped up the buying of member nations debt.9 In response to the crisis of 2010, some proposals have surfaced for a collective European bond issue that would allow the central bank to purchase a European version of U.S. Treasury Bills.10 To make European sovereign debt assets more similar to a U.S. Treasury, a collective guarantee of the member states' solvency would be necessary.11 But the German government has resisted this proposal, and other analyses indicate that "the sickness of the Euro" is due to the linkage between sovereign debt and failing national banking systems. If the European central bank were to deal directly with failing banking systems sovereign debt would not look as leveraged relative to national income in the financially weaker member states.12 On December 17, 2010 the ECB announced that it was going to double its capitalization.13 (The ECB's most recent balance sheet before the announcement listed capital and reserves at 2.03 trillion euros.)14 The sixteen central banks of the member states would transfer assets to the ledger of the ECB. In banking, assets (loans) are used to offset liabilities (deposits and currency). If some of the sovereign debt held as an asset by the ECB becomes non-performing, the asset is "bad" and the deposits, in this case, currency, are not appropriately backed. This inequality means that liabilities exceed assets and therefore the bank is in trouble. One response is to use the bank's capital to offset the losses. The use of capital to offset a loss transfers the loss to the bank's shareholders: the member banks. The increased capitalization of the ECB against potential sovereign debt default means that the sixteen member banks are also exposed to potential losses. In 2011 the European member states may need to raise as much as USD $2 trillion in debt. Some of this will be new debt and some will be previous debt that is "rolled over" as older loans reach maturity. In either case, the ability to raise this money depends on the confidence of investors in the European financial system. The ability of the European Union to guarantee its members' sovereign debt obligations have direct implications for the core assets of the banking system that support the Euro.15 Although "unthinkable," a collapse of the euro (with a reversion to individual national currencies) became, at the end of 2010, a topic of speculation in the financial press.16 The bank must also co-operate within the EU and internationally with third bodies and entities. Finally it contributes to maintaining a stable financial system and monitoring the banking sector.17 The latter can be seen, for example, in the bank's intervention during the 2007 credit crisis when it loaned billions of euros to banks to stabilise the financial system.18 In December 2007 the ECB decided in conjunction with the Federal Reserve under a program called Term auction facility to improve dollar liquidity in the eurozone and to stabilise the money market.19 Organisation Although the ECB is governed by European law directly and thus not by corporate law applying to private law companies, its set-up resembles that of a corporation in the sense that the ECB has shareholders and stock capital. Its capital is five billion euros20 which is held by the national central banks of the Member States as shareholders. The initial capital allocation key was determined in 1998 on the basis of the states' population and GDP,21 but the key is adjustable.22 Shares in the ECB are not transferable and cannot be used as collateral.23 European Union This article is part of the series: Politics and government of the European Union Parliament President Jerzy Buzek Largest groups; Joseph Daul: EPP Martin Schulz: S&D 7th session MEPs (736) 2009-14 term Bureau Vice Presidents Quaestor Conference Legislative procedure Council of Ministers Presidency Hungary Configurations: General Foreign Economic Euro Legislative procedure Voting Secretariat Secretary-General Pierre de Boissieu COREPER European Council President Herman Van Rompuy Parties List of meetings Commission Barroso Comm. President José M. Barroso Vice Presidents Catherine Ashton Viviane Reding Joaquín Almunia Siim Kallas Neelie Kroes Antonio Tajani Maroš Šefčovič Commissioners Civil Service Secretary-General Catherine Day Court of Justice Court of Justice General Court Civil Service Tribunal Members Rulings Other institutions Central Bank President ESCB Euro EMU Eurozone Court of Auditors Budget OLAF Investment Bank CoR EESC Ombudsman Other bodies Agencies National parliaments Policies and