WASHINGTON—World Bank President David Malpass on Wednesday said he would leave his post well before his term ends.
Malpass, appointed by former President Donald Trump, will depart the multilateral development bank, which provides billions of dollars a year in funding for developing economies, by the end of June. His five-year term was due to end in April 2024.
Malpass gave no specific reason for the move, saying in a statement, “after a good deal of thought, I’ve decided to pursue new challenges.”
Malpass has been under pressure from Yellen in recent months to accelerate reforms aimed at changing the way the World Bank operates.
Yellen thanked Malpass for his service in a statement, saying: “The world has benefited from his strong support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion, his vital work to assist the Afghan people, and his commitment to helping low-income countries achieve debt sustainability through debt reduction.”
The U.S. Treasury chief said the United States would soon nominate a replacement for Malpass and looked forward to the bank’s board undertaking a “transparent, merit-based and swift nomination process for the next World Bank president.”
Yellen last month declined to comment when asked if the United States would support a second term for Malpass.
By long-standing tradition, the U.S. government selects the head of the World Bank, while European leaders choose the leader of its larger partner, the International Monetary Fund.
Nadia Daar, who heads the Washington office of Oxfam International, said the process should be opened to more candidates to improve the credibility of the institution.
“If shareholders really want to ‘evolve’ the @WorldBank, Malpass’ successor must be hired based on an open and merit-based selection process,” she said on Twitter.
Malpass took up the World Bank helm in April 2019 after serving as the top official for international affairs at U.S. Treasury in the Trump administration. Before that, he served as the chief economist for the now-defunct investment bank Bear Stearns for more than a decade.
In fiscal 2022, the World Bank committed more than $104 billion to projects around the globe, according to the bank’s annual report.
Two of the top contenders for the post are Samantha Power, who currently leads the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Barack Obama, and Rajiv Shah, former USAID administrator under Obama and currently president of the Rockefeller Foundation, a philanthropic group.
The World Bank’s governors are expected to approve the bank’s “evolution roadmap” for reforms incorporating U.S.-requested changes, such as balance sheet adjustments that free up an additional $2 billion for lending in fiscal 2024, at the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank set for mid-April.
