On Friday, Indian American Ajay Banga became the first non-white president of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
On May 3, the World Bank Executive Directors appointed Banga, 63, as the 14th President for a five-year tenure.
President Joe Biden nominated Banga for World Bank president in February.
“Welcome Ajay Banga as World Bank Group President.” “We are committed to creating a world free from poverty on a livable planet,” the future Bank tweeted Friday with a photo of Banga entering the bank offices.
I wish Ajay Banga well as he becomes World Bank president today. “I look forward to continuing the deep partnership between our institutions to do good and help those most in need,” IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva tweeted.
First Indian-American World Bank president Banga
Banga was General Atlantic Vice Chairman. He was President and CEO of Mastercard, a worldwide company with 24,000 people.
MasterCard’s Center for Inclusive Growth promotes global financial inclusion and equitable economic growth under his direction. From 2020 to 2022, he was International Chamber of Commerce Honorary Chairman.
At BeyondNetZero’s founding in 2021, he became an adviser. Banga co-chaired the Partnership for Central America, a network of private groups that promotes economic opportunities for neglected people in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. He served on Kraft Foods, Dow Inc., and American Red Cross boards.
Banga co-founded The Cyber Readiness Institute and was Economic Club of New York Vice Chair. The Foreign Policy Association Medal, Padma Shri Award, Ellis Island Medal of Honor, Business Council for International Understanding Global Leadership Award, and Distinguished Friends of Singapore Public Service Star were among his honors.
Yellen visited Banga at the Treasury Department on Thursday. According to a media release, Yellen enthusiastically greeted Banga’s future leadership and expressed her strong wish for the Treasury to maintain close work with him to build on the good progress made on developing multilateral development banks (MDBs).
Yellen also emphasized World Bank engagement with sister development agencies.
It said that includes continuing to implement the G20 Capital Adequacy Framework review’s recommendations to maximize the Bank’s balance sheet, improving and increasing private capital mobilized for our shared global development objectives, and refining the operating model to increase the bank’s responsiveness and agility.
Yellen underlined the need to help the Bank’s weakest members as they face several crises, including global macroeconomic headwinds aggravated by Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
The statement said Yellen looks forward to Banga’s extensive leadership and demonstrated management abilities at the helm of this essential international organization amid a time of great global challenge and opportunity.
