It is said that Lagarde has told policymakers to hold back on criticism and dissenting views on policy decisions for several days. The move comes as Lagarde is said to struggle with the vocal dissent from more hawkish members and persistent leaks about the internal debate within the governing council.
The sources note that Lagarde has told policymakers to present the majority view after policy decisions - which are on Thursdays - and hold back on "personal" views until the Monday after.
The supposed guideline also calls for policymakers to not leak details of internal discussions to the press but these are informal directions so policymakers aren't exactly obliged to follow them.
The sources reporting also adds that Lagarde's effort above is not really going down too well with some members. One of the sources stated that:
"Do you want leaks? Because this is how you get them. If people can't speak openly, they'll still talk but using different channels."
Well, with surging inflation pressures, it is certainly making it easy for ECB hawks to keep sniping at the central bank's decision and guidance these days. You can't blame Lagarde for wanting to control the situation but I fear it will not win her any friends considering how diverse and at times divided the ECB can be on these views.
In part, it is also to strengthen the decision and statement put out by the central bank on the day itself. I mean how many times have we seen one thing from the ECB decision only for "close sources" to leak out a different story a couple of hours after that?