Former Mexican deputy finance minister Alejandro Werner is to head the IMF’s Western Hemisphere department. Werner, currently head of corporate and investment banking at Mexican bank BBVA Bancomer, is to begin his appointment early January 2013. The Western Hemisphere department is responsible for economic surveillance of the US, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean. Werner will also have oversight over loan programmes to the region. Oscar Ugarteche of the National University of Mexico raised concerns about his “very strong links to the financial sector”. Ugarteche added that Werner “does not believe in counter cyclical policies”, and that the post is a “reward” and is “an expression of how the IMF is not changing and of Mexico’s importance for the US Treasury”.