US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen mentioned she anticipated former Mastercard chief government Ajay Banga to be elected president of the World Financial institution as nominations draw to an in depth.

Chatting with lawmakers on Wednesday, Yellen mentioned that if Banga secured the position, he can be “charged with accelerating our progress to evolve the establishment to higher handle Twenty first-century challenges”.

Though nominations shut at 6pm jap time, two individuals acquainted with the scenario mentioned they had been unaware of every other candidates in rivalry on Wednesday morning.

Whereas the US, the financial institution’s largest shareholder, has historically chosen the World Financial institution president, it requires backing by different member international locations.

Banga’s bid for the job comes because the lender finds itself below fireplace for failing to adequately handle the dimensions of the worldwide local weather disaster whereas sustaining its mission to cut back poverty.

The financial institution’s present president, David Malpass, resigned from his put up virtually a yr early final month, having confronted intense strain over his refusal at a convention final September to say whether or not he believed people prompted local weather change. He later mentioned his feedback had been misinterpreted.

Banga has spent current weeks on a “listening tour”, flanked by Treasury representatives, to tout his credentials and collect info that would put together him for the position.

In an interview with the Monetary Instances earlier this month, Banga mentioned the lender should do “all the things it may” to squeeze extra cash from its steadiness sheet whereas preserving its gold-plated credit standing.

A G20-commissioned report, launched final summer season, discovered that multilateral improvement banks, together with the World Financial institution, had been doubtlessly being extra conservative than mandatory to take care of their triple-A credit standing from the three large ranking businesses.

Banga mentioned he would push to safe personal sector assist for initiatives underwritten by the financial institution, whereas wanting into the G20-commissioned report into the so-called “capital adequacy frameworks” of multilateral improvement lenders such because the World Financial institution.

Earlier this yr, Yellen urged the financial institution’s management to “shortly” put in place reforms to release more cash to deal with local weather change.