The plan went thoroughly awry. In the summer of 2023, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) swapped their nomination rights for the Bundesbank Executive Board. Instead of the state government in Hesse, where state elections were due in October, the governing parties in North Rhine-Westphalia were to submit a proposal for the successor to Johannes Beermann. He had already left the Bundesbank's governing body at the end of 2022. The aim of the swap was to speed up the search for a successor. After all, the parties in NRW did not have to deal with an election.

But even nine months later, there is still no proposal from the most populous federal state. "North Rhine-Westphalia will make use of its right to make a proposal in the near future," said a spokesperson for the state government in response to an inquiry from Börsen-Zeitung. She added: "At the same time, a decision in the Bundesrat is expected soon." However, a statement made by the state government to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung at the beginning of February was worded in exactly the same way. Since then, there has still been no proposal.

In Hesse too, prominent representatives of the Hessian Christian Democratic Union (CDU) had already signalled in late summer last year that the nomination should actually happen quite quickly after the state elections on 8 October 2023. Following the swap with NRW, Hesse is responsible for the successor to Joachim Wuermeling. He left the Bundesbank's Executive Board at the end of 2023, as did Claudia Buch – now Chair of ECB Banking Supervision. Since then, only half of the six-member Bundesbank Executive Board has been filled.

After the change from black-green (CDU and The Greens) to black-red (CDU and Social Democratic Party), however, the issue of the Bundesbank's Executive Board apparently slipped from the new coalition partners' agenda in Hesse. At the Bundesbank, some people frowned at the fact that the new political partners agreed on all possible posts, but put the question of appointments to the Bundesbank's Executive Board on the back burner. However, the wait should soon be over, according to recent reports from Hessian CDU circles. "The new state government will deal with this important personnel matter in the near future," said Tobias Rösmann, spokesman for the Hessian state government, when asked by Börsen-Zeitung.

Michael Meister is being touted as a possible candidate. The 62-year-old from southern Hesse has many years of political experience, as he has been a member of the Bundestag for 30 years. At the same time, he has financial policy expertise as a former Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance and as a long-standing member of the Board of Directors of KfW. In addition, the graduate mathematician has dealt with innovation and research issues in his professional career – a topic that is becoming increasingly important on the Bundesbank Executive Board in times of tokenization, the digital euro, and instant payments.

The right to nominate Claudia Buch's successor lies with the federal government. No nomination has yet come from Berlin either. For political observers, there is a lot to suggest that a Liberal should be appointed to the Bundesbank board. After all, Sabine Mauderer and Joachim Nagel are already two members of the board with Social Democratic backgrounds. Nagel as a former advisor to the SPD Federal Executive Board, Mauderer as a former advisor to SPD State Secretary of Finance Barbara Hendricks. In addition to the Christian Democrat Burkard Balz, board members with close ties to the CDU are expected from Hesse and probably also from NRW.

The Ministry of Finance, led by Christian Lindner (FDP), is responsible for the procedure within the Federal Government. "The Federal Government has not yet submitted a proposal for the appointment of a new Vice President," is the official interpretation of the Ministry. "When such a proposal will be made is still open," a spokesperson told the Börsen-Zeitung. Even though the FDP-led Ministry of Finance has the right to make the proposal this time, the proposal is likely to be made by consensus within the German parliamentary coalition.

The last Bundesbank board member proposed by the FDP was Carl-Ludwig Thiele, who was a member of the board from 2010 to 2018. When he was appointed, a black-yellow (CDU/CSU and FDP) government was in office. Thiele had been a member of the Bundestag for 20 years and was, among other things, Chairman of the Bundestag Finance Committee and Vice-Chairman of the parliamentary group. On the Bundesbank Executive Board, he was responsible for cash, payment transactions and settlement systems.

The names of two women have been circulating for some time for Claudia Buch's successor: Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger and KfW Chief Economist Fritzi Köhler-Geib, who is not affiliated with any political party. Stark-Watzinger is also the leader of the FDP in Hesse. Both women are economically qualified and experienced in the financial market. Köhler-Geib's current position already speaks for itself. After all, as KfW's chief economist, she has gained a deep insight into the weaknesses and potential of the German economy – and its financing structure. In addition, the economist brings a wealth of experience at the point of intersection between the financial markets and the economy from her previous work at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. As a researcher and advisor to political institutions, Köhler-Geib has worked intensively on budget rules and the mix between fiscal and monetary policy as well as on banking crises, financial market stability and dealing with uncertainty – all topics that are of primary importance to the Bundesbank.

Stark-Watzinger is an economist and initially worked at BHF-Bank after completing her studies in Mainz and Frankfurt. She was Managing Director of the House of Finance at Goethe University for six years until 2013 and Managing Director of the SAFE – Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe research centre until 2017.

It is not inevitable that the federal government will actually nominate a woman again. With Sabine Mauderer, one of the three federal seats on the Executive Board is already occupied by a woman. The presence of women could also be maintained on the federal state side. If Lindner were to nominate Stark-Watzinger, he would have two new questions to solve. Who would succeed Stark-Watzinger as minister, and who would take over as FDP state chair in Hesse?

If, contrary to expectations, the Greens win the federal election, the name of State Secretary Philipp Nimmermann will come up. Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck brought him from Hesse to the Federal Ministry of Economics in 2023. Before his move to Berlin, Nimmermann was considered a hot candidate for the Hessian nomination for the Bundesbank's Executive Board. He has many years of experience in the banking sector. Like Stark-Watzinger, he also worked for BHF-Bank. He made a career there and rose to become the bank's Chief Economist in 2013. Before working as State Secretary for the Ministry of Finance in Schleswig-Holstein from 2014 to the beginning of 2019 and then in the same role in the Hessian Ministry of Economics.

Regardless of political proportionality, the Bundesbank could also benefit from a candidate from within its own ranks, which would send a motivating signal to the bank internally. In ECB circles, the name of economist Klaus Adam has been mentioned as a well-suited candidate for a position on the Bundesbank's Executive Board. Adam has been a research professor for the Bundesbank and co-editor of the Journal of Monetary Economics since 2012. He is also a professor of economics and currently Dean of the Department of Law and Economics at the University of Mannheim as well as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of Finance. The 52-year-old also gained experience as an economist at the European Central Bank (ECB) between 2004 and 2008.

An abundant number of names of possible candidates for the open positions on the Bundesbank's Executive Board is in circulation. Regardless of who wins the race in the end, the current board members around President Nagel will probably be hoping that the time when they have to manage the work on the board as a threesome will soon be over.