Who will be the IMF’s rep in Rome?

One of the few tangible outcomes of the G20 summit in Cannes was an agreement–allegedly voluntary–that the International Monetary Fund would supervise Italy’s financial reform process. And yesterday, Reuters reported that the IMF’s new first deputy managing director, David Lipton, would lead the mission to Rome. If true, that would have ramped up the profile ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

One of the few tangible outcomes of the G20 summit in Cannes was an agreement--allegedly voluntary--that the International Monetary Fund would supervise Italy's financial reform process. And yesterday, Reuters reported that the IMF's new first deputy managing director, David Lipton, would lead the mission to Rome. If true, that would have ramped up the profile of the mission considerably. Lipton, a banking and hedge fund veteran, recently left the White House to take the number two slot at the Fund. 

One of the few tangible outcomes of the G20 summit in Cannes was an agreement–allegedly voluntary–that the International Monetary Fund would supervise Italy’s financial reform process. And yesterday, Reuters reported that the IMF’s new first deputy managing director, David Lipton, would lead the mission to Rome. If true, that would have ramped up the profile of the mission considerably. Lipton, a banking and hedge fund veteran, recently left the White House to take the number two slot at the Fund. 

But the IMF is now saying Lipton won’t be the Fund’s man in Rome, after all. It’s not yet clear whether the initial report was simply wrong or whether there was a change of strategy at IMF headquarters.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

Tag: IMF

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