(Bloomberg) -- The world’s top financial stability watchdog has extended the term of chair Klaas Knot until the end of June, postponing the race to appoint a successor to tackle one of the toughest jobs in global finance.
The Financial Stability Board said Knot, who was due to depart on Dec. 1, will now stay until June 30, the date he will retire as governor of the Dutch central bank after serving the maximum two terms.
Knot has chaired the FSB since December 2001, taking over from the Federal Reserve’s then-top supervisor Randy Quarles.
During the Dutchman’s time, the FSB has increasingly focused on risks outside the traditional banking sector in areas like hedge funds, crypto and open-ended funds. Knot has also repeatedly pressed the FSB’s member countries to deliver on the the “timely” implementation of the final package of post-crisis banking reforms they signed up to in 2017.
Those reforms are now in jeopardy, amid fears the upcoming US presidential election could undermine America’s will to deliver on the package, which has already been greatly watered down.
Regulators, including Knot, have also warned that it’s getting harder to convince countries to implement rules already agreed now that the shadow of the Great Financial Crisis has faded and political leaders are focused on reviving growth. Getting backing for policies that could tackle new risks is also challenging, policymakers say.
Knot’s successor will have to deal with all those issues, against a backdrop of political and economic uncertainty, and fast-paced technological change. The candidate is likely to be a heavyweight central banker from a major economy.
Chairs since the FSB’s 2011 inception include Mario Draghi, when he was governor of the Bank of Italy and Mark Carney, who held the role first as Canada’s central bank governor and then as the Bank of England’s.
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