The European Central Bank (ECB) was created in 1998 to implement monetary policy in the euro area. Today, the ECB is the central bank of the 20 countries that use the euro as their official currency (see Countries using the euro). The euro is the official currency of over 340 million people.
The ECB and the national central banks of these 20 countries together form the Eurosystem; they are independent central banks, meaning that governments have no controlling or management powers over them. However, the governors of the central banks are selected by the respective countries’ democratic institutions (parliaments or governments), to which they must regularly report, for example through parliamentary appearances.
The President of ECB is appointed by the European Council for a period of eight years. Christine Lagarde has been the President of the ECB since November 2019, and Luis de Guindos its Vice-President since June 2018.