European Central Bank

The European Central Bank (ECB) is one of the world's most important central banks, responsible for monetary policy covering the 13 member countries of the Eurozone. It was established by the European Union (EU) in 1998 with its headquarters are in Frankfurt, Germany.
See more at Wikipedia.org...

Noun
1. the central bank of those members of the European Union who share a common currency; "The European Central Bank is Europe's equivalent of the Federal Reserve"
(hypernym) central bank

Bank created to monitor the monetary policy of the 11 countries that converted to the Euro from their local currencies. The 11 countries are: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.

The European Central Bank was inaugurated on 30 June 1998. On 1 January 1999 it took over responsibility for implementing European monetary policy as defined by the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). As to the practicalities, the ECB's decision-making bodies (the Governing Council and the Executive Board) run the European System of Central Banks, whose tasks are to manage the volume of money in circulation, conduct foreign-exchange operations, hold and manage the Member States' official foreign-exchange reserves, and promote the smooth operation of payment systems. The ECB took over from the European Monetary Institute (EMI).

The Treaty of Nice, adopted in December 2000, did not change the composition of the ECB Governing Council (comprising the members of the Executive Board and the governors of the national central banks) but allows for changes to the rules on decision-making (decisions are generally adopted by simple majority of the members, each having one vote). Any such change requires a unanimous European Council decision that must be ratified by the Member States.

See:

•Convergence criteria 
•Economic and monetary union (EMU)