FRANKFURT—The European Central Bank’s chief economist plans to place private calls to banks and investors after the ECB’s policy meeting next week, he said Wednesday, continuing an unusual communications practice that has raised eyebrows among financiers and central-bank officials.
Since March, Philip Lane, the chief economist, has spoken directly with a select group of global institutions in the hours after the bank’s policy decisions, in an effort to clarify its sometimes puzzling public pronouncements, according to people with whom he spoke and a review of his schedule.
The calls, reported on Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal, break with the central bank’s usual practice of delivering information to all market participants at the same time. They were made to big investors such as BlackRock Inc. and banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
“Our standing approach right now is to continue those calls,” Mr. Lane said in an interview with Reuters published Wednesday on the ECB’s website.
“It’s a structured, systematic approach where we rotate across different types of ECB watchers,” Mr. Lane said. “It’s also true that we should always review and keep in mind our communication policy.”
