Ivanka to help US choose candidate for World Bank

President Donald Trump’s daughter and advisor Ivanka will help the United States choose its candidate to lead the World Bank but she will not be the one, the White House said on Monday. Jim Yong Kim abruptly announced last week that he would cut short his tenure as president of the Washington-based global development lender more than three years before his second term was to end.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney “have asked Ivanka Trump to help manage the US nomination process as she’s worked closely with the World Bank’s leadership for the past two years,” said Jessica Ditto, the White House Deputy Director of Communications.

However, Ditto said reports that Ivanka Trump “is under consideration are false.” London’s The Financial Times reported on Friday that both Ivanka Trump and Washington’s former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley were among possible US candidates to replace Kim. Other names being floated include Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs David Malpass and Mark Green, head of the US Agency for International Development, the newspaper reported.

Through an unwritten postwar agreement with Europe, the World Bank has always been led by an American while a European has always been in charge of the IMF. The World Bank Board said on Thursday it would start accepting nominations for a new leader early next month and name a replacement for Kim by mid-April.