First, the national central bank governors will actively contribute to all central decision-making processes within the ESCB. In this context the national central banks will, second, serve as intermediaries between the single monetary policy and national economic policies.
Third, they will act as the ESCB’s operative entities in carrying out monetary and foreign exchange policies as well as policies relating to payment systems and in compiling monetary and balance-of-payments statistics. Fourth, the national central banks will contribute the ECB’s capital and, as “the owners” of the ECB, also receive their share of ECB income.