Best-selling economist, Thomas Piketty, and up to 100 other French economists have written to Le Monde newspaper warning that the appointment of former BNP Paribas banker, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, as governor of France’s Central Bank would raise “grave conflicts of interest.”
French President, Francois Hollande selected Monsieur Villeroy de Galhau for the role last week, a decision that must be ratified by the French parliament.
While they acknowledged the banker’s “excellent expertise of the banking sector” the economists said it “was totally illusory to assert that once can serve the banking industry and then several months later, exert control of it with impartiality and independence.”
They added that Mr Hollande had chosen a member of the elite bureaucracy over better internal and external candidates.
Supporters of Mr Villeroy de Galhau point to the fact that Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England - and the President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draighi both worked for Goldman Sachs.
As head of the Bank of France he will also sit on the ECB's rate-setting council.
