The race to be Bank of Thailand governor is heating up, with bankers and economists leading a list of seven applicants vying for a pivotal role in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy.
Candidates include Anusorn Tamajai, who sought the governor’s role in 2020; Vitai Ratanakorn, president of the state-owned Government Savings Bank; Bangkok Bank executive Kobsak Pootrakool; and Somprawin Manprasert, a former economist at Siam Commercial Bank. Others include a central deputy governor and a former International Monetary Fund economist, the Thai-language newspaper Krungthep Turakij reported.
Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput, who has reached the retirement age of 60, will end his five-year term on Sept 30 after battling government pressure for lower interest rates and a higher inflation target.
His successor will be chosen by an independent panel, but the administration of Prime Minister Paetongtan Shinawatra has made no secret it wants a more pliable governor.
The new chief should be “forward-looking with modern ideas” and “support government policies”, Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira said in January. Ms Paetongtarn called the BoT’s independence an “obstacle”, and her father, ex-premier Thaksin, fired a governor in 2001.
Still, the government failed to install Pheu Thai Party veteran Kittiratt Na-Ranong earlier in the supervisory role of chairman of the central bank board. He was disqualified for having held a political position as an adviser to former prime minister Srettha Thavisin.
A selection committee plans to shortlist at least two candidates for the finance minister to pick Mr Sethaput’s successor by July 2. The appointment will require cabinet and royal approval.
The committee is scheduled to hold its next meeting on June 20 to select candidates for interviews and vision presentations, set for June 24. Here are the likely contenders:
Anusorn Tamajai
Mr Anusorn, 59, is the only applicant who has previously sought the governorship. The dean of the economics faculty at University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, he has served on the BoT board and worked in the finance ministry’s public debt management committee. He has a doctorate in economics from Fordham University in New York.
Kobsak Pootrakool
Mr Kobsak is a senior executive vice-president at Bangkok Bank and chairman of the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organizations. The economist was formerly a minister attached to the office of former premier Prayut Chan-o-cha, and he worked at the central bank for more than a decade on both monetary and financial institution policies. He holds a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics.
Roong Mallikamas
A career central banker, 56-year-old Ms Roong is the BoT’s deputy governor for financial institutions stability, with policy experience in financial institutions, financial markets and monetary policy. An alumnus of Harvard University, she also holds a doctorate from MIT. She previously held a senior management role at state-owned Krungthai Bank.
Somprawin Manprasert
The 50-year-old former chief economist at Siam Commercial Bank and Bank of Ayudhya was a lecturer in the economics faculty at Chulalongkorn University before he joined the private sector. He has a master’s degree in economics and finance from the University of Warwick in England and a doctorate from the University of Maryland at College Park.
Sutapa Amornvivat
A former IMF economist and a director of macroeconomic analysis at the Ministry of Finance, 50-year-old Ms Sutapa is the founding chief executive of Abacus Digital, a fintech lending platform of SCB X, the parent of Siam Commercial Bank. A Harvard alumnus with a doctorate from MIT, Ms Sutapa is also the niece of Sompong Amornvivat, a former leader of the ruling Pheu Thai party. Her cousin Julapun Amornvivat is currently a deputy finance minister and her late father was a national police chief.
Vitai Ratanakorn
The 54-year-old president and chief executive officer of the Government Savings Bank has managed its more than 3 trillion baht in assets since 2020. He has master’s degrees in finance from Drexel University in Philadelphia and in law and political economy from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Before leading the state bank, he was secretary-general of the Government Pension Fund.