(Bloomberg) -- European Union countries picked Verena Ross as the new head of the bloc’s markets regulator, naming a key player in the wider overhaul of its financial system. 

Ross, a German, will lead the Paris-based European Securities and Markets Authority, according to a Twitter post by the EU Council. She beat out Carmine Di Noia of Italian regulator CONSOB.

ESMA is helping the bloc in its efforts to develop regional capital markets and become less dependent on bank lending as part of a transition to a more sustainable financial industry. The regulator has been without a chair since Steven Maijoor’s mandate came to an end in March, because of a political standoff between governments. 

Ross still needs to be confirmed, according to the post.

The appointment has been stalled for months as some officials pushed for the appointment of Ross partly in the name of gender parity. European financial regulators, like the institutions they supervise, are mostly run by men.

Ross was ESMA’s executive director until June of this year, after spending a decade building the watchdog up. Before that, she was an official at the U.K.’s financial regulator. 

ESMA sets trading standards for the bloc on shares, bonds, derivatives and commodities, and it plays a key role overseeing multi trillion-dollar clearinghouses.

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