Kitt, Müller, Ross potential candidates for Bank of Estonia governor ({{contentCtrl.commentsTotal}})

The Bank of Estonia is the country's central bank.
The Bank of Estonia is the country's central bank. Source: (Martin Dremljuga/ERR)

The supervisory council of the Bank of Estonia has nominated three candidates for the succession of Governor Ardo Hansson. They are Swedbank Estonia CEO Robert Kitt, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Estonia Madis Müller and Märten Ross, who is currently a deputy secretary-general at the Ministry of Finance.

The supervisory council will start discussing the candidacies on 12 February. At least five members of the bank's eight-strong council need to back a candidate for them to be appointed.

"The people applying for the governorship are all respectable," council president Mart Laar said in a Tuesday press release. "As the president of the supervisory council, I want the selection of any candidate for governor to be transparent and smooth."

A candidate needs to be nominated by the council and give their written agreement to be part of the procedure. Once a single candidate has the backing of the majority of the council members, the Internal Security Service (ISS, or Kapo) will perform a thorough background check that typically takes three months to complete.

The council will then familiarise with the outcome of the check, and propose to President Kersti Kaljulaid to appoint the candidate governor of the Bank of Estonia. The president then appoints the next governor.

The single seven-year term of current Governor Ardo Hansson ends on 6 June. There has been plenty of speculation that Hansson may be the successor of Mario Draghi at the European Central Bank, and that his career may thus continue in a European institution.


Editor: Dario Cavegn

