FRANKFURT, Oct 1 (Reuters) - A key architect of European Central Bank policy under Presidents Mario Draghi and Christine Lagarde is leaving his post as head of the bank's influential economics department, the ECB said on Friday.

Frank Smets, who was Draghi's councillor between 2013 and 2017 before becoming director general economics, will take a one-year unpaid leave from February.

Smets, who has been with the bank for more than two decades, then expects to return in 2023 as advisor to the Executive Board, an ECB spokesperson said.

Smets, along with Massimo Rostagno, the head of monetary policy, Roland Straub, Lagarde's councillor and Philip Lane, the bank's chief economist, is considered a key figure in devising the bank's foray into unconventional policy and formulating its pandemic response.

The ECB plans to fill Smets' role via a public process and has already posted a job ad.

Smets did not respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Alex Richardson)




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