Central bank president to go

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Central bank president Nout Wellink will leave his job in 2011 and the bank will get a commando team to step in quickly if bankruptcy threatens banks in the future.

The moves are part of an action plan presented by acting finance minister Jan Kees de Jager on Monday and widely reported in the media.

They follow heavy criticism in a report published in July on how Wellink and the central bank handled the bankrupcy of independent bank DSB in 2009. The report concluded that Wellink should never have given DSB owner Dick Scheringa a banking licence.

Following the report, De Jager asked the bank to look at ways of tightening control and making the central bank more transparent.

Time limit

Based on the report's findings, the minister wants to limit the time a president can serve to two periods of seven years. Wellink is already in his second term which ends in July 2011.

The same limit will apply to other board members, allowing the bank to renew its top management on a regular basis.

The bank will also set up a new department for intervention, which will act as a sort of commando team, moving in fast if trouble looms for banks and other financial institutions under its supervision.

© DutchNews.nl

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