Effect from Tuesday, April 9, 2019, the unanimously selected David Malpass will occupy the seat as the president of the World Bank Group for the next five years.
The new president was selected by Executive Directors of the World Bank without any opposition, the international financial institution announced on its website on Friday.
In selecting Malpass, the Executive Directors followed the process agreed on in 2011: an open, transparent nomination where any national of the Bank’s membership could be proposed by any Executive Director or Governor through an Executive Director.
The World Bank President is Chair of the Boards of Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA).
The President is also ex-fficio Chair of the Boards of Directors of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the Administrative Council of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
Malpass selection as the new president of the World Bank is coming after the resignation of Jim Kim.
On January 7, 2019, Kim announced that he was stepping down from his position more than three years before his term ends in 2022 to join Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a private equity fund that invests in projects in wealthy and developing countries, as a Vice Chairman and Partner.
In the period when Kim left the apex bank in February 1, 2019 to when Malpass was selected; Kristalina Georgieva was the interim president of the Washington-based institution.
The board of the World Bank said it is looking forward to working with Malpass on the “implementation of the Forward Look and the capital package agreement as articulated in the Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development Paper.”
Malpass previously served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs for the United States. As Under Secretary, Malpass represented the United States in international settings, including the G-7 and G-20 Deputy Finance Ministerial, World Bank-IMF Spring and Annual Meetings, and meetings of the Financial Stability Board, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
An undersecretary is an executive government official in many countries, frequently a career public servant, who typically acts as a senior administrator or second-in-command to a politically appointed Cabinet Minister or other government official.
In his role as Under Secretary, Malpass played a crucial role in several major World Bank Group reforms and initiatives, including the recent capital increase for IBRD and IFC. He was also instrumental in advancing the Debt Transparency Initiative, adopted by the World Bank and IMF, to increase public disclosure of debt and thereby reduce the frequency and severity of debt crises.
Prior to becoming Under Secretary, Malpass was an international economist and founder of a macroeconomics research firm based in New York City.
Checks by BusinessDay revealed that in the earlier days of his career, Malpass served as the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Developing Nations and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Economic Affairs. In these roles, he focused on an array of economic, budget, and foreign policy issues, such as the United States’ involvement in multilateral institutions, including the World Bank.
Malpass has served on the boards of the Council of the Americas, Economic Club of New York, and the National Committee on US–China Relations. Malpass earned his bachelor’s degree from Colorado College and his MBA from the University of Denver. He undertook advanced graduate work in international economics at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Meanwhile, The World Bank Group is helping to fight poverty and improve living standards for the people of Nigeria through 33 Core Knowledge Products Reports and 29 on-going National and Regional projects. This is in addition to about 60 Trust Funds.
Since 1958, the World Bank Group has supported Nigeria with International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) loans and International Development Association (IDA) credits worth about 14.2 billion dollars.
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to countries of the world for capital projects. It comprises two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the International Development Association. The World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group.
