Margarita Delgado and the German Claudia Buch, finalist candidates to preside over ECB supervision

MADRID, 6 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The deputy governor of the Bank of Spain, Margarita Delgado, and her counterpart at the Bundesbank, Claudia Buch, are the candidates finally selected by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) for the final phase of the process to succeed Andrea Enria in the Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

In this way, as expected from the beginning of the selection process, the Spanish and the German thus confirm their status as favorites for the position, after the Irish Sharon Donnery has finally withdrawn from the race, according to reports 'Handelsblatt '.

According to the German newspaper, Donnery's options would be weighed down by the weight that Ireland already has at an institutional level in the EU in relation to the size of the country's economy, since currently the ECB's chief economist, Philip Lane, and the Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe are Irish.

In this sense, although Delgado's candidacy has always been seen as one of the strongest, the specialized press also pointed out that it could end up playing against him that currently several senior financial positions in the EU are in the hands of Spaniards, apart from the vice-presidency of the ECB of Guindos, since José Manuel Campa presides over the European Banking Authority (EBA); the governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, is president of the Basel Committee, and Fernando Restoy heads the Financial Stability Institute (FSI) of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

Likewise, from Germany it is pointed out that, while the appointment of Buch as Enria's successor would make it possible to nominate a candidate more akin to Finance Minister Christian Lindner as deputy of the Bundesbank, the appointment of the German could jeopardize the German options to accede to the presidency of the ECB when the term of Christine Lagarde ends in 2027.

According to Bloomberg, the Spanish representative is considered to have a better understanding of the inner workings of the ECB, having helped establish its supervisory arm and served as deputy director general.

Before that, Delgado was a key official at the Bank of Spain dealing with the country's banking crisis and as deputy governor, she deals with a wide range of issues, including financial stability.

For her part, Buch is an economist rather than a regulator, but has taken aggressive stances when it comes to forcing banks to hoard capital to prepare for economic downturns. In early 2023, she joined the ECB's Supervisory Board, which meets every three weeks to discuss, plan and carry out supervision.

According to the ECB, candidates for the position must have recognized creditworthiness and experience in banking and finance, including considerable professional experience in supervision, as well as extensive experience in leading and developing management teams.

It is expected that, after consultation with the Supervisory Board, the Governing Council will nominate a female candidate in the autumn, who will be approved by the European Parliament and confirmed by the Council of the European Union during the fourth quarter of 2023.

In this way, the finally selected candidate, whose appointment must be approved by the European Parliament and confirmed by the Council of the European Union during the fourth quarter of 2023, will assume the reins of ECB banking supervision as of January 1, 2024 and for a non-renewable period of five years.

The ECB Supervisory Board is made up of the President, the Vice-President, four ECB representatives and representatives of the national supervisors involved in European banking supervision, formally known as the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).