World Bank President to Resign

Word Bank president Robert Zoellick will step down from his high-profile post when his current five-year term comes to an end on June 30.

"The bank is now strong, healthy and well positioned for new challenges, and so it is a natural time for me to move on and support new leadership," Zoellick said in a statement informing the board of his decision to retire.

Zoellick, an American who was appointed by George W. Bush, guided the bank during the global financial crisis. His pending retirement raises the possibility that the World Bank will be led by a non-American for the first time ever. An informal agreement between the United States and Europe has kept an American in the top job since the bank was founded nearly seven decades ago. In exchange, the United States has helped ensure that a European leads the bank's sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.

New guidelines adopted last year, however, call for an "open, merit-based and transparent selection" process, and China and other nations are expected to lobby hard to break the American streak. Still, the Associated Press reports that may not lead to a non-American being tapped to replace Zoellick.

If President Obama decides to nominate someone for the post, he has a number of high-profile options. Bloomberg News reports that among those Americans under consideration are former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

UPDATE: That didn't take long. A spokesperson for the State Department told reporters Wednesday afternoon that Clinton has no interest in the World Bank job, Reuters reports. "She has said this is not happening. Her view has not changed," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.