Nagel is the preferred candidate for the Bundesbank summit

DrAccording to a press report, economist Joachim Nagel has the best chance of inheriting Jens Weidmann at the helm of the Bundesbank. As British business newspaper Financial Times reported Thursday, citing a person with direct knowledge of the process, the 55-year-old is the “favourite candidate”. FAZ had already stated on November 15 that Nagel could be the ideal candidate for Bundesbank chief of the SPD coalition, the Greens and the FDP.

So far, European Central Bank Director Isabel Schnabel and Finance Minister Jörg Kokis have been considered as possible candidates to succeed Weidmann, who announced his resignation at the end of the year in August. The Financial Times reports that these are no longer in operation, citing several people familiar with the discussions. A spokesman for the designated counsel, Olaf Schultz, declined to comment on the report, according to the Reuters news agency.

Nagel worked at Bundesbank for 17 years – six of them on the board. In 2017, he moved to the board of the state development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and then in 2020 to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the central bank. There is a deputy head of the banking department. By the way, Weidmann is still Chairman of the Board of Directors of BIS. As a representative of the Bundesbank, Nagel was critical of ECB bond purchases. Weidmann has it too, so Nagel can stand for continuity at the top of the Bundesbank. The fact that he is a member of the SPD should speak for him as well, especially since the SPD should have the right to propose the Bundesbank job.