issues Budget Four Freedoms Economic area Single market Area of FS&J Schengen Policies Agricultural Energy Fisheries Regional Citizenship Identity Pro-Europeanism Euroscepticism Integration Supranationalism Federalism U.S.E. Multi-speed Opt-outs Enhanced co-op Withdrawal Foreign relations High Representative Catherine Ashton Ext. Action Service Foreign Policy Defence Policy Enlargement Elections 1979, 1984, 1989 1994, 1999, 2004 2009 (last election) 2014 (next election) Political parties EPP PES ELDR Free Alliance Greens AEN Left Democratic EUDemocrats Parl. groups EPP S&D ALDE G-EFA ECR EUL-NGL EFD Constituencies Referendums Law Acquis Primacy Subsidiarity Treaties; Rome 1957 Merger 1965 SEA 1986 Maastricht 1992 Amsterdam 1997 Nice 2001 Lisbon 2007 Fundamental Rights Membership v · d · e The Executive Board is responsible for the implementation of monetary policy defined by the Governing Council and the day-to-day running of the bank. In this it can issue decisions to national central banks and may also exercise powers delegated to it by the Governing Council. It is composed of the President of the Bank (currently Jean-Claude Trichet), a vice president and four other members. They are all appointed by common accord of the Eurozone member states for non-renewable terms of eight years. Jean-Claude Trichet, the current President. The General Council is a body dealing with transitional issues of euro adoption, for example fixing the exchange rates of currencies being replaced by the euro (continuing the tasks of the former EMI). It will continue to exist until all EU Member States adopt the euro, at which point it will be dissolved. It is composed of the President and Vice President together with the governors of all of the EU's national central banks.2425 Independence and future Furthermore, not only must the bank not seek influence, but EU institutions and national governments are bound by the treaties to respect the ECB's independence. For example, the minimum term of office for an national central bank governor is five years and members of the executive board have a non-renewable eight-year term.26 To offer some accountability, the ECB is bound to publish reports on its activities and has to address its annual report to the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Council.27 The European Parliament also gets to question and then issue its opinion on candidates to the executive board.28 The bank's independence has notably come under intense criticism since the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as French President. Sarkozy has sought to make the ECB more susceptible to political influence, to extend its mandate to focus on growth and job creation, and has frequently criticised the bank's policies on interest rates. Location Main article: European Central Bank Headquarters Model of the ECB's new headquarters. The bank is based in Frankfurt, the largest financial centre in the Eurozone. Its location in the city is fixed by the Amsterdam Treaty along with other major institutions.29 In the city, the bank currently occupies Frankfurt's Eurotower until its purpose-built headquarters are built.30 In 1999 an international architectural competition was launched by the bank to design a new building. It was won by a Vienna-based architectural office named Coop Himmelbau. The building will be approximately 180 metres (591 ft) tall (the present building is 148 m/486 ft) and will be accompanied with other secondary buildings on a landscaped site on the site of the former wholesale market (Großmarkthalle) in the eastern part of Frankfurt am Main. The main construction began in October 2008, with completion scheduled during 2014.3132 It is expected that the building will become an architectural symbol for Europe and is designed to cope with double the number of staff who operate in the Eurotower.30 See also Book: European Union Wikipedia Books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. European Systemic Risk Board European Banking Authority Numismatics portal v · d · eTopics on the euro Topics Linguistic issues · International status and usage · Euro sign · Eurozone · Euro calculator · Economic & Monetary Union Administration European Central Bank (ESCB · Eurosystem · President) · Eurogroup · Ecofin · Stability & Growth Pact · European Financial Stability Facility · European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism History "Snake in the tunnel" · European Monetary System (I: ECU · II: ERM · III: EMU) · European Monetary Institute · Enlargement · Black Wednesday