Update: PBOC Official Tapped to Be Next IMF Deputy Managing Director

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has proposed making People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Deputy Governor Li Bo its next deputy managing director, about two months after he took his current position at the central bank.

Li’s appointment, set to take effect Aug. 23, will fill the vacancy soon to be left by Zhang Tao, who plans to step down Aug. 22 after a five-year tenure, according to an IMF statement on Monday.

Li, 48, is a financial industry veteran who has spent 14 years in several positions at China’s central bank. He left the PBOC in 2018, and the following year was named vice mayor of Chongqing municipality amid a wave of appointments of financiers and financial regulatory officials to senior local government positions.

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Li brings “extensive experience in central banking and law” as he has played a key role in supporting and implementing several important policies at the PBOC, including state-owned banking reform, legislation against money laundering, and the establishment of China’s macroprudential policy framework, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in the statement.

Li, a graduate of Renmin University of China in Beijing, also holds a master’s degree in economics from Boston University, a doctorate in economics from Stanford University and a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School.

Li’s new appointment meets market expectations as two of his predecessors, Zhang Tao and Zhu Min, had been nominated as PBOC deputy governors before they took the IMF position. Zhu was appointed as IMF deputy managing director in July 2011, becoming the first Chinese national to hold the post.

The IMF managing director is assisted by a first deputy managing director, a role usually taken by Americans, and three deputy managing directors. In addition to Zhang Tao, the other two current deputy managing directors are Antoinette Monsio Sayeh, a former finance minister of Liberia, and Mitsuhiro Furusawa, a former senior official at the Ministry of Finance in Japan.

Li’s appointment comes as the IMF conducts its latest round of reviews of quotas of member countries. The quotas reflect the countries’ relative positions in the world economy and are denominated by Special Drawing Rights, an international reserve asset launched by the IMF in the late 1960s to supplement its member countries’ official reserves. The 16th review, set to be completed by the end of 2023, would likely result in an increase in quota shares for emerging market and developing countries, according to the IMF.

The IMF, with 190 member countries, works to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty.

Contact reporter Luo Meihan (meihanluo@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)

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