Rockefeller chief emerges as favourite to lead World Bank amid calls for transparency

The head of the Rockefeller Foundation, Rajiv Shah, has emerged as the favourite to succeed David Malpass as head of the World Bank amid calls for the White House to lose its stranglehold on choosing who should run the global development body.

- Larry Elliott

Shah, a doctor, health expert and former head of the US Agency for International Development, is one of the names hotly tipped to be the choice of Joe Biden's administration to replace Malpass after his announcement that he would be leaving his post by June.

But the likelihood that Washington will use a "gentleman's agreement" under which the US picks the World Bank president, while Europe chooses the managing director of its sister organisation, the International Monetary Fund, brought immediate calls for the process to be opened up.

"With the dismal Malpass gone, the US are already manoeuvring to appoint the new head of the Bank," said Oxfam's head of inequality policy, Max Lawson. "This neocolonial 80-year-old stitch-up has to end if the World Bank is to retain any credibility with the rest of the world.

"Joe Biden should back a fully transparent open recruitment process to show the world that his administration is different."