World Bank top job should be open to all: Gordhan

MEXICO CITY: The tradition of automatically giving the World Bank presidency to an American is outdated, although the country should be free to put forward a candidate, South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Saturday on the sidelines of the G20 meeting.

"The World Bank presidency should be open to all nationalities and based on merit," Gordhan told Reuters. "It is time we break the traditions of the US and Europe sharing the two seats (for the heads of the IMF and World Bank) and amongst all of us we must try harder this time to find some consensus."