The International Monetary Fund's second most senior executive Stanley Fischer announced his resignation yesterday after seven years at the global lender during which he oversaw myriad financial crises.
Mr Fischer, as first deputy managing director of the lender, was the mastermind behind a number of multibillion dollar financial rescue packages in recent years. He will remain at the fund until a replacement is found.
"I have informed the managing director that I will be resigning as first deputy managing director and leaving the IMF later this year, once a smooth transition to my successor has been arranged," Mr Fischer said in a statement.
After the IMF's managing director Mr Michel Camdessus resigned his position last year, Mr Fischer (57) was among the candidates who ran to replace him. Mr Camdessus was eventually replaced by Mr Horst Kohler after a succession process that was unusually long and acrimonious by IMF standards.
Those who work at the fund said Mr Fischer's rapport with Mr Kohler had been frosty from the start. Those close to Mr Fischer said the soft-spoken man, known for his dry wit and calm manner, found his boss's manner of doing business a little abrupt.
A naturalised American, Mr Fischer was born in what is now Zambia, giving him a valuable insight into the problems of the developing countries which are the IMF's biggest borrowers.
During the Asian financial crisis between 1997 and 1999, when countries as far afield as Thailand, Brazil and Russia needed massive rescue packages, Mr Fischer was seen as the steady hand at the IMF who steered through each loan package and worked out the intricacies of each economic plan.
Mr Robert Rubin, the influential former US Treasury Secretary, once described him as the "unsung hero" of the recent world financial crisis.
He was the realist offsetting the at times idealistic comments from Mr Camdessus, once noting bluntly that Russia had lied and stressing the harsh reality that South Korea was days from default when the IMF stepped in with a record-breaking loan in December 1997.
Mr Fischer joined the IMF in 1994 from academia and also spent two years as chief economist at the World Bank, the IMF's sister organisation.
