Obama taps investment banker for top Treasury finance post

By Reuters

Nov 12, 2014 08:25 PM EST

U.S. President Barack Obama talks to the press after meeting with his team coordinating the government's Ebola response in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, October 16, 2014. (Photo : Reuters)

President Barack Obama plans to nominate Antonio Weiss, a top official at investment bank Lazard (LAZ.N), to be under secretary of the Treasury for domestic finance, the White House said on Wednesday.

Weiss would fill a spot left open when Mary Miller stepped down in September.

If confirmed by the Senate, he would become the Treasury point person on debt management and financial regulatory issues, and would be expected to play a key role in the administration's efforts to get Congress to lift the nation's debt ceiling.

Weiss has been the global head of investment banking at Lazard since 2009. Previously, he served as the firm's vice chairman of European investment banking and as global head of mergers and acquisitions.

He holds a bachelor's degree from Yale and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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