BRASS

Israeli Bank Chief to Challenge Lagarde

For IMF chief position.

Amid news that the International Monetary Fund had been hacked Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer said he will run for managing director of the IMF, posing a potentially serious challenge to frontrunner Christine Lagarde. The position became vacant when Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned after being charged with attempted rape in New York. Since the IMF was created in 1946, the head has always been European. Fischer is not the first non-European to challenge Lagarde: Mexican central bank chief Agustin Carstens has also announced plans to run for the position. Lagarde has received the support of the European Union and several smaller countries, but Fischer is popular in the United States and could win Washington’s support. But Fischer, 65, will have to apply for an exception to the rule that no one who is over 65 can be appointed, and no one over 70 can hold the post.