Obama taps investment banker for top Treasury finance post

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama plans to nominate Antonio Weiss, a top official at investment bank Lazard, 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.