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 The naming of Villeroy de Galhau to a French public service role
could help allay any domestic political objections further down the
line to the Socialist government picking a commercial banker to
replace Christian Noyer when he retires this year.
Yet daily Les Echos reported ECB President Mario Draghi had been
surprised to learn in recent days that a BNP banker could get the
job as he expected ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure, a
French national, to get it.
Villeroy de Galhau will step down as one of the two chief operating
officers at France's biggest bank to lead the newly-created
investment mission, the government said in a statement.
It said the job would entail seeking to ensure that French and
European companies, particularly smaller ones, derive full benefit
from the low-interest-rate environment.
France has for months called for euro zone monetary policy to do all
it can to support a tentative recovery and has loudly applauded the
gradually weakening of the euro and the low cost of borrowing.
As a close lieutenant of Draghi, Coeure has played a vital role
drafting the ECB's quantitative easing program and has been a
forceful advocate of easier monetary policy.
Asked to comment on the implications of Villeroy de Galhau's
appointment, an official in President Francois Hollande's office
said only: "Nothing more to add from us".
A former chief of staff for ex-finance minister Dominique
Strauss-Kahn in the late 1990s, Villeroy de Galhau had been mooted
as a possible replacement for Noyer and has also been mentioned as a
contender to head of the French Treasury.
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Naming a top private sector banker to head the Bank of France, which
oversees the industry, risks creating awkward questions for Hollande,
who during his election campaign declared the world of finance an
"enemy".
Like many of France's senior company executives, the 56 year-old
Villeroy de Galhau spent his early career in government and various
senior roles in the Treasury and Finance Ministry.
He also served as European adviser under Socialist Prime Minister
Pierre Beregovoy between 1990 and 1993, as well as roles at the
Finance Ministry over the subsequent decade. In between, he was a
financial adviser in Brussels, where he worked on the introduction
of the euro currency.
(Reporting by Michel Rose, Matthieu Protard and Elizabeth Pineau;
writing by Leigh Thomas; editing by Mark John)
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