During congressional testimony in 2017, he said those benefiting from the World Bank’s lending practices were “the people who fly in on a first-class ticket to give advice to governments.”
The United States has privately tested Mr. Malpass’s selection with other major bank shareholders and received positive feedback, according to one of the administration officials. They presented Mr. Malpass as a constructive reformer who, despite his criticisms, will work with other shareholders.
If confirmed, Mr. Malpass would fill the position being vacated by Jim Yong Kim, who abruptly announced last month that he would resign his post as World Bank president nearly three years before his term’s expiration.
Mr. Malpass, 62, who served on Mr. Trump’s transition team, was the chief economist at Bear Stearns, the defunct investment bank, from 1993 until its collapse in 2008. In 2010, Mr. Malpass ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for the United States Senate in New York. He previously worked as the deputy assistant secretary of state under President George Bush and as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury under Mr. Reagan.
The process of choosing a successor to Mr. Kim was overseen by Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary; Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff; and Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter. The president personally met with finalists for the position.
Others whose names were considered included Indra K. Nooyi, the former chief executive of PepsiCo; Ray Washburne, the president of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; and Heidi Cruz, a Goldman Sachs executive and the wife of Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas.
Ms. Trump’s role in the process has drawn some criticism from ethics watchdogs, who said that it could pose a conflict of interest for the president’s daughter to be involved in international economic matters when she has not completely divested from her assets.
The choice of Mr. Malpass was reported earlier on Monday by Politico and other news outlets.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/business/world-bank-david-malpass.html
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