ROME (Reuters) – Fabio Panetta has been named the next governor of the Bank of Italy by presidential decree and will succeed Ignazio Visco on November 1, the central bank reports on its website.
Aged 63, Fabio Panetta has had a long career of more than thirty years at the Bank of Italy and has served on the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB) since the beginning of 2020.
His departure from the ECB will free up a position on the executive board, which has six members including the president Christine Lagarde. By virtue of an unspoken rule, this body has always included representatives of the three largest economies in the euro zone – Germany, France, Italy.
Fabio Panetta is ranked in the camp of “doves” at the ECB, as is Ignazio Visco, governor of the Bank of Italy since 2011.
According to several sources, the Italian government is leaning towards the appointment of Piero Cipollone, deputy director general of the Bank of Italy since 2020, to replace him.
The procedure is that Rome proposes the name of a candidate to the finance ministers of the euro zone, who must consult the European Parliament and the ECB. The application must then be validated by the leaders of the member countries.
Piero Cipollone, who joined the Bank of Italy in 1993, has also worked for the World Bank. He was economic adviser under the chairmanship of the Council of Giuseppe Conte (2018-2019).
(Report Giselda Vagnoni, Jean-Stéphane Brosse, edited by Kate Entringer)
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