# European Central Bank The **European Central Bank (ECB)** is the central bank of the euro. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Frankfurt, it sets monetary policy for the euro area, which grew to **21 member states** when Bulgaria adopted the euro on January 1, 2026. Together with the national central banks of those countries it forms the **Eurosystem**, the body that actually runs the euro's payment and settlement infrastructure (the TARGET Services). Its mandate differs from the [[Federal Reserve]]'s. The Fed has a [[Dual Mandate]] (prices and employment, weighted equally); the ECB has a *primary* objective of price stability, to which everything else is subordinate. That design reflects German [[Ordoliberalism]] and the Bundesbank tradition of inflation-aversion. **President:** Christine Lagarde, since November 2019. Her eight-year term runs to October 2027. In February 2026 the Financial Times reported she planned to leave early; she said her "baseline scenario" was to serve the full term. **Digital money:** Executive Board member [[Piero Cipollone]] chairs the [[Digital Euro]] task force and fronts [[Pontes]] and [[Appia]]. ## Why it's in this vault - **Eurosceptic target.** As one-third of the "Troika" that imposed austerity during the [[Greek Debt Crisis]], the ECB is a stock villain of [[Euroscepticism]]. It is the textbook case of unelected [[Technocracy]] overriding national governments. - **CBDC politics.** The ECB's retail [[Digital Euro]] cleared a European Parliament committee on June 23, 2026, one day after the US Senate passed a four-year ban on a Fed [[CBDC]]. The two sides of the Atlantic are moving in opposite directions. - **The tokenization fork.** With [[Pontes]] (live September 21, 2026) and [[Appia]], the ECB is betting that [[Tokenized Assets]] should settle in *central-bank money*. The US has bet on privately issued [[Stablecoin]]s under the [[GENIUS Act]] instead. ## See Also - [[Pontes]] — the ECB's blockchain settlement bridge - [[Appia]] — the long-term tokenized-finance roadmap - [[Digital Euro]] — the retail CBDC project, separate from Pontes - [[European Union]] — the political union the euro belongs to - [[Federal Reserve]] — the US counterpart