© ReutersDavid Malpass speaks at an event with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on February 6.
Trump's nomination on February 6 of Treasury Department official David Malpass to head the World Bank is subject to a vote by the 189-nation lending institution's executive board and could draw challengers from some of the other member countries.
As the World Bank's largest shareholder, the United States has 16 percent of its voting power and has traditionally chosen the president, although Jim Yong Kim, who stepped down from the post on February 1, faced challengers from Colombia and Nigeria in 2012.
Malpass, the Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, was an economic adviser to Trump's 2016 election campaign.
In his current position, the 62-year-old Malpass oversees the U.S. role in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
He has criticized the organizations for growing ever larger, more "intrusive," and "entrenched."
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to countries for capital projects
Comment: The World Bank, along with the IMF and OECD, have traditionally been used as weapons of American economic warfare. It's unlikely Malpass objects to the World Bank's use for this purpose, but the fact that he's a critic is still interesting. See: US Gov't internal document outlines its program of 'economic warfare' on Venezuela