Pressure on ECB executive to quit

Rome: European Central Bank executive board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi faced mounting pressure from the leaders of Italy and France to quit as part of their deal to allow fellow Italian Mario Draghi to become ECB president.

“To obtain the support of France for our candidate Mario Draghi, we need to have a French member on the board and we are working on that,” Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told journalists yesterday before asking Bini Smaghi to resign.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Italy had given “its word” on the matter.

While euro area nations have found consensus on Draghi’s succession to replace Jean-Claude Trichet as chief of the ECB in November, that would leave Italy with two seats on the six-member board. In April, Berlusconi agreed with Sarkozy to seek Bini Smaghi’s resignation and make room for a French appointee in return for support for Draghi, the current Bank of Italy governor.