Jean-Claude Trichet
Related: Otmar Issing - Tyskland - Frankrike - Stabilitetspakten - Euron
The ECB chief reiterated that the bank remains "inflexibly attached" to its goal of maintaining price stability.
"If we had reduced interest rates, the moral hazard is that we would have been asking citizens to bail out the banks."
EU Observer 26/3 2008
"The period of relatively high inflation rates will be more protracted than previously expected," he said before the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee.
The ECB has left its main rate unchanged at 4 percent since the credit market crunch in August, while the US Federal Reserve has cut its main rate six times.
His comments come despite complaints by France among others that its exporters are being harmed by the high rate of the euro against the dollar.
Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel-prize winning economist,
The European Central Bank's mandate, which sets price stability as the sole objective, is ``flawed'' because it prevents ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet from supporting job creation.
Bloomberg Feb. 26 2008
European monetary-policy makers may also be underestimating the risks to economic growth, Stiglitz said. The European Central Bank's mandate, which sets price stability as the sole objective, is ``flawed'' because it prevents ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet from supporting job creation.
``He should not be focusing so much on inflation especially when so much of it is imported,'' Stiglitz said. ``Higher interest rates won't solve the problem of higher oil prices.''
Vem vet bäst - ECB-chefen Trichet eller Lena Ek (centerpartiet)?
ECB under ledning av Jean-Claude Trichet har skrivit till EU:s ordförandeland Portugal.
Banken vill ändra det nuvarande förslaget till nytt EU-fördrag för att säkra sig från framtida politiska påtryckningar.
—Jag är inte säker på att hans tolkning av förslaget är korrekt, säger EU-politiker Lena Ek (c).
Anders Selnes, Europaportalen / 2007-08-17
In a letter sent to the EU presidency ECB head Jean-Claude Trichet asked for
specific changes that would guarantee that the bank has a special status,
separate from other EU institutions such as the parliament and commission.
EU Observer 13/8 2007
This special status was secured in the original draft EU constitution, which fell by the wayside after being rejected by French and Dutch voters two years ago. But the clause did not make it into the outline for a new EU treaty agreed by EU leaders before the summer and set to be finalised by the end of the year.
"The President of the ECB repeats with gravity that any attempt to seek to influence... the ECB in the performance of its tasks' violates Article 108 of the EC Treaty and that therefore such declarations are not acceptable,'' said a spokesperson on behalf of Mr Trichet.
As the ECB prepares to raise its key interest rate to a six-year high of 4 percent tomorrow,
Trichet's faith in the importance of money supply is being questioned
by Christian Noyer, 56, who succeeded him as governor of the Bank of France and sits with him on the ECB's governing council.
Bloomberg 5/6 2007
With Mario Draghi's Bank of Italy lining up with Noyer against Trichet and Bundesbank President Axel Weber, the Frankfurt-based ECB is debating how to interpret money-supply data for the first time since its 1999 birth.
Money supply, as measured by M3, has expanded more than the 4.5 percent rate viewed by the ECB as non-inflationary in every month since May 2001. It increased 10.4 percent in April from a year earlier, close to the fastest pace in 24 years.
Germany's history of hyperinflation after World War I makes its policy makers particularly apprehensive about rising prices. In France, by contrast, Sarkozy won the election last month after a campaign featuring attacks against the ECB's focus on inflation instead of economic growth.
A May 23 Bundesbank report called money supply an ``indispensable element'' in gauging inflation pressures.
Weber said in a June 3 speech that monetary statistics still contain ``valuable information'' that ``help predict future inflation.''
Jean-Claude Trichet, European Central Bank president, on Friday delivered a stiff warning to eurozone finance ministers to back off in an escalating dispute over the bank’s independence.
Mr Trichet pointed out that it was his signature on euro banknotes and that it was unlawful under the EU treaty for finance ministers to give instructions or try to influence the bank.
Financial Times, 9/9 2006
Trichet warns against loosening of stability pact
Financial Times 22/9 2004
From the ECB's point of view, the recent proposal to introduce into the Constitution an extended enabling clause which would allow the European Council to amend, by unanimity, important parts of the Statute of the ESCB and of the ECB is certainly not welcome.
ECB President Mr Trichet, giving evidence at the European parliament 1/12 2003In a letter which I sent to the current President of the Council, Mr Frattini, last
week, I stressed that the ECB is seriously concerned about this proposal.
Such an expansion of the simplified amendment procedure would imply a
far-reaching change to the current constitution of the ESCB, which the ECB
could not support. click here
The head of the European Central Bank
(ECB), Wim Duisenberg, has agreed to stay on past his scheduled retirement date
while his designated successor awaits a trial verdict.
