Dutch Nomination Kicks Off Race for Key ECB Job

(Bloomberg) -- The Netherlands opened the race to fill a vacancy in the European Central Bank’s top team by nominating Frank Elderson, who currently runs banking supervision at the Dutch central bank.

“He has a tremendous reputation for sustainable finance, for digital -- truly 21st-century topics,” Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra told reporters in Berlin on the way into a meeting with European counterparts. “We feel he’s an excellent candidate and we intend to nominate him.”

The vacancy on the six-person Executive Board, which designs and implements monetary policy for the bloc, opens in December when Luxembourg’s Yves Mersch reaches the end of his mandate. It’s the last slot available until 2026, assuming the current members all complete their eight-year term.

The region’s finance chiefs will revisit the upcoming vacancy at their Oct. 5 meeting, when they aim to select a candidate, said Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, who chairs the gatherings of his euro-area counterparts. Once there’s a decision, the ECB and the European Parliament will be asked to weigh in, though their opinions aren’t binding.

Elderson, 50, already sits on the board of the ECB’s watchdog for lenders and is also chairman of the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System, a group of 69 mostly European institutions aiming to address climate change.

After providing the first-ever president of the Frankfurt-based institution, the Netherlands is making a bold claim to secure its second seat on the panel while many countries -- particularly those in eastern Europe -- have never been represented. Elderson’s experience in banking supervision may prove valuable however as Mersch’s departure also means the ECB needs a new vice chairman for its supervision arm.

Other countries may still put forward their own candidates, possibly helping ECB President Christine Lagarde in addressing the central bank’s diversity shortfalls by nominating a woman. A female appointment would make the board evenly balanced in gender for the first time.

Euro-area finance ministers are meeting in Berlin on Friday to discuss Europe’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis and how to pay for the fiscal stimulus they’re planning as a response. The race to fill the vacancy at the top of the ECB was kicked off this week after Lagarde requested that governments start the process of finding a nominee.

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