Press Release No. 06/29

Press Release: Counsellor and ICM Director Gerd Häusler Notifies IMF Management of Intention to Leave the Fund

February 9, 2006

Mr. Gerd Häusler, Counsellor and Director of the International Monetary Fund's International Capital Markets Department (ICM), has notified IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato of his intention to return to Europe and has asked to be released from his position effective July 2006. Mr. Häusler was named to his current post in June 2001 (see Press Release No. 01/27).

The Managing Director made the following statement to the Executive Board regarding Mr. Häusler's decision:

"Gerd has made an important contribution to the Fund as the first Director of ICM. Under Gerd's stewardship, our work on capital markets has grown and matured, and the Fund, and specifically ICM, has become an authoritative voice in discussions in the Financial Stability Forum, with other international groups and with national authorities. We are now planning further development of financial sector and capital markets work, with the aim of giving these areas even more prominence in our surveillance of members' economies. We have been able to reach this point, and we have the ability to make such a move, in no small part because of Gerd's leadership, expertise and hard work.

"Gerd's achievements here are considerable. He established and developed the Global Financial Stability Report with an eye to the important impact it can make outside the institution in highlighting global financial vulnerabilities. He and his colleagues have also given good and useful—and often far sighted—advice to management and the Board on capital markets issues. He has formed and shaped his department. Gerd brought together a group of both insiders and outsiders into the new department and gave that department an identity, and those people a sense of professionalism and pride in their work on capital markets that has come across clearly whenever I have met them. His rich combination of private sector experience and public sector service has made Gerd Häusler a valuable resource since he came to the Fund in 2001."

The public announcement regarding Mr. Häusler's decision, which was made a few months ago, was delayed until Mr. de Rato's announcement on February 1 regarding strengthening the Fund's financial and capital market work (see Press Releases No. 06/21 and No. 05/132).