OREANDA-NEWS. February 06, 2012. The Supervisory Board of Eesti Pank put forward a proposal to President Toomas Hendrik Ilves to nominate Ardo Hansson as the next governor of the central bank, reported the press-centre of Eesti Pank.

Prior to its decision, the Board studied the data collected on Ardo Hansson for security clearance by the Security Police. In a secret ballot in October last year, five of the eight board members voted in favour of Hansson.

The term of office of Andres Lipstok, the present Governor of Eesti Pank, will end on 6 June 2012. The new Governor will commence his duties on 7 June. Pursuant to the law, the Governor of Eesti Pank is appointed to office for a term of seven years and only for one term.

Ardo Hansson is currently Chief of the World Bank's Economics Unit in China. Employed by the World Bank since 1998, Hansson has also worked with Eastern European and Balkan countries. In 1993-1998 Hansson belonged to the Supervisory Board of Eesti Pank, in 1992-1995 and in 1997 he was economic adviser to the Prime Minister, and in 1991-1992 adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was also member of the Monetary Reform Committee. He has worked for several renown universities and published numerous articles on economic policy. Hansson holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard University.

Background information

The procedure of assigning Governor of Eesti Pank to the post is as follows.

1) The Supervisory Board decides to whom they are going to make the proposal to run for office.

2) The candidate has three months to pass security clearance performed by the Security Police.

3) The Supervisory Board analyses the information gathered during the clearance and makes a proposal to the President of the Republic to authorise the candidate to the office of Governor of Eesti Pank. The candidate must have the votes of at least five board members. The President will decide on the nomination within 30 working days from receiving the Board's proposal.

4) The President authorises the Governor of Eesti Pank to office.