Italy Said to Propose Fabio Panetta for ECB Executive Board

(Bloomberg) -- Italy has proposed veteran central banker Fabio Panetta as its candidate to replace Benoit Coeure as one of the European Central Bank’s top policy makers, according to a government official familiar with the matter.

The Italian finance ministry sent Panetta’s candidacy to Mario Centeno, who leads the group of euro-area finance chiefs that will decide who joins the ECB’s six-member Executive Board, the senior official said, asking not to be named because the nomination isn’t yet public. The informal deadline for submitting candidates is Wednesday, with a decision by the bloc’s finance ministers expected for Oct. 10.

Winning the slot would restore Italy’s seat on the panel that designs and implements euro-area monetary policy, as the institution pumps up stimulus to boost growth and inflation in the bloc. The nation will be without such a post for the first time when President Mario Draghi steps down on Oct. 31.

French national Coeure’s term ends on Dec. 31, and tradition dictates that another country will be awarded the role because Draghi’s successor, Christine Lagarde, is French.

Spokesmen for the Bank of Italy and the Italian finance ministry declined to comment.

Panetta, 60, is currently director general of Bank of Italy. Starting in the research department in 1985, he went on to head the monetary policy and economics department, and has been in charge of the bank’s financial stability report.

He worked closely with Draghi when his compatriot was head of the Bank of Italy, as well as with the previous governor, Antonio Fazio, and the current one, Ignazio Visco. In that capacity, he sat in on Governing Council meetings from 2004 to 2017.

In 2014 he also became member of the ECB’s Supervisory Board, where he has been critical of the way Europe treated the country’s troubled lenders. In this role, he oversaw a string of crises at his country’s banks from Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA to Banca Carige SpA.

Panetta holds a PhD in Economics and Finance. He has also taught economics in Rome’s universities and published several books.

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