According to insiders, ECB boss Christine Lagarde tried to stop criticism from management after interest rate decisions.

With an informal guideline, the currency watchdogs were urged to initially only reflect the majority opinion decided at the respective meeting in public appearances on the days after the interest rate decision.

The Reuters news agency reports, citing four people with direct knowledge of the events.

You should withhold your "personal view" on the monetary policy decisions usually made on Thursdays until Monday.

In the guidelines, which are not to be formally voted on by the Governing Council, the central bankers are also instructed not to leak any details of internal discussions to the press.

Critics see the new guidelines as a kind of muzzle that prevents currency watchdogs from expressing their view of things in the period after the interest rate decisions, which is also so important for the media.

They are thus obliged to explain or defend decisions that they do not fully support.

Only then does a window of opportunity for criticism open up for them, although they are no longer heard as much.

This guideline is counterproductive, says an insider: "If you want something to be pierced, then do it like this." Because if critics couldn't speak openly, they would look for other ways to be heard.

"Easier said than done"

The European Central Bank declined to comment on the report.

The new guidelines are apparently not set in stone and are more based on Lagarde's expectations.

This also means that currency watchdogs have nothing to fear if the new comment is violated.

Nevertheless, the unwritten new rules have apparently had an effect: Lagarde said at the press conference after the most recent interest rate meeting that the central bank's billion-dollar bond purchases will very likely end in the third quarter and that an interest rate hike will follow some time later.

After that, Bundesbank chief Joachim Nagel and his Belgian colleague Pierre Wunsch waited until this week to call for a faster pace of monetary policy normalization.

Lagarde's move, which has now been made public by insiders, is also surprising given the fact that the ECB adopted a new communication strategy last year that did not contain any corresponding requirements for public statements by central bankers.

One of the insiders sees the currency guardians in a real dilemma: it is important to represent decisions as a unit, even if there are different opinions: "The problem is that this is easier said than done."

Currency watchdogs from the mostly economically stronger countries in the north of the euro zone have often criticized the central bank's ultra-loose policy in recent years.

With the foreseeable end of the very lax monetary policy, they now have the upper hand, while the advocates of the rather loose line, who often come from the south of the euro area, are being pushed onto the defensive.

Against this background, the fact that Lagarde now apparently wants to keep internal criticism of monetary policy decisions under wraps is reminiscent of the late days in office of her predecessor Mario Draghi: In 2019, he had the wind out of his sails as a representative of a less relaxed line with his iron grip on negative interest rates and massive bond purchases taken.