In the Netherlands we are looking forward to hearing from our government who the next president of the Central Bank will be. You know my personal opinion and preference voor van Dijkhuizen as the next President. And this morning the Financieele Dagblad outlined that he is one step closer as it appears that the Ministry of Finance has a strong preference for an outsider candidate rather than the candidate Hoogduin, preferred by DNB itself. Het Ministry thinks that this is necessary to ensure that DNB will effectively change its culture and does not believe that an internal candidate can do this.
Now that the Ministry of Finance doesn't rubberstamp the proposal of DNB (which they used to do until now), the official decision by the Dutch Cabinet has been delayed a couple of times. And the Financieele Dagblad notes a couple of arguments, among which the political colour of candidates, as possible reasons. But we don't get the full picture, as there is also a candidacy for the role of Executive Director Bank Supervision. But we don't hear anything about that appointment procedure.
I have been pondering the continuation of this sequel. I wouldn't be surprised if a new solution to the problem surfaces in which the executive director on Bank Supervision is also named: vice-President of DNB. In that model Hoogduin would be promoted to President and remain the monetary expert he is, while the real weight rests with the Vice-President, responsible for Supervision.
We'll soon discover how this ends: I am most curious!
PS 1: Dow Jones reported this morning that Ministry of Finance, De Jager, has reacted that the political colour of the candidate does not play any role:
'I haven't seen a final list of candidates' according to the CDA-Minister. Hij continues to outline that he is not in a hurry, because: 'we still have until June'.
PS2. The PVV has explicitly noted that they wish the successor for Wellink to be an outsider, in order to change the DNB-culture properly.
