As no decision could be reached at the , the board of governors of the ESM, the body that brings together the 19 finance ministers of the euro area, made a temporary appointment in choosing Frankel.
Frankel is an insider. He has been the deputy director general and a member of the board since 2012, the year the ESM was created. He served as the institution's Chief Financial Officer from 2012 to 2019, and as Chief Risk Officer since 2019. He has also been the deputy managing director of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) since its creation in 2010.
Prior to Luxembourg, Frankel was based in Paris where he was head of financial markets at Crédit Foncier de France in Paris, financial director of the Caisse d'Amortissement de la Dette Sociale (CADES)--the body that pays off social security debt for the French government.
He holds a master's degree in Finance from the École Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciale (ESSEC) in France and a master's degree in Marine Sciences and Technologies from the University of Toulon.
The clock is ticking, until 31 December
Appointing an interim managing director at ESM will allow governments to agree on a successor to Regling. Frankel's mandate will in theory end on 31 December, and even earlier if the decision-making process yields a final candidate.
“We started the selection process for a new managing director with four excellent candidates, but none of them could reach the very high threshold of 80% of the votes cast. Therefore, in order to ensure continuity in the conduct of the ESM's day-to-day business, the board has appointed Frankel to head the ESM on an interim basis,” said Paschal Donohoe, Chairman of the ESM Board of Governors.
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Frankel will take up his duties on 8 October 2022, when the mandate of current ESM managing director Regling, expires.
This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.