Mubasher: The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) head Christine Lagarde is expected to take the helm of the European Central Bank (ECB), Bloomberg News reported.

European Union (EU) leaders nominated the onetime lawyer and the former French finance minister to succeed ECB President Mario Draghi, after his eight-year term ends.

Lagarde was nominated on Tuesday after hours of long discussions in Brussels over a slew of senior EU jobs, including the presidency of the European Commission, for which German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen was being eyed.

Lagarde would become the first woman to be tasked with driving the Eurozone monetary policy, at the time when the economy seemed in need of new stimulus measures.

The IMF’s managing director stated that she “was honoured to have been nominated” and would relinquish temporarily her responsibilities at the fund, as EU legislators look to ratify her appointment.