Related EU economy · Economy of Europe · Eonia · Euribor · Global economy · Other currencies · Reserve currency · SEPA · World currency Denominations coins 1c · 2c · 5c · 10c · 20c · 50c · €1 · €2 · €2 commemorative coins · Other commemorative coins · Identifying marks · Starter kits · Europa coin programme banknotes €5 · €10 · €20 · €50 · €100 · €200 · €500 Coins by country adopted EU: Austria · Belgium · Cyprus · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Greece · Ireland · Italy · Luxembourg · Malta · Netherlands · Portugal · Slovakia · Slovenia · Spain   Non-EU: Monaco · San Marino · Vatican targeted Latvia · Lithuania Adoption by other countries EU Bulgaria · Czech Republic · Denmark · Hungary · Poland · Romania  · Sweden · United Kingdom Non-EU Andorra · Iceland · Kosovo · Montenegro Yielded currencies European Currency Unit · Austrian schilling · Belgian franc · Cypriot pound · Dutch guilder · Estonian kroon · Finnish markka · French franc · German mark · Greek drachma · Irish pound · Italian lira · Luxembourgish franc · Maltese lira · Monegasque franc · Portuguese escudo · Sammarinese lira · Slovak koruna · Slovenian tolar · Spanish peseta · Vatican lira Remaining currencies ERM II Danish krone · Latvian lats · Lithuanian litas other (EU) British pound · Bulgarian lev · Czech koruna · Hungarian forint · Polish złoty · Romanian leu · Swedish krona · Gibraltar pound Numismatics Portal · European Union Portal References ^ a b c "European Central Bank". European NAvigator. http://www.ena.lu?lang=2&doc=8034. Retrieved 15 October 2007.  ^ ECB: Economic and Monetary Union ^ a b c "The third stage of Economic and Monetary Union". European NAvigator. http://www.ena.lu?lang=2&doc=14950. Retrieved 16 October 2007.  ^ "Powers and responsibilities of the European Central Bank". European Central Bank. http://www.ecb.int/ecb/orga/tasks/html/index.en.html. Retrieved 10 March 2009.  ^ a b Fairlamb, David; Rossant, John (12 February 2003). "The powers of the European Central Bank". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/business_basics/86006.stm. Retrieved 16 October 2007.  ^ The process is similar, though on a grand scale, to an individual who every month charges $10,000 on his or her credit card, pays it off every month, but also withdraws (and pays off) an additional $10,000 each succeeding month for transaction purposes. Such a person is operating "net borrowed" on a continual basis, and even though the borrowing from the credit card is short term, the effect is a stable increase in the money supply. If the person borrows less, less money circulates in the economy. If he or she borrows more, the money supply increases. An individual's ability to borrow from his or her credit card company is determined by the credit card company: it reflects the company's overall judgment of its ability to lend to all borrowers, and also its appraisal of the financial condition of that one particular borrower. The ability of member banks to borrow from the central bank is fundamentally similar. ^ For a general presentation see Carol C. Bertaut (2002) "The European Central Bank and the Eurosystem," New England Economic Review, 2nd Quarter, pp. 25-28. Available: http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/neer/neer2002/neer202e.pdf ^ Raphel Minder, "Fears Mount Over Spain and Risks to the Euro," New York Times, 24 November 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2010. ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1202/1224284573209.html ^ Marcus Walker, "Closer Fiscal Union: A Collective Guarantee," Wall Street Journal, 17 December 2010; "Simon Nixon, "A Way Around European Bonds," Wall Street Journal, 7 December 2010. ^ The European dilemma may be imagined as follows. In the United States, if tax collections from California are weak, the total federal debt is financed through tax collections in other states, through federal taxes. California may default on its state debt, but the federal government bypasses California in directly taxing California citizens to finance the federal debt. There is only one legal authority taxing, paying for, and backing the federal debt. Federal expenditures are determined by the federal government. Therefore California cannot leverage more money out of the federal system other than by means of the normal constitutional procedures in the House and Senate. If the federal government transfers additional money to California it is because of federal policy, not because California's state debt is threatening the backing of the U.S. dollar. Consider