The World Bank demands transparent, meritocratic governance of those countries that seek its assistance. It has yet to apply those principles to the appointment of its own president. In 2012, emerging economies led a serious challenge to the traditional US monopoly of the appointment, fielding credible, heavyweight candidates.

Yet in the end the job went to Jim Yong Kim, the last-minute choice of the Obama administration, who had an admirable record in academia and public health, but no experience of economic development or of running such a large and complex organisation.

Four years on, the World Bank’s staff are trying to pre-empt any move to wave through Mr Kim’s reappointment for a second term. They are calling for an end to the backroom deals that, for decades, have installed an American at the head of the World Bank and a European at the International Monetary Fund; and they warn that, without reform of the process, the World Bank risks becoming an anachronism.