ECB officials met bankers in run-up to rate meetings

ECB board members have regularly met with banks and hedge funds privately just days before interest rate decisions, documents from the bank showed.

Executive board members, the inner core of the ECB’s 25-member Governing Council, met officials from a host of financial firms over the past year, including BNP Paribas, UBS, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and think-tanks such as Brussels-based Bruegel, documents first published by the Financial Times showed.

The ECB’s transparency has come under heightened scrutiny since board member Benoit Coeure told a closed-door meeting in May that the bank would front-load its asset purchases during the summer months, sending the euro sharply lower.