ECB Executive Board Member Isabel Schnabel to Leave for IMF

Schnabel's exit removes a sitting member of the ECB's six-person Executive Board at a moment when the vacancy itself becomes the story: filling it requires a political process among euro-area governments, and the timing is left open. For markets, the signal is less about her IMF move than about the balance of the board that sets policy, where a replacement could shift the internal debate. Whether the seat is filled quickly, and with whom, is the open question worth tracking.