U.S. President Donald Trump says he will nominate a sharp critic of the World Bank to head the international organization, calling him the "right person to take on this incredibly important job."
Trump's nomination on February 6 of Treasury Department official David Malpass to head the World Bank is subject to a vote by the 189-nation lending institution's executive board and could draw challengers from some of the other member countries.
As the World Bank's largest shareholder, the United States has 16 percent of its voting power and has traditionally chosen the president, although Jim Yong Kim, who stepped down from the post on February 1, faced challengers from Colombia and Nigeria in 2012.
Malpass, the Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, was an economic adviser to Trump's 2016 election campaign.
In his current position, the 62-year-old Malpass oversees the U.S. role in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
He has criticized the organizations for growing ever larger, more "intrusive," and "entrenched."
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to countries for capital projects