This paper assesses the decentralised implementation of monetary policy by the Eurosystem in terms of its transparency, efficiency and simplicity. Compared to the Fed, the Eurosystem seems to have higher staff numbers and operational costs for similar tasks.









This paper was prepared for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament (ECON) as an input for the Monetary Dialogue of 25 September 2017 between ECON and the President of the ECB. (http://www.europarl.europa. eu/committees/en/econ/ monetary–dialogue.html). Copyright remains with the European Parliament at all times.”

While the Eurosystem has considerably improved its operational transparency in the last few years, it is still lagging the Federal Reserve System (Fed), especially in terms of the information it provides on operating costs and staff numbers, for which it provides very scarce data. In addition, the available information is scattered throughout different publications, rather than being presented in a userfriendly fashion.

Compared to the Fed, the Eurosystem seems to have higher staff numbers and operational costs for similar tasks. Also because of the Treaty requirement to implement monetary policy in a decentralised way, the Eurosystem’s implementation of monetary policy is fairly complex.