(Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank Governing Council member Bostjan Vasle said he’d seek a second six-year term at the helm of Slovenia’s central bank.
Vasle, whose current stint ends on Jan. 8, told journalists at a briefing Wednesday in Ljubljana, that he’d run “based on track record in the first mandate.”
That saw Vasle, 55, navigate the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as he sought to boost capital adequacy among local lenders and resolve legal issues stemming from a past bailout. He also took the unpopular step of curbing loans to households.
His candidacy may get a boost in October when President Christine Lagarde and her colleagues hold their next policy meeting in Ljubljana.
Vasle’s bid is likely to face stiff competition. Local media have listed potential replacements including former Prime Minister Anton Rop, Finance Ministry state secretary Sasa Jazbec and several serving central-bank vice governors.
President Natasa Pirc Musar is accepting applications from candidates until Sept. 23, after which she’ll have 30 days to make her pick. The nominee must then secure an absolute majority in parliament.
Vasle’s decision comes amid a raft of changes at the euro-zone central banks whose governors also have seats on the ECB’s interest rate-setting Governing Council. Spain, Austria and Cyprus have all chosen new heads in recent months — a period during which officials have begun to loosen monetary policy as inflation recedes toward 2%.
Vasle has been in his role since 2019, when predecessor Bostjan Jazbec, an architect of the contentious 2013 banking rescue, resigned to take a post at the Single Resolution Board in Brussels.
High inflation marked Vasle’s tenure at the ECB, where he gained the reputation as a hawk. His macroeconomic background and real-life experience with periods of hyperinflation in the former Yugoslavia added weight to his arguments in Frankfurt.
(Updates with more detail in third paragraph.)
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