Spanish minister Escriva to become new Bank of Spain chief
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MADRID, Sept 3 (Reuters) -The Spanish government will appoint Digital Transformation Minister Jose Luis Escriva as governor of the Bank of Spain for the next six years, a government source told Reuters on Tuesday, confirming earlier reports in local media.
Escriva would succeed Pablo Hernandez de Cos as governor and become a member of the European Central Bank's governing council. De Cos stepped down after his term expired in June and the bank has been led on an interim basis by Deputy Governor Margarita Delgado.
As a current member of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialist cabinet who previously headed the social security ministry and oversaw a reform of the pension system, Escriva's appointment is poised to raise concerns about the bank's independence.
"The government intends to control and hijack an institution such as the Bank of Spain," Alberto Nunez Feijoo, leader of the opposition conservative People's Party (PP), told reporters earlier on Tuesday when asked about the then-frontrunner's expected appointment.
The Socialists argue that the PP set a precedent by proposing the appointment of Luis de Guindos as vice president of the ECB when he had served as economy minister in a PP-led government.
However, De Guindos' appointment was approved on the recommendation of the Council of the European Union.
"There are few people in Spain who have the knowledge of monetary policy that Jose Luis Escriva has," Sanchez said in a July press conference when defending Escriva as a potential candidate.
While the government can appoint the central bank governor and a deputy, there is an unwritten rule in Spain that it should be made in consensus with the main opposition party.
In the past the government has appointed the governor, while the opposition chose the deputy, with both picks generally top economists or technocrats and not active politicians.
An economist by training, Escriva began his career in the research department of the Bank of Spain and later at the European Central Bank.
He became head of research at BBVA BBVA.MC - Spain's second-largest bank by assets - and was eventually appointed by the previous PP-led government of Mariano Rajoy as head of the national fiscal watchdog.
Reporting by Belén Carreño, Jesús Aguado and David Latona; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Charlie Devereux and Toby Chopra
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