The European Central Bank has chosen Andrea Enria, the current chairman of the European Banking Authority, as the next head of its supervisory arm. The seasoned bureaucrat has been promoted to the key job at a time when governments are still divided over the future of the area’s banking union.

Enria was chosen in a secret ballot on November 7 by the ECB’s 25-strong governing council, the central bank’s top ruling body, over Sharon Donnery, the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Ireland.