Nagel worked for the Bundesbank for 17 years – six of them on the board.
(Photo: Reuters)
Frankfurt According to a newspaper report, the economist Joachim Nagel has the best chance of inheriting Jens Weidmann at the head of the Bundesbank. As the “Financial Times” (FT) reported on Thursday, citing a person who is directly familiar with the process, the 55-year-old is the “preferred candidate”.
On the other hand, ECB director Isabel Schnabel and finance state secretary Jörg Kukies are no longer in the running, the newspaper reported, citing several people who are familiar with the discussions. A spokesman for Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz (SPD) declined to comment on the report.
Nagel is a member of the SPD and worked as a speaker for the SPD party executive in Bonn between his economics studies in Karlsruhe and his doctorate. The economist worked for the Bundesbank for 17 years – six of them on the board of directors. In 2017 he left the central bank. During his time as a board member of the Bundesbank, he commented critically on the ECB’s bond purchases – which is likely to meet with approval from the traffic light coalition FDP.
Nagel had a good reputation within the Bundesbank during his work there. Even then, he was active on many global bodies. At the time, observers attributed the fact that he left the central bank anyway because a second term in office was not certain for political reasons.
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The SPD had favored him in 2014 for the then vacant Vice-Chief of the Bundesbank. At that time, however, the CDU only narrowly missed an absolute majority in the previous elections and was clearly in the upper hand over the SPD. The CDU decided in favor of Claudia Buch and against Nagel. Now the political majority has changed fundamentally, from which Nagel has benefited.
In 2017, Nagel moved to the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and then in 2020 to the Bank for International Settlements (BIZ), a kind of umbrella association of central banks worldwide. There he is Vice-Head for Banks.
With agency material
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