European Union finance ministers have selected their nominee to be the next chief of the International Monetary Fund in a move that would require a change of the institution’s rules.
Kristalina Georgieva, the Bulgarian chief executive of the World Bank Group, was chosen in a secret ballot on Friday evening as the group’s preferred candidate for the job, according to France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire. Georgieva has also served as vice president of the EU’s executive body.
If approved by the IMF’s executive board, she would succeed IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, who is poised to become the next president of the European Central Bank in November.
The nomination will face a hurdle in the form of the IMF’s bylaws that state that at the time of appointment, the IMF’s managing director must be under age 65. Georgieva turns 66 later this month, meaning the IMF’s rules must be changed before she can take office.
Le Maire, who coordinated the selection on behalf of his EU colleagues, has secured support for changing the age rules from the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, according to a senior aide to the French minister.
The selection of Georgieva also could prove controversial with IMF members from developing countries, some of whom have long criticized the unwritten rule of Europe appointing the IMF managing director, while the U.S. picks the head of the World Bank.
Georgieva has been the World Bank’s no. 2 executive since January 2017, following a long career in international economics and international relations. She earned a Ph.D. in economic science in Bulgaria and was a professor there for about 14 years.
Shortly after the fall of communism in Bulgaria, Georgieva joined the World Bank in 1993, rising through the ranks. In 2010 she went to work for the European Union as its commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, and later the EU’s budget chief.
An expanded version of this story appears on WSJ.com
