Washington: US President Joe Biden said Thursday that Washington is nominating former Mastercard Chief Executive Ajay Banga to lead the World Bank, after its current chief David Malpass announced plans to step down early.
The development lender has just started accepting candidate nominations in a process set to run until March 29, with the bank saying that women candidates would be “strongly” encouraged. The president of the World Bank is typically American, while the leader of the International Monetary Fund is customarily European.
Banga, 63, is Indian-American and currently serves as vice chairman at equity firm General Atlantic.
He was previously chief executive at Mastercard. He is also the chairman of the public-private Partnership for Central America with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Banga was born Nov 10, 1959 in Khadki in Pune, where his father, an army officer, was posted.
Banga has “critical experience mobilizing public-private resources to tackle the most urgent challenges of our time, including climate change,” said Biden in a statement.
Last week current World Bank President Malpass — who was nominated to the post by Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump in 2019 — said he would step down nearly a year early, ending a tenure that was clouded by questions over his climate stance.
His term would originally have ended in 2024.
Banga’s nomination comes amid a push for development lenders to revamp and address global problems like environmental issues more effectively. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen earlier said that lenders’ core models, where countries borrow to make specific investments addressing developmental constraints, is “insufficient to meet the moment.”
The United States is the World Bank’s largest shareholder.
