Quite hidden on its website, but nonetheless publicly, the European Central Bank reports once a year on an interesting topic: What do Europe's top central bankers actually do with their private money?

The publication of the portfolios of all 25 members of the Governing Council is intended to take the wind out of the sails of possible critics who might suspect that the central bankers are secretly gambling with stocks and bonds on their own monetary policy decisions.

Or, for example, they only left interest rates so low to give their covert private investments in the real estate sector the necessary tailwind.

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in business.

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This year's list shows a wide range of different types of investors in the Governing Council.

There is the conservative, cautious saver: The portfolio of Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, for example, is quite manageable, it is limited to two exchange-traded index funds (ETF): one on the German Dax share index from the DWS brand Xtrackers with the 30 local standard shares - and one on the MSCI World with stocks from all over the world.

Schnabel was there at the crisis winner Zoom

The securities collection of ECB board member Isabel Schnabel is much more exciting. Your list shows 44 different stocks and investment funds: Including funds with a special dividend strategy such as DWS Top Dividende. But the shares of the most important international tech 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 conference provider Zoom at an early stage. But Schnabel was also there at the vaccine manufacturer CureVac, for which things have not gone so well recently.

And the boss? ECB President Christine Lagarde has two funds in her portfolio, a dividend fund from French BNP Paribas and one from Oddo BHF. Other, unlisted real estate companies, the Real Estate Transparent Corporation and the Real Estate Company, France, sound more interesting. However, the ECB Council members do not have to show how much money is in each of the individual investments - transparency does not go that far.

The custody account of the French central bank governor François Villeroy de Galhau is also noteworthy. After all, he comes from a family of industrialists in Lorraine and Saarland who are co-owners of the ceramics supplier Villeroy & Boch, founded in 1748. No wonder that the central banker's custody account is completely dominated by the shares of this traditional company. After several rather weak years, the price of these papers has recently developed quite well.

The central bankers also have to show whether they have an account with more than 100,000 euros at a bank supervised by the ECB. The idea behind it: up to this amount, the statutory deposit insurance in Europe protects the savings. If an ECB Council member has deposited more with an institution, he or she could be suspected of having a conflict of interests between private and professional interests in the event of a banking distress. You want to avoid that. This year, twelve of the 25 ECB Council members stated in the transparency list that they had deposits of more than 100,000 euros with an upper limit at a single bank supervised by the ECB. Among them are ECB chief economist Philip Lane, Lagarde, Schnabel, Italy's central bank chief Ignazio Visco and the digital euro officer in the ECB board of directors,Fabio Panetta - but not Bundesbank President Weidmann.

Some also stated "nil" - "nothing"

Apparently there are also members of the Governing Council who have neither large bank accounts nor shares or funds of their own: The Spanish central bank chief Pablo Hernández de Cos and Robert Holzmann from Austria do not give anything in the list.

The head of the Irish central bank, Gabriel Makhlouf, simply wrote “nil” - “nothing” in the appropriate place in the form.

Peter Kazimir, the head of the central bank of Slovakia, has even crossed out the tables for stocks and funds in the form - but admitted that he had more than 100,000 euros in a bank account. 

It is absolutely right that the ECB management should disclose its facilities so that the ECB as an authority is not damaged, says Markus Herbrand, member of the Bundestag FDP, who has just dealt with the issue. Classic forms of savings also lost their effect in view of the low interest rate environment and the ECB's zero interest rate policy. Nowadays, if you are looking for profitable pension options, you cannot avoid the stock market, said Herbrand: "I think it is important that the management level of the ECB make it clear that they are also making provisions with stocks themselves." in Germany is still massively underdeveloped: "That there are also more cautious savers and more courageous shareholders in the ECB showshow differently one can invest - and that there is no single ideal way to build up wealth. "