France's Lagarde is top Euro finance minister: FT judges

(LONDON) - The financial crisis has propelled French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde to top spot among European finance ministers owing to her dynamic action on regulation, in the view of a Financial Times panel.

"The judges loved her performances on the international stage when it came to regulation and the future of banking," the London-based Financial Times reported in a full-page article.

"France's economy has also been among the most resilient in the industrial world.

"It was always well balanced, reliant neither on exports nor on an over-inflated housing market and with a large, stabilising public sector," the FT judges agreed.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the newspaper, Lagarde called on global regulators to probe potential competition abuses in the financial sector following huge government bailouts and consolidation.

Some institutions had become too powerful in the financial sector, she said. "We need to make sure that we do not create institutions that have a competitive advantage."

Lagarde told the newspaper that she had asked Mario Draghi, head of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), to prepare a report for the G20 summit in March on potential areas of concern.

The FSB groups international finance institutions, central bank chiefs and regulators from 24 countries.

The FT's panel of judges awarded the fourth FT annual European finance minister of the year award to Lagarde, who is also economy minister, after 12 months of "highly testing world economic drama."

The FT said that "the French government's swift fiscal action was also important in averting an even deeper recession."

The newspaper quoted one of its judges, Marco Annunziata, chief economist at Unicredit bank in Italy, as saying that Lagarde showed "a strong determination to forge a coordinated response."

But another judge, Jacques Delphia at the French Conseil d'Analyse Economique warned that "his country's fiscal confidence is storing up problems for the future because 'Ms Lagarde has been unable to give any credible commitment towards restoring a fiscal balance in the medium run'."

Lagarde, a fluent English speaker, qualified as a lawyer and rose to a high-profile job in international finance in Chicago in the United States before arriving in ministerial office.

Sometimes mentioned as a possible prime minister, she is also regarded, however, as being outside the inner circle of President Nicolas Sarkozy's confidants.

Commenting to the FT on the award, Lagarde said that "Europe was ahead of the curve" by sometimes ignoring the rules and normal formats, for example "when we included Great Britain (a non-eurozone country) in the eurogroup (of eurozone finance ministers)."

The judges voted Peer Steinbruck, German finance minister until the recent election, into second place, and Belgian minister Didier Reynders into third place.

Fourth came Anders Borg of Sweden, fifth Giulio Tremonti of Italy, then Josef Proll of Austria, Jacek Rostowski of Poland, and Alistair Darling of Britain in seventh place.

In last place, number 19, came Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.