Asia's Push

Philippine Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said in an interview today that Shanmugaratnam "is certainly well qualified," and his Thai counterpart Korn Chatikavanij said yesterday Asia has good candidates, including Shanmugaratnam.

"I think the U.S. and Europe should take it upon themselves to really open this up to all candidates that are qualified, not necessarily just Europeans," Purisima said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

The time has come for a non-European to head the IMF, according to Angel Gurria, secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. "The moment has come to change what is a tradition, which is that the IMF is led by a European," the former Mexican finance minister told reporters in Paris today.

Brazilian ex-central banker Arminio Fraga, South Africa's Manuel, India's Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Shanmugaratnam would all make "fine candidates" to lead the IMF, Raghuram Rajan, a professor at the University of Chicago and a former chief IMF economist, wrote in the Financial Times.

China's government has asked Peter Mandelson, a former U.K. business secretary and European trade commissioner, whether he's interested in the job, the Guardian reported, citing no one.

Resignation

Strauss-Kahn resigned as the 10th leader of the IMF four days after his arrest in New York on sexual-assault charges.

"I want to devote all my strength, all my time and all my energy to proving my innocence," Strauss-Kahn said in a statement released by the IMF. The fund said it will comment "in the near future" on the succession. Strauss-Kahn, 62, had been leading in polls for France's 2012 presidential election.

Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, was arrested May 14 on accusations of sexually assaulting a hotel maid and has been at New York's Rikers Island jail complex since May 16.

He may be released from jail as early as today after he was granted bail. While he has denied the accusations, he hasn't entered a formal plea to any of the charges, which include attempted rape. The indictment in the case was filed yesterday.

Greek Crisis