European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said this morning that she will step down on Feb. 7, 2027, months ahead of the October 2027 end of her term.

Lagarde said in a post on X that she had "just informed my colleagues" of the decision, calling it "a source of great pride to serve this institution." She also told European Council President António Costa. 

She did not give a reason.

The exit had been rumored since February, when the Financial Times reported that she was weighing an early departure before France's 2027 presidential election, so that outgoing French President Emmanuel Macron could have a say in choosing her successor, Euronews reported at the time. 

The ECB responded then that Lagarde "is totally focused on her mission and has not taken any decision regarding the end of her term."

Her successor is chosen by the European Council under Article 283 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. 

Leaders are expected to take it up in November and December, with former Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot and Spain's Pablo Hernandez de Cos as possible candidates. No successor has been officially named.

The timing adds to turnover at the top of the bank with Isabel Schnabel leaving early in 2027 to join the IMF, and chief economist Philip Lane's mandate ends in May.

The bank is also in a tightening cycle, raising rates in June and September with inflation elevated by the Iran war, and is dealing with renewed fears of an EU bond crisis with the gap between French and German 10-year yields recently reaching its widest since 2011, on concern over French public finances.

Wim Duisenberg is the only earlier ECB president to have left before completing a full term, in an arrangement that resolved a France-Germany standoff before the bank was founded in 1998.