Washington: The Obama administration is nominating current World Bank President Jim Yong Kim for a second term leading the 189-nation international lending organisation.
In making the announcement on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew praised Kim for using his first term at the World Bank to effectively address "today's most pressing global challenges in innovative ways, from ending extreme poverty and tackling inequality to combating climate change."
Kim, the former president of Dartmouth College, was first tapped by President Barack Obama to head the World Bank in 2012. Since the creation of the World Bank after the end of the Second World War, its leaders have all been Americans while the International Monetary Fund, its sister lending organisation, has always been headed by a European.
Kim, who took over as the 12th president of the World Bank in July 2012, is expected to win quick approval for a second term from the World Bank's executive board.
During his first four years in office, Kim has marshalled World Bank resources to deal with a number of crises from the Ebola pandemic in Africa to the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis.
Kim has also generated controversy during his tenure for his efforts to overhaul the World Bank's bureaucracy.
Lew praised Kim for spearheading "needed reforms at the World Bank to better leverage knowledge within the bank and enhance the use of the financial resources that shareholders provide."
In addition to serving as president of Dartmouth, Kim was the co-founder of Partners in Health and the former director of the HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organisation. A medical doctor and anthropologist, Kim has been involved in international development issues for more than two decades.