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European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde announced plans to step down from her role at the central bank.
“I have just informed my colleagues that I will step down as @ECB President on 7 February 2027,” Lagarde said in a Thursday <a href="https://x.com/Lagarde/status/2115746242491723810" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">post</a> on X.
Lagarde became ECB president in November 2019 and will have served for about seven years and three months when she leaves office.
Her successor will be appointed by the European Council following the nomination process outlined in Article 283 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. That process requires a recommendation from the Council, after consulting the European Parliament and the central bank, the ECB announced in a Thursday press <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2026/html/ecb.pr261029~abbb6dc64b.en.html" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">release</a>.&nbsp;
Reports of <a href="https://ct.com/news/lagarde-early-exit-ecb-digital-euro-mica-stablecoins-successor" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Lagarde’s exit emerged</a> in February 2026, when anonymous sources <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/30bcb221-700e-4643-9ed5-dd9432c5be7c" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">told </a>the Financial Times that she was considering leaving before her eight-year term ends in October 2027.
Under her presidency, the ECB advanced preliminary work <a href="https://ct.com/news/eu-council-endorses-offline-and-online-versions-of-digital-euro" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">on a digital euro</a> designed for day-to-day payments and in September <a href="https://ct.com/news/eurosystem-central-bank-money-tokenized-finance" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">launched Pontes</a>, a system allowing financial institutions to settle wholesale tokenized asset transactions in central bank money, providing an alternative to stablecoins.
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Lagarde has been a vocal critic of Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies. During a press conference in January 2025, she said that central bank reserves need to be liquid, secure and safe,” adding that she was “confident” that <a href="https://ct.com/news/ecb-president-christine-lagarde-bitcoin-central-bank-reserves" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bitcoin would not</a> enter the reserves of any of the central banks of the General Council.
A lawyer by profession, Lagarde previously served as the managing director of the IMF from 2011 to 2019 and was France’s Minister of the Economy.
She helped the ECB navigate several major crises, including the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent energy crisis.
Related: <a href="https://ct.com/news/stablecoins-euro-global-role-ecb-christine-lagarde" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Stablecoins won’t strengthen global role of euro, ECB’s Lagarde says</a>

ECB President Christine Lagarde to step down in February 2027

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