The German policymaker is stepping down on Oct. 31, the ECB said in a statement late on Wednesday. While the statement provided no reason for her decision, some - such as the WSJ - suspect that the departure of the outspoken hawk is in protest to outgoing ECB president Mario Draghi's recent decision to launch massive easing, including cutting rates to -0.50%, and resuming open-ended QE, despite an "unprecedented revolt" from Europe's core economies, including Germany, France, Austria and the Netherlands.

Lautenschlaeger was a board member since January 2014 and during her tenure served a full 5-year term as the vice-chair of the Supervisory Board of the Single Supervisory Mechanism.