Press Release No. 15/65

Press Release: IMFC Selects Agustín Carstens as New Chairman

February 20, 2015

The members of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the policy advisory committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have selected Mr. Agustín Carstens, Governor of Banco de México, as Chairman of the Committee for a term of three years, effective March 23, 2015. Mr. Carstens will succeed Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, whose term ends on March 22, 2015.

Mr. Carstens has been the Governor of the Banco de México since January 2010. He served as Mexico’s Finance Minister from December 2006 until December 2009, and chaired the IMF and World Bank Joint Development Committee from March 2007 to October 2009. From August 2003 to October 2006, Mr. Carstens served as Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, and was an Executive Director on the IMF Board in 1999-2000. Mr. Carstens was Mexico’s Deputy Minister of Finance from 2000-2003, and held a variety of posts in the Banco de México in a career spanning over 20 years. Currently, Mr. Carstens is on the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements, where he chairs its Global Economy Meeting of central bank governors and the Economic Consultative Committee, and he is a member of the Financial Stability Board’s Steering Committee.

The IMFC, comprising finance ministers and central bank governors, is the primary advisory body of the IMF Board of Governors and deliberates on the principal policy issues facing the IMF. The Committee has 24 members, reflecting the composition of the IMF Executive Board. Each member country that appoints, and each group of countries that elects, an Executive Director also appoints a member of the Committee. The IMFC normally meets twice a year—in the spring and at the time of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in the fall. Its next meeting will be held on April 17-18, 2015 in Washington, D.C.

For editors: Factsheet on the IMFC