Nearly one in three ECB bosses is German as France lags

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - One in three managers at the European Central Bank is German, giving the ECB's host country an ever bigger representation than its size would imply, ECB data showed on Thursday.

The ECB's first breakdown of its staff and management by nationality also showed that France, the euro zone's second-largest country, was underrepresented at the euro zone's central bank, which has been headed by Frenchwoman Christine Lagarde since 2019.

The table, published as part of the ECB's annual report and reproduced below, showed Germans accounted for 31.3% of the managers and 27.7% of the roughly 4,000 staff at the Frankfurt-based institution.

This is above the country's 21.4% share of the ECB's capital, which is based on the size of a country's economy as well as its population, and is used by the central bank when allocating profits and financial firepower.

"Up-to-date figures will be provided annually in this report," the ECB said.

With 10.8% of the ECB's managers and 7.2% of staff, France was below its own 16.6% stake in the ECB, even lagging Italy and Spain in terms of representation at senior levels.

Some smaller countries like Portugal and Ireland, however, were punching above their weight.

Britons still accounted for 4.6% of all ECB employees and 3.8% of managers at the end of last year despite Britain leaving the EU in 2020 - likely because they had joined the central bank before Brexit.

Only EU citizens can join the ECB, irrespective of whether their country uses the euro as its currency.

(Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Hugh Lawson)