Trichet puts the ECB firmly in the ascendancy
Since becoming governor in 2003, Jean-Claude Trichet has brought the ECB out of the shadow of the US Fed and led the global response to the credit crunch.
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| Jean-Claude Trichet, European Central Bank |
IT IS A little over a year since the European Central Bank injected some €95 billion of liquidity into markets, finally waking the world to the extent of the backwash from the US mortgage crisis, and beginning a fight to maintain stability that still rages. The ECB has been at the centre of that struggle ever since. That prominence reflects, of course, the size of the bad bets placed by European financial institutions on events across the Atlantic. But it also underlines the way in which the ECB has acquired a reputation for sure-footedness it could only have dreamed of when it was founded just over a decade ago.
That achievement is the work of many hands. No one, however, has contributed more than Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank since November 2003. On his watch the Bank has emerged from the shadow of the Federal Reserve, forged its own monetary policy and set the pace in matters of financial stability.