withUsually hidden on their website, but still publicly reported European Central Bank Once a year, an interesting topic is discussed: How do the top European central bank governors actually handle their private funds? The announcement of the portfolio of all 25 members of the management committee aims to eliminate the limelight of possible critics who may suspect that central bank governors are secretly gambled with stocks and bonds on their own monetary policy decisions. Or, for example, they simply keep interest rates at such a low level in order to provide the necessary tailwinds for their secret private investments in real estate.
This year’s list shows the various types of investors in the board of directors.There are conservative and prudent savers: the custodian account of the governor of the Bundesbank Jens Weidman For example, it is very easy to manage and it is limited to two exchange-traded index funds (ETFs): one from the DWS brand Xtrackers’ German stock index Dax with 30 local standard stocks-another from MSCI World stocks from all over the world of.
Schnabel at Zoom, the winner of the crisis
Even more exciting is the collection of securities of European Central Bank board members Isabel Schnabel Get out. Your list shows 44 different stocks and investment funds: including funds with special dividend strategies, such as DWS Top Dividende. But the stocks of the most important international technology companies are also represented, such as Apple, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon. The economist apparently invested in corona winners such as the video conferencing provider Zoom in the early days. But Schnabel is also with vaccine manufacturer CureVac, and things have not been going well recently.
Where’s the boss?President of the European Central Bank Christina Lagarde There are two funds in its portfolio, one from the dividend fund of BNP Paribas and the other from Oddo BHF. Other unlisted real estate companies, Real Estate Transparency Corporation and French Real Estate Corporation, sound more interesting. However, the members of the ECB Board of Governors do not have to show how much money is in each investment-transparency is not that far off.
The escrow account of François Villeroy de Galhau, governor of the Bank of France, also deserves attention. After all, he comes from a family of industrialists in Lorraine and Saar, who are the co-owners of the ceramic supplier Villeroy & Boch, which was founded in 1748. No wonder the central bank governor’s escrow account is completely dominated by the shares of this traditional company. After several years of considerable weakness, the prices of these papers have recently developed quite well.
Central bank governors must also prove whether they have accounts with more than 100,000 euros in banks supervised by the European Central Bank. The idea behind it: Within this amount, European statutory deposit insurance can protect savings. If the ECB board member deposits more deposits into the institution, he or she may be suspected of a conflict of interest between private and professional interests when the bank is in trouble. You want to avoid this situation. This year, 12 of the 25 European Central Bank Council members stated on the transparency list that their deposits in a bank supervised by the European Central Bank exceed 100,000 euros, and there is an upper limit. These include the European Central Bank chief economist Philip Ryan, Lagarde, Schnabel, the President of the Bank of Italy Ignazio Vesco, and Fabio Panetta, who is responsible for the digital euro on the European Central Bank’s board of directors- Not the governor of the Bundesbank Weidmann.
Some people also say “nil”-“no”
Obviously, there are also council members who have neither large bank accounts nor their own shares or funds: Pablo Hernández de Cos, Governor of the Bank of Spain and Robert Holzmann from Austria did not provide anything on the list. Gabriel Makhlouf, Governor of the Bank of Ireland, simply wrote “nil”-“no” in the relevant place on the form. The governor of the Slovak Central Bank, Peter Kazimir, even crossed out the forms of stocks and funds in the form-but admitted that he had more than 100,000 euros in his bank account.
Markus Herbrand, a member of the Bundestag FDP who has just dealt with the issue, said that the ECB management should disclose its facilities so as not to damage the ECB as an authority. This is absolutely correct. In view of the low interest rate environment and the European Central Bank’s zero interest rate policy, the classic form of savings has also lost its use. Today, if you are looking for a profitable pension option, you cannot avoid the stock market, Helbrand said: “I think the management of the European Central Bank made it clear that they are also preparing for stocks. Very important.” In Germany. Still severely underdeveloped: “The fact that the European Central Bank also has more cautious savers and more courageous shareholders shows that people can make different investments-and there is no single ideal way to accumulate wealth.”
