According to the publication’s sources, Lagarde took this bold and unprecedented step to stop the leak of information from the council of governors. It was a problem that plagued her and her predecessor, Mario Draghi.
The 26 members of the governing council were ordered to hand over their mobile phones on the first day of the meeting as politicians tried to appoint Claudia-Maria Buch to the ECB supervisory board, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The phones were returned after Buch’s appointment as chairman of the Single Supervisory Board, which oversees more than 100 of the eurozone’s largest lenders, was announced.
The decision was made because information about the election of the president of this body, Andrea Enria, in 2018 appeared in the media before the official statement.
Lagarde’s move comes a day after Reuters exclusively reported that the ECB would raise its key inflation forecast. This paved the way for interest rate increases.
Most economists and traders expected the ECB to keep rates unchanged, but many changed their minds after the Reuters report. Lagarde condemned the leak at the start of the two-day meeting, a criticism echoed by several colleagues.
An ECB spokesman declined to comment.
