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Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has resigned her position, according to a statement released today by the IMF. She had temporarily relinquished her responsibilities as managing director of the Fund following her nomination as candidate for president of the European Central Bank (ECB).

“I have met with the Executive Board and submitted my resignation from the Fund with effect from September 12, 2019,” Lagarde said. “The relinquishment of my responsibilities as Managing Director announced previously will remain in effect until then. With greater clarity now on the process for my nomination as ECB President and the time it will take, I have made this decision in the best interest of the Fund, as it will expedite the selection process for my successor.”

Lagard, who started her initial five-year term as managing director of the Fund on 5 July, 2011, was reelected for a second five-year term, which began on 5 July, 2016. If her appointment as president of the ECB is confirmed, Lagarde would succeed Mario Draghi on November 1, 2019.

The Board of IMF has accepted her resignation and will the proceed with process for selecting a new managing director. In the meantime, David Lipton, Deputy managing director at the IMF, will remain its Acting managing director.

Since the IMF was formed in 1945, its managing director has been from Europe. Among the candidates that have been mentioned to succeed Lagarde at the Fund are Mark Carney, a Canadian and current governor of the Bank of England; Kristalina Georgieva, currently serving as chief executive of the World Bank. She is from Bulgaria. There is also Mario Draghi, the outgoing president of the ECB who is Italian; and Wolfgang Schaeuble, a former German finance minister who is currently speaker of the German parliament.