German Choice for ECB Heralds Shift as Rate Clout Slips

In sending Sabine Lautenschlaeger to the board of the European Central Bank, Germany could be gaining power over the region’s lenders at the expense of its monetary-policy clout.

Lautenschlaeger, the only candidate to succeed Joerg Asmussen after he quit the ECB for the German government, will testify today before European Parliament lawmakers already keen to raise the number of women on the board from zero to one. A fast-tracked procedure could see her shift across Frankfurt to the ECB from her current job as vice president and head of supervision at the Bundesbank by the end of the month.