The ECB Just Suffered A Stunning Leak

The New York Times has got hold of several months worth of European Central Bank minutes, running between May 2012 and January 2013.

The ECB is notoriously secretive, and unlike the Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan and Bank of England, releases no immediate minutes from its governing council minutes: it waits for 30 years. Since the eurozone hasn't existed for that long, none have yet been released.

But the NYT just got its hands on some, and the details show the massive split at the heart of the ECB during the financial crisis in Cyprus. German policymaker Jens Weidmann was calling privately for ECB assistance to at least one of Cyprus' struggling banks to be curtailed:

This won't be entirely surprising to ECB watchers, who are aware that Weidmann is much more hawkish than other members. But it does put clearly what he was saying for the first time. If the New York Times has a full series of minutes from May 2012 it would also cover president Mario Draghi's "whatever it takes" speech, and show any major splits there. The eurozone's policymakers and governments are already strained by the bloc's terrible economic performance, and these revalations could make relations even worse.