People: Georgieva nominates new IMF deputy managing director

Washington, DC: The managing director of the International Monetary Fund has nominated Kenji Okamura as the fund’s next deputy managing director.

The IMF said Kristalina Georgieva had made her nomination known to the fund’s board of directors, in a statement on November 10. “[Okumara] has a distinguished background and brings his wealth of experience in international economics,” Georgieva said.

Okamura will assume the role from December 3, replacing Mitsuhiro Furusawa who announced he would be stepping down on November 30.

Okumara is a career civil servant and currently serves as a special adviser on international economic policies to Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida. Prior to this he was vice-minister of finance and international affairs, where he was Japan’s highest-ranking diplomat dealing with international finance.

Between 1993 and 1996, he was seconded from the Japanese government to the IMF’s Asia and Pacific department. Georgieva also noted that he played an “important role” in the IMF’s quota and voice reforms following the 2008 financial crisis.

The reforms, implemented in 2011, increased funding quotas for over 50 IMF member countries. They also made changes aimed at enhancing the participation of low income countries’ voting power during quota allocation. 

For most of his career, Okumara has worked for Japan’s finance ministry. He joined the ministry in 1985 rising to the rank of director-general of the International Bureau, a post he held between 2019 and 2020.  

Between 2013 and 2015, he served as deputy commissioner of Japan’s Financial Services Agency. The JFSA is responsible for supervising Japan’s financial sector.

Okumara has a law degree from the University of Tokyo and a master’s in public policy from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

UK: The Bank of England’s Court of Directors has approved the appointment of Nathaniel Benjamin and Duncan MacKinnon to the bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).

Sam Woods, chief executive of the PRA and BoE deputy governor for prudential regulation, nominated Benjamin as executive director for authorisations, regtech and international supervision. He also nominated MacKinnon to the role of executive director for the supervisory risk specialists department.

The BoE’s Court has a maximum of 14 members. Five come from the BoE including the governor and four deputy governors, along with up to nine-non executive members.  

It is responsible for setting the central bank’s strategy and budget, and has oversight of key decisions regarding resourcing and appointments. Bradley Fried is the current chair of the BoE’s Court.

The PRA is responsible for the regulation and supervision of around 1500 banks, building societies, credit unions, insurers and major investment firms.

US: Kelly Barclay and Renard Johnson have both been re-appointed to the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas by its member banks.

Both have been appointed for a three-year term ending on December 31, 2024.

Each regional Federal Reserve Bank has a nine-member board of directors. Three are representatives from commercial banks, three represent the public and three are appointed by the Fed’s Board of Governors.

Barclay has served on the Dallas Fed’s board since 2019. She is currently chief executive of Ozona Bank, a position she has held since 2010.

Johnson joined the Dallas Fed’s board in 2020 having previously served on the Dallas Fed’s El Paso branch’s board between 2012 and 2018. He is the founder of Meti, a company that provides system engineering and IT support to federal and commercial organisations.

Both Barclay and Johnson will provide information to the Dallas Fed’s president about the region’s economic outlook as part of the Fed’s broader monetary policy function.

The Dallas Fed has an alternate seat on the Federal Open Markets Committee. Acting Dallas Fed president Meredith Black is not currently a FOMC voting member.

Black became acting president after Robert Kaplan resigned in October, following controversy about his equities trading during 2020.