"If Trichet is not
in a position to get the job, another Frenchman will be nominated,"
BBC 6/4 2003
He told reporters on Saturday he would accept a proposal by European Union finance ministers to remain in his post until a successor was appointed. Mr Duisenberg, who will be 68 in July, did not say how long he was prepared to stay on. European Union finance ministers agreed during a two-day meeting in Athens with their central bank governors to invite the Dutchman to stay in his post
. I will be president of the European Central Bank up until the day my duly appointed successor can take office Wim Duisenberg
The reason for the delay is because his designated successor, Bank of France chief Jean-Claude Trichet, is waiting for a court verdict, due on 18 June, on charges of complicity in the Credit Lyonnais banking scandal. If found guilty, Mr Trichet's chances of becoming the second most powerful central banker in the world, after US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, would effectively be ruined.
Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who is also the
country's finance minister, said on Friday a Frenchman would definitely succeed
Mr Duisenberg.
"If Trichet is not in a position to get the job, another
Frenchman will be nominated," Mr Juncker said.
Bank of France Governor Jean-Claude Trichet
has gone on trial
A conviction could jeopardise a plan for Mr Trichet to
replace
Wim Duisenberg as president ECB
BBC 6/1 2003
Bank of France Governor Jean-Claude Trichet has gone on trial over
his alleged role in one of the largest banking scandals in the country's
history.
Mr Trichet is accused of helping to conceal the full extent of
losses run up by the then-state owned bank, Credit Lyonnais, nearly a decade
ago, when he was treasury director at the French finance ministry. Eight other
executives and officials are standing trial with Mr Trichet, who denies all
charges against him.
A conviction could jeopardise a plan for Mr Trichet to replace Wim Duisenberg as president of the European Central Bank (ECB), the BBC's Europe business correspondent Patrick Bartlett says.
M. Trichet is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale
d'Administration, the most prestigious seat of learning in France, which trains
the country's top civil servants.
He virtually wrote the text of the
Maastricht Treaty and was an indefatigable proponent of
keeping the French
franc strong in the run-up to the passage to the euro.
At The Independent
via EU Observer
Frankrikes centralbankschef Jean-Claude Trichet riskerar åtal för att ha försökt försköna omfattningen av krisen i storbanken Crédit Lyonnais.
En förundersökning mot den 57-årige Trichet har inletts meddelades det i fredags.
Förundersökningen innebär framför allt att frågan väcks om det är möjligt för Trichet att som planerat ta över som chef för den europeiska centralbanken år 2002.
Franska tidningar lutade i går åt att Trichet blivit otänkbar för posten. Tidningen Libération sade i en ledarkommentar att ambitionerna med en oberoende centralbank kräver att inga skuggor faller över dem som leder den.
Det var i maj 1998 somfransmännen vid det europeiska toppmötet i Bryssel efter hård ragkamp lyckades få igenom en kompromiss i frågan om chefskapet för den nya centralbanken. Kompromissen innebar att Trichet i halvtid skulle ta över efter holländaren Wim Duisenberg.
Även om principen om att man är oskyldig tills man blivit dömd också gäller centralbankschefer har detta i praktiken inte varit fallet i Frankrike de senaste åren. Ministrar som varit åtalade har fått avgå och detta drabbade också ordföranden i författningsdomstolen Roland Dumas, tidigare utrikesminister.
Jean-Claude Trichet har alltid underhållet bilden av sig själv som den oklanderlige och omutlige tjänstemannen. Nu misstänks han för att 1992-93, då han var chef för Le Trésor den administration som bl a förvaltar statens intressen i statliga företag, ha friserat förlustsiffrorna för Crédit Lyonnais.
Överenskommelse nådd om Crédit Lyonnais
EU-NYTT Maj 1998
Kommissionen och den franska regeringen har nått en överenskommelse om den franska banken Crédit Lyonnais framtid. Överenskommelsen innebär att det statsstöd som givits banken mellan 1994 och 1997 i efterhand kommer att godkännas av kommissionen. Dock måste vissa villkor uppfyllas så att banken ekonomiskt kommer att stå på egna ben i fortsättningen.
Stora delar av den europeiska verksamheten liksom bankens rörelse i Asien och USA samt andra tillgångar kommer att säljas i syfte att skapa en lönsam verksamhet. Dessutom tvingas franska staten att privatisera Crédit Lyonnais senast hösten 1999.
http://www.vinge.com/pub/eu98maj.htm#kon
French Magistrates to Place ECB's Trichet Under
Investigation
April 28 French magistrates investigating the accounts of
Credit Lyonnais plan to place the governor of the Bank of France, Jean-Claude
Trichet, under official investigation, the central bank said.
Trichet was
head of the French Treasury from 1987 to 1993. Magistrates are investigating
the accounts of Credit Lyonnais for 1992 and the first-half of 1993.
