IMF names Bessent's chief of staff Katz to No. 2 post

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva proposed on Thursday that Dan Katz, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's chief of staff and point person on China, be appointed to fill the fund's No. 2 post, the IMF said in a statement.

The move places a key Trump administration insider into an influential position within the global crisis lender as Bessent calls on the IMF to abandon climate and gender projects and focus solely on its core financial stability mission while taking a tougher stance on China's "distortive" economic practices.

Katz, who would have a key role in developing IMF policies and lending negotiations, served as the principal adviser to Bessent on a wide range of domestic and international matters, the IMF said, including a new U.S.-Ukraine economic partnership and on negotiations with China.

In nominating Katz to be first deputy managing director, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said: "Dan is known to his colleagues for his passion for policy work, particularly the intersection of economic policy and international relations. He is highly respected for his solution-oriented approach, collaborative leadership style, and willingness to bring fresh perspectives to difficult issues."

Katz replaces Gita Gopinath, who returned to Harvard University at the end of August. His appointment is subject to approval by the IMF's Executive Board.

"The IMF plays an indispensable role at the heart of the international monetary system," Katz said in a statement. "I very much look forward to deepening my engagement with the Fund, its staff and the membership."

'MISSION CREEP'

Bessent, who controls dominant U.S. shareholdings in the IMF and the World Bank, called in April for the institutions to refocus to their core missions, saying they were suffering from "mission creep" into climate, gender and social equality issues as global imbalances increased.

He said the IMF must be a "brutal truth teller" about countries' economic policies and say no to those that fail to implement economic reforms.

A Goldman Sachs alumnus, Katz has helped to organize four rounds of in-person negotiations between Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, including this week's talks on TikTok in Madrid.  

Katz, who has degrees from Yale University and New York University School of Law, also served as an adviser to the commander of U.S. forces in Kabul, Afghanistan, and at the Treasury Department during President Donald Trump's first term on international affairs, international financial markets and sanctions policy, the IMF said. He consulted for Bessent's hedge fund before being named Bessent's chief of staff in the current Trump term.

The first deputy managing director post has traditionally been an American, with the IMF's top job going to a European since its creation at the end of World War Two.

During Trump's first term at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgieva appointed another U.S. Treasury official, Geoffrey Okamoto, an adviser to then-Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, to the IMF No 2 post. Okamoto was succeeded by Gopinath, previously the Fund's chief economist, in January 2022.

Pierre Yared, vice chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, had also been under consideration for the post.

(Reporting by David Lawder and Bhargav Acharya, Katharine Jackson and Andrea Shalal, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)