After stepping down from the European Central Bank, Trichet has taken speaking arrangements across France and was on the board of directors of the Bank for International Settlements. He was asked to join the non-doctrinal think tank, Bruegel, to consult on economic policy. In 2008, Trichet ranked fifth on Newsweek's list of the world's most powerful along with economic triumvirs Ben Bernanke (fourth) and Masaaki Shirakawa (sixth).[1]
From 1987, Trichet was head of the Trésor public. In this capacity, he also chaired the Paris Club of creditor nations in the mid-1980s and was closely involved in debt problems that struck Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.[3] He also became a member of Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty. Soon after taking office at Trésor, Trichet oversaw the change to an anti-inflationary franc fort (strong franc) policy, to pave the way for currency union with Germany. In 1993, he led Trésor’s move to grant the Bank of France independence to set its own interest rates.[4]
In 1993, Trichet was appointed governor of Banque de France. Both as director of the French Treasury and then governor of the Banque de France, he was widely seen as one of the architects of the European monetary union.[5]
During his time in office, Trichet oversaw the ECB’s response to the European debt crisis, including its Securities Markets Programme to stem the crisis in eurozone government bond markets.[8] In 2011, ECB board member Jürgen Stark resigned in what was widely seen as a protest against this policy.[9]
Trichet was a member of the Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance, which was established by the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors for the period from 2017 to 2018.[13] In early 2021, Trichet was appointed by the G20 to the High Level Independent Panel (HLIP) on financing the global commons for pandemic preparedness and response, co-chaired by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Lawrence Summers.[14]
At the height of the euro crisis, Trichet publicly criticized PresidentNicolas Sarkozy and ChancellorAngela Merkel, who had agreed at a meeting in Deauville in 2010 that sovereign debt could be restructured in a bailout to make private investors pay their share; the plan was never implemented.[26]
At the ceremony for the Charlemagne Prize in 2011, Trichet called for the creation of a central finance ministry to oversee spending by countries that use the euro.[27]
On 5 August 2011 Trichet wrote, together with Mario Draghi, a letter to the Italian government to push for a series of economic measures that would soon be implemented in Italy.[28]
In a 2019 article for the Financial Times, Trichet publicly hit back against some of his former colleagues at the European Central Bank – including Jürgen Stark and Otmar Issing, who both worked as ECB chief economist under Trichet’s presidency –, calling them "misguided" in their criticism of the loose monetary policy pursued by his successor as president Mario Draghi.[30]
Controversy
Crédit Lyonnais scandal
In January 2003, Trichet was put on trial with eight others charged with irregularities at Crédit Lyonnais, one of France's biggest banks. Trichet was in charge of the French treasury at that time. He was cleared in June 2003, which left the way clear for him to move to the ECB.[31] A parliamentary inquiry found no wrong-doing by Trichet, other civil servants or the three finance ministers in office during the critical period.[32]
2009 banking crisis
Within the European Central Bank, Trichet strongly resisted any contemplation of Greece defaulting on its debt. It was only in October 2011, with the end of his term imminent, that consensus was reached to allow a 50% cut in the value of Greek bonds.[33]
As part of a 2015 investigation launched by Austria’s parliament into defunct lender Hypo Alpe Adria, then opposition party NEOS named Trichet among 200 people it wanted to question.[34] At the time of Austria purchasing Hypo Alpe Adria from BayernLB in late 2009, Trichet had lobbied for the deal.[35]
Trichet has been criticised for the ECB's response to the Great Recession, which emphasised price stability over recovery and growth.[36][37]
He was also criticized when he refused to answer a question about a possible conflict of interests concerning his successor's involvement at Goldman Sachs before taking charge as head of the ECB.[38]
Personal life
At age 22, Trichet married Aline Rybalka, a diplomat and translator whose parents immigrated to France from Ukraine. They have two sons: Pierre-Alexis Trichet (born 1971), a marketing strategy director at telecommunications company Orange SA; and Jean-Nicolas Trichet (born 1974), a musician and producer.[39]
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