ECB starts process to replace Isabel Schnabel before her move to the IMF

The European Central Bank has asked European leaders to begin choosing a successor to Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel, Bloomberg reported on 1 October. The request starts the formal process ahead of Schnabel’s planned departure from the ECB on 3 January 2027 to take a senior role at the International Monetary Fund. It does not mean a replacement has been chosen.

A spokesperson for European Council President António Costa confirmed to Bloomberg that Costa had received a letter from ECB President Christine Lagarde requesting the formal appointment procedure. Bloomberg also cited an EU official who said the request called for the process to begin without delay. The ECB’s 2 October summary of Governing Council decisions discusses Schnabel’s departure but does not announce that letter.

Why Isabel Schnabel is leaving the ECB

The ECB announced on 24 September that Schnabel had informed Lagarde she would step down on 3 January. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva intended to appoint her as the Fund’s Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department from 4 January, the ECB said. Those dates leave the appointment process for her ECB successor to proceed while she remains in office.

Schnabel will continue to serve on the ECB Executive Board and Governing Council until her departure, according to the ECB. She will not be involved in matters related to the IMF during the rest of her ECB term. Following an opinion from its Ethics Committee, the ECB Governing Council decided that no cooling-off period was required for her move.

How the ECB Executive Board successor is appointed

The European Council makes the appointment under Article 283 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It acts by qualified majority on a recommendation from the Council, after consulting the European Parliament and the ECB Governing Council. Lagarde’s reported request begins that process; it is not itself a nomination or an appointment.

The treaty requires Executive Board members to be people of recognised standing and professional experience in monetary or banking matters. It sets an eight-year term that cannot be renewed. These rules define the eventual appointment, but the recorded request gives no name of a proposed successor and establishes no date for a final decision.

The ECB said on 24 September that the European Council would appoint Schnabel’s successor under the treaty procedure. It also said that, if necessary after she leaves, her Executive Board responsibilities could be temporarily reassigned among the remaining members. The ECB did not say that such a reassignment had been decided or identify who would take on any of those duties.

What could happen at the 8 October Eurogroup meeting

Bloomberg reported that euro-area finance ministers could discuss Schnabel’s replacement at the Eurogroup meeting scheduled for 8 October in Luxembourg. A call for candidates was a possible result of those discussions, according to the report. Neither a discussion nor a call had taken place as of the 1 October report, and neither amounts to the selection of a successor.

The Council of the European Union’s meeting page confirmed the date and location of the Eurogroup meeting. It said agenda highlights would be published in the run-up to the meeting and results afterward. The scheduled meeting therefore provides a potential occasion for discussion, but the meeting notice does not establish that Schnabel’s replacement is on the agenda.

Bloomberg also described the replacement as potentially part of a broader negotiation over senior ECB positions, including Lagarde’s. That is a prospective account of how the choice might be handled, not an announced agreement on appointments. The confirmed institutional steps remain the treaty procedure and, according to Bloomberg’s account of Costa’s spokesperson, receipt of Lagarde’s letter.

For now, Schnabel is due to continue her ECB duties until 3 January, subject to the stated restriction on IMF-related matters. The next public milestones to watch are whether the Eurogroup discusses the vacancy, whether candidates are sought, and the formal recommendation and consultations required before the European Council appoints a successor. None of those later steps is established as completed by the available announcements.