Well, the timing of this is quite uncanny. Amid all the speculation surrounding Lagarde’s future, this leak is now popping up and Lagarde is being placed under scrutiny for receiving about €140,000 a year from the BIS as her role as a board member.
The Financial Times reports that some ECB employees have voiced their dissatisfaction on the matter, even using internal message boards at the central bank. They are said to feel incensed by the apparent double standards applied to Lagarde in her post as president and other “mortals” at the ECB.
For some context, ECB staff supposedly “cannot accept remuneration for activities they perform exercising their ECB task”. And while the BIS does not specifically disclose individual remuneration details, Lagarde herself disclosed receiving the payment above for the year 2025 in a written statement to German member of the European Parliament Fabio De Masi.
The full report can be found here (may be gated).
Well, this isn’t the first scandal among policymakers at any major central bank. And it certainly won’t be the last for sure. Power corruption is always the issue, ain’t it? You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Such is life.
In any case, this will just increase the scrutiny on Lagarde amid mounting speculation of her leaving the ECB earlier than her term dictates. She has come out to refute that but it’s more along the lines of not confirming but not denying the rumour.
