Israeli banker joins race to succeed Strauss-Kahn at IMF

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer joined France’s Christine Lagarde and Mexico’s Agustin Carstens in the race to head the International Monetary Fund.

The Bank of Israel Saturday said in an email that a nomination for Fischer was submitted, a move that Israel’s Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz supports, according to his office.

Fischer’s candidacy may be hobbled by that fact that his age — 67 — already exceeds the limit under rules for first-time managing directors of the international lender.

“The IMF’s By-Laws state that at the time of the initial appointment as managing director, the person selected has to be less than 65 years old, and that a person cannot hold the position of managing director beyond her/his seventieth birthday,” the IMF says on its website.

Lagarde has benefited from the failure of emerging markets to coalesce around a candidate from their own ranks after vowing to end a six-decade European lock on the position. She has tried to turn attention away from her nationality by focusing on her gender and her role in European efforts to head off a Greek sovereign-debt default.

The IMF is seeking a new chief to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who stepped down after being arrested on charges of attempted rape last month in New York City. The former French finance minister has pleaded not guilty.

Fischer, a former first deputy managing director of the IMF, described the top IMF position as a “terrific” job in a May 25 interview with Bloomberg. He said the euro-region’s debt crisis doesn’t make it necessary for the fund to elect a European candidate.

Fischer was born in an area of northern Rhodesia that is today part of Zambia, and emigrated from the U.S. to Israel in 2005 to take up the Bank of Israel governorship. He was chosen to serve a second five-year term last year.

The U.S., the IMF’s single largest shareholder with almost 17 percent of the votes, hasn’t announced support for a candidate, and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has said both Lagarde and Carstens are qualified.