FRANKFURT—The European Central Bank’s chief economist plans to place private calls to banks and investors after the ECB’s policy meeting next week, he said 2 December, continuing an unusual communications practice that has raised eyebrows among financiers and central-bank officials.

Since March, Philip Lane, the chief economist, has spoken directly with a select group of global institutions in the hours after the bank’s policy decisions, in an effort to clarify its sometimes puzzling public pronouncements, according to people with whom he spoke and a review of his schedule.