Emmanuel Macron may not be able to clinch the European Central Bank for a French candidate next year, but he is on track to claim the role of eurozone bank supervisor for one of his countrymen.

Robert Ophèle, a former French central banker currently heading Autorité des Marchés financiers, the country’s market watchdog, is seen as a favourite to become chairman of the supervisory board of the ECB, aka the Single Supervisory Mechanism set up in 2014 to oversee the eurozone’s 120 largest banks.