Overview
- Pablo Hernández de Cos, a former Bank of Spain governor now at the BIS, ranked as the top candidate in a new OMFIF expert survey.
- The study weighed five contenders across nine areas such as central‑bank know‑how, leadership and ability to win support, and de Cos led in four categories.
- La Vanguardia reports de Cos scored 1.77 on a 1‑to‑5 scale where 1 is best, ahead of Joachim Nagel at 1.90, Klaas Knot at 1.92, François Villeroy de Galhau at 1.94 and Isabel Schnabel at 2.57.
- The European Central Bank has said Christine Lagarde is focused on her job and has not decided on an early exit, so the timing of any handover remains uncertain.
- A separate Bloomberg poll in January put Knot first and de Cos second, pointing to a close race likely centered on Spanish, German and Dutch candidates.