Christine Lagarde to step down as ECB President on February 7, 2027

A departure date, and little else

Christine Lagarde will leave the presidency of the European Central Bank on February 7, 2027. She gave the news to the Governing Council and to European Council President António Costa on October 29, the ECB said in a brief statement.

The release gave no reason for her decision and named no successor. It did record the reaction inside the room: Council members thanked her and stood to applaud at length.

How the next president is chosen

The appointment sits with the European Council, following the nomination procedure in Article 283 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The statement set no timetable for that process, so the first dates to watch are still to come.

Why euro traders care

A change at the top does not move policy by itself, since rate decisions belong to the Governing Council as a whole. What traders of euro rate and currency futures usually follow is the nomination, because a candidate's record on inflation and growth shapes how they read the next phase of policy.

For now the practical point is the calendar. Once the nomination steps are published, those dates become scheduled risk events alongside regular Council meetings, and desks tend to add them to their planning well ahead of the handover.