|
Ireland's Sharon Donnery was earlier seen as the favorite but
Italy's Andrea Enria has garnered significant support in recent
weeks, suggesting that the vote, to be taken in a secret ballot
by ECB policymakers on Wednesday afternoon, will be close, the
sources told Reuters.
Set up four years ago in the aftermath of a painful debt crisis,
the Single Supervisory Mechanism oversees 118 of the bloc's
biggest banks with 21 trillion euros ($23.9 trillion) worth of
assets, all in the hope of preventing a crisis that could
potentially rip the currency union apart.
Donnery, the Irish central bank's deputy governor and Enria, the
head of the European Banking Authority, are both seen as highly
qualified but Enria's candidacy appears to have gained some
momentum, the sources, who asked not to be named, said.
Donnery, a key architect of the ECB's drive to reduce the bank
sector's non-performing loans, is favored by many in the
northern European countries because of her tough stance.
But since the problem of non-performing loans affects mostly
southern banks, especially in Italy and Greece, that same stance
has alienated southern countries who fear that any further
aggressive moves to reduce bad debt would force banks to raise
more capital, depressing their valuation even further and
possibly leaving them open to takeovers.
So while many southern countries are opposed to Donnery,
northern states could accept either one, potentially splitting
their vote, as Enria is also seen as sufficiently independent
from Italian politics, the sources said.
An ECB spokesman declined to comment.
Donnery's gender, seen as an advantage, may not be as
significant as earlier expected, one of the sources noted.
The European Parliament, which must approve any choice made by
the council in a final vote, has criticized the ECB in the past
for not appointing enough women into top positions. But its
committee on economic affairs has shortlisted both candidates
instead of backing just one, without making gender a public
issue in the process.
This means that for the 25 members of the Governing Council, 23
of which are men, gender may not be a key factor in the vote to
replace Daniele Nouy from next January, one of the sources said.
Donnery's nationality may also prove to be a hurdle in her bid
for the job.
Irish central bank chief Philip Lane is widely expected to be a
candidate to become the ECB's next chief economist when Peter
Praet's mandate expires next May, and having two top ECB
officials from a small country is difficult to sell politically,
the sources added.
However, Donnery's selection would not legally disqualify Lane.
If Enria was appointed then two Italians would be in charge of
top ECB jobs simultaneously. But this is seen as less of an
issue because Italy is one of the biggest countries of the bloc
and because ECB President Mario Draghi will leave office at the
end of October.
($1 = 0.8786 euros)
(Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
|
