Baku TurkicWorld
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan named Hafize Gaye Erkan, a finance executive in the United States, as Türkiye's new central bank governor, the country's Official Gazette said on Friday, TurkicWorld reports citing Daily Sabah.
Erkan's predecessor Şahap Kavcıoğlu has been named as head of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), the Official Gazette said.
A former co-CEO at First Republic Bank and managing director at Goldman Sachs, Erkan met with newly appointed Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek in Ankara on Monday.
The meeting came after Erdoğan won reelection on May 28 that extends his rule into the third decade and as he reshuffled his economic team.
Analysts have suggested that the appointment of Şimşek could signal the government's departure from economic policies centered around low-interest rates.
The government has urged monetary stimulus over the last several years, aiming to achieve price stability by slashing borrowing costs, boosting exports and flipping chronic current account deficits to surpluses.
Kavcıoğlu spearheaded the easing drive that saw the central bank slashing its benchmark policy rate to 8.5% from 19% in 2021.
Şimşek, who is highly regarded by financial markets, said the country has no choice but to return to "rational ground" to ensure predictability in the economy.
Erkan's career spans Wall Street and U.S. corporate boardrooms, and her Ivy League education includes a financial engineering Ph.D. from Princeton.
In her early 40s, Erkan is the country's fifth central bank chief in four years.
She was at First Republic from 2014 to 2021 in roles that included president, board member and chief investment officer, before she resigned in a surprise move more than a year ago.
This year, the San Francisco-based lender became the largest U.S. bank to fail since 2008 after it was seized by regulators and sold to JPMorgan.
Erkan was a director on the board of Marsh McLennan, a Fortune 500 firm, and was named CEO at Greystone, a real estate finance and investment firm, last year.
