Banks, Financial Services, Latvia

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Bordans proposes choosing next Bank of Latvia governor in international tender

BC, Riga, 02.12.2019.Print version
Justice Minister Janis Bordans (New Conservative Party, JKP) believes that an international tender should be organized to select the next Bank of Latvia governor in order to ensure greater transparency of the process, the minister told LETA.

Current Bank of Latvia Governor Ilmars Rimsevics is due to step down in less than three weeks. 


Bordans said the had already proposed the idea to Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins (New Unity), who noted though that the central bank's next head has to be picked by December 21. 


Bordans admitted that he should have come up with the idea earlier but said that the people involved in this process "trusted that the process will be managed and each did their own job". Now, the justice minister believes that it is necessary to "reorganize and do the job better". 


Commented on the ongoing selection process, Bordans said that he has got an impression that everyone is very interested "in some process and there is a great deal of tension". Bordans feels that the selection process involves "traditional political horse-trading, for example, you leave us the National Electronic Mass Media Council, and we give your the Bank of Latvia governor - in some bank's interests". 


Bordans said he cannot accept such deal-making, adding that it is also humiliating to the candidates running for the position. 


The minister stressed that his New Conservative Party does not have any favorite candidates and that it only insists on a broader range of candidates and more comprehensible rules of the competition.


After the government coalition failed to agree on a single candidate for Bank of Latvia governor last Thursday, which was the deadline for picking the candidate, the coalition extended the deadline for nominations to December 3. 


The candidates for Bank of Latvia governor are Martins Kazaks, a member of the Bank of Latvia Council, Inna Steinbuka, a member of the Fiscal Discipline Council, Uldis Cerps, a former head of the Financial and Capital Market Commission, and Reinis Berzins, board chairman of the Development Finance Institution Altum






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