To begin with, one has to bear in mind that the ECB has three decision-making bodies. The first – and the most important one – of them is the Governing Council. It is constituted of the ECB Executive Board and of the governors and presidents of national central banks. It is in charge of defining the monetary policy and the bank rate level. In the eurozone, the bank rate is named Standing Facilities. It is the Governing Council which has the most difficult mission, because it has also to coordinate national central banks’ actions.
Part of the Governing Council, the second decision-making body is the Executive Board. The latter is managed by a president, a vice-president and four other members. Currently, and since January 2013, the members are Mario Draghi (president), Vítor Constâncio (vice-president), Peter Praet, Benoît Cœuré, Sabine Lautenschläger and Yves Mersch.