Klaas Knot, one of two candidates to succeed Christine Lagarde as ECB president,
told the Financial Times he would be prepared to develop new policy tools to
tackle a future European debt crisis if appointed. He said he is ready to deploy
the ECB’s existing crisis instruments, including sovereign bond purchases, and
that “if needed, we will intervene without hesitation.” The 59-year-old led the
Dutch central bank (DNB) from 2011–2025; the Netherlands formally nominated him
last Friday. Knot did not rule out creating additional, more targeted tools if a
future crisis is different in nature from those that produced the current
toolkit.
