WITH the departure of Jim Yong Kim as World Bank president, the administration could promote its self-interest and enhance its global standing by ending the US hold over its leadership. At the same time, America would leverage the selection of a candidate who would pay heed to US views.

Since the creation of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank at the end of the Second World War, an American has led the World Bank (Mr Kim is Korean-American) and a European the IMF. This convention was logical in the post-war decades when the major advanced economies dominated the global economy. Mr Kim's departure presents an opportunity to re-evaluate the convention.

It is time for a change.