BICOM

Leo Leiderman dramatically withdrew his candidacy as the next Governor of the Bank of Israel on Friday, becoming the second nominee of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid to do so within the last week.

Leiderman said last Wednesday that he was “excited to return to the Bank of Israel” where he had previously served as head of research. However, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Friday that “Bank of Israel Governor nominee Leo Leiderman informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid a short time ago that he is withdrawing his candidacy.” Speculation over Leiderman’s sudden change of mind included a report on Channel Ten suggesting that there were questions over his tenure as head of emerging-markets research at Deutsche Bank ten years ago. However, speaking to The Post yesterday, Leiderman said that although his record is clean, he wants to avoid the “nightmare” of public and media scrutiny, which prompted another nominee Jacob Frenkel to withdraw his candidacy last week.

Frenkel had been widely lauded as a sound choice, but media reports revealed that he omitted to tell the Turkel Committee, which vets top public service appointments, that he had been detained at Hong Kong airport in 2006 over suspicions of shoplifting. Frenkel accused the media of a smear campaign against him and withdrew his candidacy.

Netanyahu and Lapid must now nominate a third candidate to succeed Stanley Fischer who retired in June following an extremely successful tenure. His deputy, Karnit Flug will remain as the acting governor until a permanent replacement is found. However, Labour Party leader Shelly Yachimovich said that Flug herself should be appointed. Meanwhile, Knesset Economics Committee chairman and Labour MK Avishai Braverman co-sponsored a bill to introduce a selection committee for the position, telling Army Radio “The public has lost its faith in the public sector.”