European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde is considering leaving before the end of her eight-year term in October 2027, the Financial Times reported, citing a person “familiar with her thinking”.
Lagarde, who took office in November 2019, is said to be considering an early exit before France’s April 2027 presidential election so that outgoing President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz can agree on a successor, the FT reported on Wednesday.
An ECB spokesman pushed back on the report, telling Cointelegraph: “President Lagarde is fully focused on her mission and has not made a decision about the end of her term.”
ECB navigates digital euro and MiCA-era stablecoins
His potential departure would come at a critical moment for the ECB’s digital agenda.
Under Lagarde, the ECB has advanced preparatory work on the digital euro and has repeatedly highlighted the need to manage risks from privately issued digital currencies, including stablecoins, within new EU markets in the Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) system.
ECB officials have warned that rapidly expanding stablecoins could pose risks to financial stability and monetary policy in the euro area, even under MICA safeguards, and have argued for a strong market for well-regulated euro-like stablecoins that could compete with dollar tokens.
Related: Digital euro key to payments sovereignty in ‘arms-driven’ world: ECB exec
Lagarde himself has been a vocal critic of Bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto-assets, calling them “highly speculative” and in a 2022 television interview saying crypto has “no value” and is not based on an underlying asset, a sentiment he repeated with BTC near its 2025 high in November.
A change at the top of the ECB could affect how the institution discusses, and prioritizes, issues such as the digital euro, stablecoin oversight and crypto-related payment arrangements, even if the overall regulatory direction is set at the EU level.
Shortlist to replace Lagarde shares cautious line on crypto
Economists polled by the FT in December identified former Spanish central bank governor Pablo Hernandez de Cos and his Dutch counterpart Klaas Knot as the leading contenders to replace Lagarde, with ECB executive board member Isabelle Schnabel and Bundesbank president Joachim Nagel also seen as possible candidates.
All four have taken a cautious stance on crypto. In past speeches, Hernández de Cos has framed crypto-assets and stablecoins as a financial stability risk that calls for stronger regulation and oversight, while Knot has called for a stronger global regulatory framework for crypto and stablecoins.
Nagel has linked the push for a digital euro to the protection of European monetary and fiscal sovereignty, and has called bitcoin a “digital tulip” that is “anything but transparent”, warning against using bitcoin as a reserve asset.
Related: Crypto’s next battle is privacy, but regulators face a chicken-and-egg dilemma
Schnabel previously described bitcoin as a “speculative asset with no identifiable underlying value.”
The digital euro timeline is up to EU lawmakers.
The digital euro project still needs a green light from EU legislators, while the ECB has entered the technical preparation phase and is launching cooperation to ensure that the digital euro is globally accessible.
Despite rumors of Lagarde’s possible early departure, ECB executive board member Piero Cipollone confirmed in a speech on February 18 that EU co-legislators are expected to adopt the digital euro regulation during 2026.
He said it would enable a 12-month pilot in a controlled Eurosystem environment starting in the second half of 2027, with a limited group of real-world transactions and payment service providers, merchants and Eurosystem staff.
The Eurosystem aims to be ready for the possible first issuance of the digital euro during 2029, assuming the legislative process is on track.
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