Italian economy minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa could remain head of the International Monetary Fund's steering committee even if he loses his ministerial job in Italy's government crisis, a source close to the IMF said today.
The IMF officially says the head of its International Monetary and Finance Committee (IMFC) "does not have to be a member of the committee, nor ... a governor of the fund, a minister, or an official of comparable rank."
"There would be no official reason for him to quit," the source said.
Italian prime minister Romano Prodi resigned last week after losing a key vote and now the country could have an interim government to change the voting system before an election.
Padoa-Schioppa - a technocrat with no formal party affiliation - could be replaced as a minister in such a scenario. It is unclear whether he would continue to stay on as head of the IMFC.
"At that point you would be talking about a largely political choice" over the IMF job, said a source close to the situation.
Padoa-Schioppa was elected on October 3rd to chair the IMFC.
He has proposed broad reforms for the IMFC, including a three-year term for the chairmanship instead of an open-ended post and rotating it among geographic areas to end its dominance by Europeans.