Factbox-Six Candidates for ECB Vice Presidency

Factbox-Six candidates for ECB vice presidency

Candidates for ECB Vice Presidency

BRUSSELS, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers will nominate on Monday a successor to European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos.

Martins Kazaks - Latvia

Following are some details on each of the six candidates who applied, four of whom are from the former Communist east - countries that now make up a third of the euro zone’s 21 members but have never held an ECB board seat.

Boris Vujcic - Croatia

LATVIA'S MARTINS KAZAKS 

Olli Rehn - Finland

Latvian central bank chief Kazaks may have the best chance of getting the job after a European Parliament committee named him as one of its preferred candidates. 

Mario Centeno - Portugal

Born in Latvia, then still part of the Soviet Union, Kazaks is a Cambridge University-educated monetary economist now serving his second term as Governor. 

Madis Muller - Estonia

The 52-year-old is generally considered a moderate hawk, and he was an early advocate of tighter policy when inflation soared and he cautioned against cutting interest rates too quickly once inflation started to decline.

Rimantas Sadzius - Lithuania

CROATIA’S BORIS VUJCIC

Another trained economist, Vujcic is now serving his third six-year term as head of Croatia’s central bank, having overseen his country’s entry into the euro zone as its 20th member. 

Vujcic, 61, is also considered a moderate hawk. He has consistently warned against lingering inflation risks and argued for only gradual policy easing to make sure price pressures are fully extinguished.

FINLAND’S OLLI REHN

Seen by ECB watchers as the candidate to beat, Rehn has been part of Europe’s policy landscape for decades. The 63-year-old avid football fan served as the European Commission’s Vice President from 2011 to 2014, where one of his jobs included sitting in on ECB meetings as an observer.

He has been central bank governor since 2018 but took a brief leave of absence to run a failed presidential campaign in 2023. He is considered a dove, who often warns that downside risks to growth and inflation warrant greater attention. 

In his youth, Rehn played football for Finnish first division club Mikkelin Palloilijat, and he remains passionate about the game to this day.

PORTUGAL’S MARIO CENTENO

The European Parliament’s other preferred candidate for the job is a trained labour economist who gained his most prominent role in 2018 when he became head of the Eurogroup, the key forum of euro zone finance ministers. 

Centeno, who previously sought the top job at the IMF when Christine Lagarde joined the ECB, served one term as the Portuguese central bank’s chief but did not get a second term from his government last summer. He was considered a dove on the Governing Council, advocating easier policy and warning that weak underlying trends could drag inflation below target.

ESTONIA’S MADIS MULLER

Muller has been running his country's central bank since 2019 after a career in finance. He has worked extensively in the private sector but also with government agencies like the World Bank. Muller, 48, is considered a centrist on the ECB’s Governing Council with moderate views.

LITHUANIA’S RIMANTAS SADZIUS

Sadzius is a former Lithuanian finance minister who also served a short stint as acting prime minister. He is seen as an outlier for the ECB job as he has never worked as a central banker. The 65-year-old has served several terms in government since 2007 and also worked at the European Court of Auditors.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Hugh Lawson)