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Mark Carney appointed as the new Bank of England governor

UK Chancellor, George Osborne has appointed Mark Carney as the new governor of the Bank of England ,while Sir Mervyn king who is the current … Continue reading Mark Carney appointed as the new Bank of England governor


UK Chancellor, George Osborne has appointed Mark Carney as the new governor of the Bank of England ,while Sir Mervyn king who is the current governor of the bank will be stepping down by June 2013.

Carney who is the governor of the Canadian Central Bank will serve as governor of BoE for five years where he will hold new regulatory powers over banks.

He was a surprise choice for the head of the UK Central Bank and had previously ruled himself out for the post seen as one of the most important positions in the stewardship of the UK economy.

Osborne also announced the re-appointment of Charlie Bean as Bank of England deputy governor for monetary stability ,a position he will be holding until the end of June 2014.

Career

Carney will be the first non-British governor in the Bank’s 318-year history and will fill the most powerful non-elected position in the country.

Carney spent thirteen years with Goldman Sachs in its London, Tokyo, New York and Toronto offices. His progressively more senior positions included co-head of sovereign risk; executive director, emerging debt capital markets; and managing director, investment banking. He worked on South Africa’s post-apartheid venture into international bond markets, and was involved in Goldman’s work with the 1998 Russian financial crisis.

Goldman’s role in the Russian crisis was criticized at the time because while the company was advising Russia it was simultaneously betting against the country’s ability to repay its debt.

Between November 2004 and October 2007 Carney was senior associate deputy minister, and G7 deputy, at the Canadian Department of Finance. He served under Liberal finance minister Ralph Goodale and Conservative finance minister Jim Flaherty. During that time Carney oversaw the government’s controversial plan to tax income trusts at source.

Carney was also the “point man” in the government’s profitable sale of its 19 percent stake in Petro-Canada.

Carney first joined the Bank of Canada as a deputy governor on August 5, 2003.[11] About a year later he was seconded to the federal Department of Finance as senior associate deputy minister of finance, effective November 15, 2004.

Carney returned to the Bank in November 2007 after his appointment as Governor, and served as advisor to retiring Governor David Dodge before formally assuming Dodge’s job on February 1, 2008.[3] Carney was selected over Paul Jenkins, the Senior Deputy Governor, who had been considered the front-runner to succeed Dodge.[13] Carney took on this role during the depths of the recent global financial crisis. At the time of his appointment, Carney was the youngest central bank governor among the G8 and G20 groups of nations.

The Chancellor announced that Mr Carney, who spent more than a decade working for the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, will serve a fixed five-year term, rather than the eight years that had been expected.

“Mark Carney is the outstanding central banker of his generation” the Chancellor told the House of Commons said in a statement, adding that Mr Carney would bring the “strong leadership and external experience the Bank needs”.