Foreign media reported that the United States did not consult in advance with the European Central Bank (ECB) as it sold euros to defend the value of the yen.
On the 6th (local time), the British daily Financial Times (FT), citing multiple sources, reported that the ECB was notified that the United States sold euros and bought yen on the 31st only after every transaction had ended. One source said ECB President Christine Lagarde and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke by phone about the foreign-exchange market intervention only on the 1st.
Since World War II, central banks and treasuries in Western countries have cooperated based on mutual trust and consultation, and most foreign-exchange interventions have been coordinated in advance. For this reason, some senior ECB officials were quoted as calling the U.S. sale of euros "an unprecedented act that breaks a long-standing convention among Western currency authorities."
One source said it was "very shocking and disappointing" that the U.S. Treasury offloaded euros through the Federal Reserve (Fed), adding, "There has been no such case before." The source also raised concerns that the cooperative relationship between the United States and the ECB, maintained for financial market stability and other reasons, could be damaged.
Earlier, as the United States and Japan jointly intervened in the foreign-exchange market, the United States sold euros instead of selling dollars directly and bought yen. It is seen as having sold euros instead of dollars in consideration of the fact that selling dollars could be interpreted as a move to induce dollar weakness, which could conflict with the Trump administration's "strong dollar" stance.
In response, the U.S. Treasury said the move was not a matter to be coordinated in advance with foreign currency authorities. A Treasury spokesperson told the FT that decisions on managing the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) are "made by the Treasury, and in doing so, the Treasury takes into account the Federal Reserve's assessments of market liquidity, asset valuation and other relevant factors."