By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau on Monday announced that he will step down as governor of the Banque de France in early June to take up the presidency of the Fondation Apprentis d’Auteuil.

Villeroy has headed the Banque de France since taking office on November 1, 2015 and was reappointed to a second six-year term in October 2021.

A Banque de France statement said the bank’s General Council had approved his planned future activity at its meeting on Friday.

The Fondation Apprentis d’Auteuil is a public-utility foundation that works in child protection and prevention and runs education, training, and social-integration programs for vulnerable young people and families in France and internationally. It supports more than 40,000 young people and 9,000 families each year through roughly 430 facilities and programs, with about 8,200 employees, it claims.

In a letter to Banque de France staff, Villeroy described the move as a personal decision taken independently and said the period until early June would allow for an orderly handover.

In a statement issued shortly afterwards, ECB President Christine Lagarde said she had “great respect” for Villeroy’s decision and praised his “loyal and dedicated service.”

“The Governing Council has benefited enormously from the realism combined with strong European convictions and vision that he always brings to the table,” she said. “His friendly, wide-ranging, team-oriented, good-humoured and consistently well-articulated contributions greatly enriched our discussions.”

“François will always remain a friend of the ECB,” she added.

In a separate statement, Governing Council member Joachim Nagel, who heads the Deutsche Bundesbank, hailed François Villeroy as having “given everything to the present — and in doing so served Europe’s future,” praising his integrity, personal modesty, and “deeply anchored European sense of responsibility,” and adding that, for Villeroy, “trust is not an abstract value, but a lived attitude.”

A “living bridge between our countries,” Nagel also pointed to Villeroy’s commitment to the European cause, his attachment to France, and his special ties to the Saarland, noting that this role for Franco-German friendship and European cohesion was recognized in 2024 with the award of the Bundesverdienstkreuz.