INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
US President Joe Biden nominated former Mastercard Inc (MA.N) CEO Ajay Banga to lead the World Bank, betting the India-born executive&s ties
to the private sector and emerging markets will jump-start the 77-year-old institution&s overhaul to better address climate change, Reuters
reported.Biden&s nomination on Thursday of Banga, 63, now a US citizen, all but assures he will assume a job that oversees billions of
dollars of funding, as it races to help developing countries address climate change.The World Bank (WB) on Wednesday said it expects to
select a new president by early May to replace David Malpass, who announced his resignation last week after months of controversy sparked by
his initial refusal to say if he accepted the scientific consensus on climate change, and pressure by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for
him to adopt &bolder& reforms, read the report.&I think the speed of the nomination, less than 48 hours after the WB board launched the
process, reflects a desire to discourage any challengers and wrap it up quickly,& said Scott Morris, a senior fellow at the Center for
Global Development and a former US Treasury official.Biden noted Banga&s decades of experience building global companies and public-private
partnerships to fund responses to climate change and migration and said he had a proven track record working with global leaders, Reuters
reported.&Ajay is uniquely equipped to lead the World Bank at this critical moment in history,& Biden said in a statement, hailing the
business executive&s Indian roots and knowledge of the challenges facing developing countries and ability to mobilize private capital to
tackle big problems.Banga&s work in India and other emerging markets, his &obsession& with expanding financial inclusion, and his deep
knowledge of new technologies could help bridge the divide between rich countries and emerging markets, said Luis Alberto Moreno, who worked
closely with Banga while serving as president of the Inter-American Development Bank.&He can really be a force for change,& Moreno said,
noting that Banga enjoyed the trust of financial markets.India was expected to support Banga&s candidacy, according to Krishnamurthy
Subramanian, the former top economic adviser to the Indian government who now serves as India&s executive director at the International
&It&s an elegant solution.&DIVERSITYThe bank has historically been headed by someone from the United States, its largest shareholder, while
a European heads the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but developing countries and emerging markets have pushed to widen those
choices.Banga&s nomination is the first to be made public, but the bank will accept nominations from other member countries through March 29
Germany, another major shareholder, this week said the job should go to a woman since the bank has never been headed by a woman, Reuters
reported.A senior US administration official said they did not know if other countries would nominate candidates for the post.Asked about
Washington&s decision not to nominate a woman, the official said Banga had &a personal conviction and excellent track record promoting
diversity, equity and inclusion in the work that he does& and would bring that view to the bank.But Jeff Hauser, who heads the progressive
Revolving Door Project, demanded Biden retract the nomination of a top official from a &rapacious international private equity firm& who had
previously worked only in private sector firms.&Neither private equity, nor MasterCard, nor Citigroup, nor PepsiCo, nor Nestlé, nor Dow
promote shared prosperity
They all do vastly more to exacerbate inequality than to fight it,& he said in a statement.Oxfam International said the next bank president
should be chosen through a transparent global process
&The World Bank is not a US bank, a commercial bank, or a private equity firm
For a job of this stature, we need more than a tap on the shoulder from President Biden.&Banga is vice chair of General Atlantic, a US
private equity firm that administration officials said has invested over $800 million in EV charging solutions, solar power and sustainable
farming, read the report.He retired in December 2021 after 12 years at the helm of Mastercard, where administration officials noted that he
helped 500 million unbanked people join the digital economy, averted layoffs of the bank&s 19,000 employees during the COVID-19 pandemic,
and led work on climate, gender and sustainable agriculture.Vice President Kamala Harris said Banga brought &great insight, energy and
persistence& to his role as co-chair of the Partnership for Central America, which has mobilized $4.2 billion in public, private and
nonprofit funds to advance economic opportunity in northern Central America.The post Biden nominates former Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga to
head World Bank first appeared on Ariana News.
