THE European Central Bank (ECB) should tighten the rules governing personal investments by its policymakers if it wants to steer clear of controversies like that embroiling the U.S. Federal Reserve, lawmakers, academics and transparency activists say Friday. Their proposals include having the eurozone’s rate-setters only invest via wealth managers, publishing the time of any personal trade, and barring them from touching securities that directly benefit from the ECB’s asset purchase programs. The Fed last week banned individual stock purchases by its top officials and unveiled other restrictions after an uproar over trades made in 2020, when the U.S. central bank intervened to stop a collapse in financial markets as the pandemic raged. The ECB’s own disclosures for last year show 13 of the 25 members of the Governing Council picked their own funds, stocks and bonds — in some cases including government bonds the ECB is hoovering up under its stimulus programs or shares in companies whose debt it buys. Ten rate-setters had no or negligible investments while two had an independent manager look after their wealth. There has been no suggestion of wrongdoing by any of the ECB’s policymakers, whose decisions — such as setting interest rates or buying trillions of euros worth of bonds — influence financial markets. But some lawmakers, academics and activists say the current rules do not protect policymakers or the euro zone central bank from potential questions about conflicts of interest.(SD-Agencies) | 