Finance
Factbox-Six candidates for ECB vice presidency
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 19, 2026
3 min readLast updated: January 19, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 19, 2026
3 min readLast updated: January 19, 2026
Six candidates are competing for the ECB vice presidency, with Martins Kazaks and Olli Rehn among the frontrunners. The decision will impact euro zone monetary policy.
BRUSSELS, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers will nominate on Monday a successor to European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos.
Following are some details on each of the six candidates who applied, four of whom are from the former Communist east - countries that now make up a third of the euro zone’s 21 members but have never held an ECB board seat.
LATVIA'S MARTINS KAZAKS
Latvian central bank chief Kazaks may have the best chance of getting the job after a European Parliament committee named him as one of its preferred candidates.
Born in Latvia, then still part of the Soviet Union, Kazaks is a Cambridge University-educated monetary economist now serving his second term as Governor.
The 52-year-old is generally considered a moderate hawk, and he was an early advocate of tighter policy when inflation soared and he cautioned against cutting interest rates too quickly once inflation started to decline.
CROATIA’S BORIS VUJCIC
Another trained economist, Vujcic is now serving his third six-year term as head of Croatia’s central bank, having overseen his country’s entry into the euro zone as its 20th member.
Vujcic, 61, is also considered a moderate hawk. He has consistently warned against lingering inflation risks and argued for only gradual policy easing to make sure price pressures are fully extinguished.
FINLAND’S OLLI REHN
Seen by ECB watchers as the candidate to beat, Rehn has been part of Europe’s policy landscape for decades. The 63-year-old avid football fan served as the European Commission’s Vice President from 2011 to 2014, where one of his jobs included sitting in on ECB meetings as an observer.
He has been central bank governor since 2018 but took a brief leave of absence to run a failed presidential campaign in 2023. He is considered a dove, who often warns that downside risks to growth and inflation warrant greater attention.
In his youth, Rehn played football for Finnish first division club Mikkelin Palloilijat, and he remains passionate about the game to this day.
PORTUGAL’S MARIO CENTENO
The European Parliament’s other preferred candidate for the job is a trained labour economist who gained his most prominent role in 2018 when he became head of the Eurogroup, the key forum of euro zone finance ministers.
Centeno, who previously sought the top job at the IMF when Christine Lagarde joined the ECB, served one term as the Portuguese central bank’s chief but did not get a second term from his government last summer. He was considered a dove on the Governing Council, advocating easier policy and warning that weak underlying trends could drag inflation below target.
ESTONIA’S MADIS MULLER
Muller has been running his country's central bank since 2019 after a career in finance. He has worked extensively in the private sector but also with government agencies like the World Bank. Muller, 48, is considered a centrist on the ECB’s Governing Council with moderate views.
LITHUANIA’S RIMANTAS SADZIUS
Sadzius is a former Lithuanian finance minister who also served a short stint as acting prime minister. He is seen as an outlier for the ECB job as he has never worked as a central banker. The 65-year-old has served several terms in government since 2007 and also worked at the European Court of Auditors.
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central bank for the euro and administers monetary policy within the Eurozone, aiming to maintain price stability and manage inflation.
Monetary policy refers to the actions taken by a central bank to control the money supply, interest rates, and inflation to achieve economic goals.
Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services rises, eroding purchasing power. Central banks aim to control inflation through monetary policy.
A central bank is a financial institution that manages a country's currency, money supply, and interest rates, and oversees the banking system.
The vice president of a central bank assists the president in managing the bank's operations, formulating monetary policy, and representing the bank in various capacities.
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