As
governor of the Bank of France, Trichet is also a member of the European
Central Bank's 17-member policy-setting committee.
Legal troubles for ECB contender
From FT,
2000-04-29
Jean-Claude Trichet's reputation precedes him. The governor of the Bank of France has earned the nickname "Ayatollah of the strong franc" for his hardline tactics regarding monetary policy, which often put him at odds with the prime minister and president of France.
"I have firm confidence in the legal system of our country and I am at the complete disposal of the magistrates, to whom I will explain the absolute good faith of the Department of the Treasury," Mr Trichet said in a statement on Friday.
Mr Trichet, who has not been formally charged but could face prosecution, is to be interrogated by an investigating magistrate for his responsibility in the alleged "publication of false information to the markets and presentation of inaccurate accounts".
As director of the French treasury between 1987 and 1993, Mr Trichet can be held legally responsible for potentially illegal activities conducted by Lyonnais, which was then state-owned.
Mr Trichet, 57, a native of Lyon, is a civil mining engineer by training and holds the title of professor at the Institut d'etudes politiques. He is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, the finishing school for many of France's top civil servants. He is the son of a university professor.
After graduating, Mr Trichet sealed his career as a civil servant, holding various positions at the Finance Ministry and the Treasury. From 1978 to 1981, he was an adviser to President Valery Giscard d'Estaing.
He was named Treasury director by the right wing French Government in 1987, and kept the job when the socialist party took over in 1988, even as other political appointees lost theirs. In 1993 he was appointed governor of the Bank of France.
Mr Trichet faced criticism from both parties for the Bank's tough line on interest rates: Conservative President Jacques Chirac and Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin both said that interest rates were too high during his tenure.
But that was not the only criticism Mr Trichet received. He angered President Chirac during presidential elections in 1995 when the Bank called for tougher policies to reduce France's budget deficit. President Chirac rebuked the feisty bank governor, saying that central bankers should not meddle in politics. At the time, political pundits in France speculated that the disagreement with Mr Chirac would destroy Trichet's hopes of becoming France's candidate for the ECB.
It appears that the risk to his candidacy has come from a different quarter.
Trichet faces investigation over Crédit Lyonnais
From FT, April 28
Jean-Claude Trichet, governor of the French central bank, said on Friday he was to be put under formal investigation for his role in the near bankruptcy in the early 1990s of Crédit Lyonnais, then a state-owned bank.
The incident could undermine Mr Trichet's chances of succeeding Wim Duisenberg as president of the European central bank in 2002, as agreed informally two years ago by European heads of state.
Mr Trichet's troubles are also an embarrassment for the French authorities, coming just a few months after Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the popular socialist finance minister, was forced to resign for similar reasons. The two investigations have unearthed suspicions of corruption dating back to the presidency of the late François Mitterrand.
Mr Trichet, who is not formally charged but could face prosecution, is to be interrogated by an investigating magistrate for his responsibility in the alleged "publication of false information to the markets and presentation of inaccurate accounts".
As director of the treasury between 1987 and 1993, Mr Trichet can be held legally responsible for potentially illegal activities conducted by Crédit Lyonnais.
Mr Trichet said: "I am deeply surprised by this information, because the treasury division was at the time behind the thorough investigations that led to the change in the strategic orientation of this commercial bank."
Crédit Lyonnais flirted with bankruptcy after suffering huge losses linked to an expansion spree in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
It was privatised last year, after being bailed out with state subsidies estimated at FFr100bn by the French government and almost FFr200bn by the European Commission, which imposed restrictions on the bank's activities before approving the aid.
Until recently, Lionel Jospin, the prime minister, had sought to distance himself from the corruption linked to socialist governments in the Mitterrand era, when one former prime minister, Pierre Bérégovoy, committed suicide in the midst of a financial scandal.
In a recent government reshuffle to inject new momentum into his government ahead of important elections next year and in 2002, Mr Jospin brought back political heavyweights from the past, including the new finance minister Laurent Fabius, who was prime minister under Mitterrand.
The Dirtiest Bank In the World
From Forbes
1999-12-13
Once a force in global finance, the bank is little more than half its former size, having been looted by criminals, racked by scandal and decimated by the loss of at least $20 billion--and quite possibly far more--in reckless and corrupt investments. It is by far the biggest banking debacle in history. This institution, nationalized by the French government in 1945, is an object lesson in what can go wrong in a government-owned commercial enterprise without accountability.
A criminal inquiry, which began quietly five years ago as a narrow probe of an eccentric Italian tycoon, has grown dramatically into more than 100 separate cases of suspected fraud, embezzlement, bribery, perjury, forgery, money-laundering, and even blackmail and arson in France and several other nations, including the U.S.
Tyskar och fransmän kohandlar om IMF och ECB
