FT reports Germany will nominate a successor to outgoing ECB Executive Board
member Isabelle Schnabel, effectively withdrawing from the race for the next ECB
president. Germany's finance minister told eurozone counterparts in Luxembourg
on Thursday that Berlin will soon propose Schnabel's replacement; Schnabel will
leave in January 2027 to become head of the IMF's Monetary and Capital Markets
Department. ECB President Lagarde may depart before her term formally ends in
October 2027, and Chief Economist Philip Lane's term expires end‑May 2027. By
unwritten convention a single country does not hold two Executive Board seats;
with only six board members, filling Schnabel's seat would preclude a German
candidate for the presidency.
