Brazil studies the candidacy of Ilan Goldfajn as president of the IDB

Director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund Ilan Goldfajn poses in his office in Washington, DC, on January 24, 2022. Cory Hancock (IMF Photo/Cory Hancock)

The contest for a new president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is taking shape.

The Government of Brazil is preparing to nominate the former governor of its Central Bank Ilan Godfajn to take the reins of the Latin American development bank, according to the

agency , which cites an anonymous source with knowledge of the procedure.

This would put Goldfajn in direct competition with Mexican diplomat Alicia Bárcena, nominated by her country.

Goldfajn, who has been director of the Western Hemisphere department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a year, has a recognized career in banking and in multilateral organizations.

The election of the next president of the IDB will take place on November 20, through a system in which the representatives of its member countries vote for the proposed candidates.

The weight of the vote of each country varies and the United States has 30% of the total voting power.

The IDB began the election process after its previous president, Mauricio Claver-Carone, was removed for an alleged romantic relationship with a colleague, which violated the codes of the Washington-based institution.

Claver-Carone was the first president of the American IDB, since, since its foundation, the tradition had been that the head of the bank is a Latin American.

The nomination, made by then US President Donald Trump, was controversial.

Born in Israel, Goldfajn grew up in Mexico and Brazil.

He was Governor of the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) between May 2016 and February 2019, after a career in the financial sector in the first Latin American economy.

If it wins, Goldfajn would be in charge of a multibillion-dollar portfolio of loans to countries throughout the region, which are designed to boost development.

Goldfajn would be the first president of the IDB from Brazil, if he wins the election.

The second candidate with a chance of winning is Alicia Bárcena, a Mexican biologist who reached an unprecedented level among officials in Mexico when, in 2006, the then Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Kofi Annan, appointed her Chief of Staff.

Currently, and after 14 years as executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Bárcena is Mexico's ambassador to Chile.

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