Trump nominates David Malpass to head World Bank

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the World Bank Group should be led by US Treasury official David Malpass, a Trump loyalist, and critic of multilateral institutions who has vowed to pursue "pro-growth" reforms at the global lender.

Trump’s nomination of Malpass, the Treasury Department’s top diplomat, is subject to a vote by the World Bank’s executive board and could draw challengers from some of its 188 other shareholding countries.

Malpass, the undersecretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department and recently involved in the US-China trade negotiations, has been a sharp critic of the World Bank, especially over its lending to China, who he has said has sufficient resources of its own.

Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, Malpass said he would seek to implement reforms approved last year after negotiations to increase the bank's lending capital by $13bn, such as curbing loans to and charging higher interest to higher income countries like China.

"I'm very optimistic that we can achieve breakthroughs to create growth abroad that will help us combat extreme poverty and increase economic opportunities in the developing world," Malpass said. He added that a key goal for the World Bank would be to ensure that women achieve full participation in developing economies.

Malpass said he looked forward to working with Trump's daughter and senior adviser Ivanka on her women's global development and prosperity initiative.

The United States is the largest shareholder with 16 percent of its voting power and has traditionally chosen the bank’s president, but Jim Yong Kim, who stepped down from the job on Feb. 1, faced challenges from Colombia and Nigeria in 2012.

The nomination of Malpass signals that the Trump administration wants a firmer grip on the World Bank. He was an economic adviser to Trump’s 2016 election campaign.

If his candidacy is approved, Malpass would succeed Jim Yong- Kim, who announced in January he was stepping down three years before his term was set to expire amid differences with the Trump administration over climate change and development resources.