Nowotny Questions ECB’s Equal-Vote Policy, Profil Magazine Says

European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said it may make sense to reconsider the ECB’s policy of granting all council members an equal say, according to an interview in Austria’s Profil magazine.

“One can see it as not unproblematic that each governor has the same vote,” Nowotny, who also heads the Austrian central bank, said in the interview published today.

“At the International Monetary Fund, it is different. There, the votes are weighted according to capital share,” he was quoted as saying.

“I believe -- even as a citizen of a small country -- that it helps stability to consider different economic strengths, especially when it comes to economic questions,” Nowotny said, according to Profil.

To contact the reporters on this story: Stefan Riecher in Frankfurt at sriecher@bloomberg.net; Zoe Schneeweiss in Vienna at zschneeweiss@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net