ECB’s Isabel Schnabel to Resign for IMF Financial Counsellor Post

Isabel Schnabel, a member of the Executive Board and the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, will step down from the central bank on 3 January 2027 to become the International Monetary Fund’s Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, the European Central Bank announced on 24 September 2026.

Schnabel informed ECB President Christine Lagarde that she will leave her position, and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva announced the same day her intention to appoint Schnabel to the Fund post effective 4 January 2027. Until then, Schnabel will remain in her current position and continue to exercise her responsibilities, the ECB said.

Following an opinion from the ECB’s Ethics Committee, the Governing Council decided that no cooling-off period is required. Schnabel will not be involved in any matters related to the IMF for the remainder of her term at the central bank.

A successor will be appointed by the European Council in accordance with the procedure set out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, under which Executive Board members are appointed by the European Council, acting by qualified majority, following consultations with the European Parliament and the ECB’s Governing Council. If necessary, Schnabel’s Executive Board responsibilities will be temporarily reassigned among the remaining members of the Executive Board after her departure.

Lagarde thanked Schnabel for her outstanding contribution over the past seven years. “Isabel has played a key role in the ECB’s determination to stabilise inflation at our 2% medium-term target and has contributed enormously to the modernisation of the ECB’s operations to meet the challenges of the 21st century,” Lagarde said. “Her commitment to public service has been invaluable to our institution and to the people we serve in Europe.”

Career and Academic Background

Schnabel, born 9 August 1971, has been a member of the Executive Board since 2020, according to her official ECB biography. She has been Professor of Financial Economics at the University of Bonn, on leave, since 2015 and was Professor of Financial Economics at the University of Mainz from 2007 to 2015. From 2014 to 2019 she served on the German Council of Economic Experts. She earned her PhD in economics from the University of Mannheim in 2003 after studying at the Universities of Mannheim, Paris I (Sorbonne) and UC Berkeley between 1992 and 1998, and she completed professional training at Deutsche Bank (DB ) in Dortmund from 1990 to 1992.

Earlier in her career she was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Mannheim in 2003-2004, a visiting postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University in 2004-2005 and a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn from 2004 to 2007. She was a member of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board from 2015 to 2019, serving as vice-chair in 2019, sat on the Administrative Council of BaFin from 2013 to 2019 and served on BaFin’s Advisory Board from 2008 to 2019, chairing it from 2016. In 2019 she co-chaired the Franco-German Council of Economic Experts. Her research interests cover banking stability and regulation, central banking, international finance, economic history and financial law and economics. Her awards include the 2024 Global Economy Prize of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the 2024 CEPR Prize for Service to Economic Policymaking.

The IMF Department Schnabel Will Lead

At the Fund, Schnabel is set to succeed Tobias Adrian. Georgieva announced on 8 June 2026 that Adrian had decided to step down as Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, effective 31 August 2026, according to IMF Press Release No. 26/189. Adrian, a German-U.S. dual national, had held the role since 2017 and led the Fund’s work on financial sector surveillance, monetary and macroprudential policy, digital finance, capital markets and financial stability. Under his leadership, the department delivered policy advice, surveillance, program support and capacity development across more than 100 countries annually, the Fund said.

Georgieva credited Adrian with elevating the Global Financial Stability Report as a leading voice on macro-financial risks and with advancing the IMF’s Integrated Policy Framework, which aims to help countries respond to fluctuations in international capital flows. Before joining the IMF, Adrian held several senior positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and he has taught at MIT, Princeton University and New York University.