this hypothetical: If the U.S. federal reserve carried state debts on its balance sheets the system would be more similar to the ECB. If California stated to default on its debt a hole would appear on the Fed's balance sheets where it carried California bonds. To make good this loss, the Fed would have to raise capital from the more solvent states, giving rise to the political issue that California's "lack of responsibility" was forcing other states to jump in and save California's public debt. This, one might worry, could turn into a license to California to ignore fiscal restraints and in effect transfer money from the "more responsible states" to the "least responsible states." Even though California's state finances are faltering in 2010, this is not an issue for the Federal Reserve, because of the federal system of taxation and unified backing of the federal debt. In Europe, the ECB could push for greater political and fiscal integration, which would make the member states more explicitly responsible for backing each other's debts and potentially lead to greater political integration. Speculative attacks on the sovereign debt that backs the euro have in effect revealed the weaknesses in the European Union's political and fiscal structure. ^ Simon Nixon, "A Way Around European Bonds," Wall Street Journal, 7 December 2010. ^ Marcus Walker and Charles Forelle, "Bailout Deal Fails to Quell EU rifts," Wall Street Journal, 17 December 2010. ^ http://www.ecb.int/stats/money/aggregates/bsheets/html/outstanding_amounts_L60.X.Z5.0000.en.html ^ Marcus Walker and Charles Forelle, "Bailout Deal Fails to Quell EU rifts," Wall Street Journal, 17 December 2010. ^ Marcus Walker, "Extreme Measures: The Euro Breaks Up," Wall Street Journal, 17 December 2010. ^ "The European Central Bank (ECB)". Europa (web portal). http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/o10001.htm. Retrieved 16 October 2007.  ^ Lander, Mark (14 August 2007). "Credit Squeeze Puts Europe's Bank in Spotlight". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/business/worldbusiness/14euro.html?_r=1&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Organizations/E/European%20Central%20Bank&oref=slogin. Retrieved 16 October 2007.  ^ "ECB press release on dollar liquidity". ECB. http://www.ecb.int/press/pr/date/2008/html/pr080110_2.en.html.  ^ Article 28.1 of the ESCB Statute ^ Article 29 of the ESCB Statute ^ Article 28.5 of the ESCB Statute ^ Article 28.4 of the ESCB Statute ^ "Composition of the European Central Bank". European NAvigator. http://www.ena.lu?lang=2&doc=8035. Retrieved 15 October 2007.  ^ "The General Council". European Central Bank. http://www.ecb.europa.int/ecb/orga/decisions/genc/html/index.en.html. Retrieved 15 October 2007.  ^ "Independence". European Central Bank. http://www.ecb.int/ecb/orga/independence/html/index.en.html. Retrieved 15 October 2007.  ^ "Accountability". European Central Bank. http://www.ecb.int/ecb/orga/accountability/html/index.en.html. Retrieved 15 October 2007.  ^ "Executive Board" (PDF). Banque de France. 2005. http://www.banque-france.fr/gb/eurosys/telechar/europe/Directoire_GB.pdf. Retrieved 15 October 2007.  ^ "Consolidated versions of the treaty on European Union and of the treaty establishing the European Community" (PDF). Eur-lex. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/ce321/ce32120061229en00010331.pdf. Retrieved 12 June 2007.  ^ a b Dougherty, Carter. "In ECB future, a new home to reflect all of Europe". International Herald Tribune. http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/11/16/ecb_ed3_.php. Retrieved 2 August 2007.  ^ "Winning design by Coop Himmelb(l)au for the ECB's new headquarters in Frankfurt/Main". European Central Bank. http://www.ecb.int/ecb/premises/html/image29.en.html. Retrieved 2 August 2007. dead link ^ "Launch of a public tender for a general contractor to construct the new ECB premises". European Central Bank. http://www.ecb.int/press/pr/date/2007/html/pr070710_3.en.html. Retrieved 2 August 2007.  External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: European Central Bank European Central Bank, official website. New ECB Premises, official website. The European Central Bank, European NAvigator. European Central Bank: history, role and functions, ECB website. Infocheese: ECB forex-history.net, historical currency charts based on the data published daily by the ECB. ECB Intelligent guess, Historical bank rate (January 2000—March 2007) based on the data published by the ECB. 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