Banking on key players at the ECB

Date: 11/06/1998

Wim Duisenberg continues to give the impression of a man who, having escaped a mugging on a station platform, stands at the train window raising a middle finger as his would-be assailants look on in helpless fury.

Last week, the new chief of the European Central Bank, who was humiliated by French President Jacques Chirac at last month's Brussels euro-summit, handed portfolios to the bank's six-member executive board.

The top jobs went to former German Bundesbanker Otmar Issing, who took on economics and research, and ex-Finnish governor Sirkka Hämäläinen, who assumed the tricky role of heading monetary operations.

Italian economist Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa was given the high-profile portfolio dealing with the ECB's international and European relations, while Eugenio Domingo, who sent the European Parliament to sleep during his confirmation hearing, took on the key task of heading up the units preparing trillions of euro banknotes, drawing up key statistics and perfecting the bank's information systems.

The rest - administration and personnel matters and the legal department - went to Duisenberg's French vice-president Christian Noyer. Entre Nous is still trying to confirm whether the Dutchman threw in latrine duty and washing the bank's limousines.