Government announces appointment of external members to the Financial Policy Committee
The Government announced the appointment of Dame Clara Furse, Donald Kohn, Richard Sharp and Martin Taylor as external members of the Financial Policy Committee (FPC).
All four external members bring a wealth of outside experience to the FPC with their expertise in equity markets, commercial and investment banking and insurance.
Establishing the FPC within the Bank of England as a macro-prudential authority is a key element of the Government’s reforms to the UK’s system of financial regulation. The new system comes in force 1 April 2013.
The FPC’s primary objective will be to protect and enhance financial stability by identifying, monitoring and addressing systemic risks to the UK’s financial system. It will also have a secondary objective to support the Government’s economic policy.
The FPC’s first policy meeting will take place on 18 June 2013.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said:
One of the reasons for the financial crisis was that no one felt it was their responsibility to monitor risks to the system as a whole, like excessive levels of debt. From next week we will have in the FPC a permanent body doing just that. The calibre and expertise of these four individuals shows we have also got the brightest and the best working on that committee.
Notes for Editors
- The Bank of England Act 1998, as amended by the Financial Services Act 2012, provides for the creation of a Financial Policy Committee (FPC) within the Bank of England. The FPC will be focused on macro-prudential analysis and action, to ensure emerging risks and vulnerabilities across the financial system as a whole are identified, monitored and effectively addressed.
- The FPC will be established on 1 April 2013, as part of the move to the new system of financial regulation in the UK. The appointees are expected to commence their roles on the FPC from this date, in advance of the FPC’s first meeting. It is expected that Sir Mervyn King will chair this meeting, with Mark Carney chairing subsequent meetings following the commencement of his appointment.
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As already announced, the other members of the FPC are:
- Paul Tucker, the Bank of England’s Deputy Governor for Financial Stability (who will chair the Committee if the Governor is not present);
- Charlie Bean, the Bank of England’s Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy;
- Andrew Bailey, who has been appointed as the Bank of England’s Deputy Governor for Prudential Regulation and Chief Executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA);
- Andrew Haldane, the Bank of England’s Executive Director for Financial Stability;
- Martin Wheatley, Chief Executive Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); and
- a non-voting Treasury member.
- Dame Clara Furse was Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange from 2001 to 2009. Previously she was CEO of Credit Lyonnais Rouse and before that worked at UBS for 15 years. She is currently a non-executive Director of Legal and General Plc, Amadeus IT Holdings SA, Nomura Holdings and DWP. On taking up her FPC role she will be stepping down from the boards of Legal and General and from the boards of Nomura’s FSA-regulated subsidiaries.
- Donald Kohn is an external member of the interim-FPC. As the former vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve, he is an expert on monetary policy, financial regulation and macroeconomics. Prior to taking office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, he was an adviser to the Board for Monetary Policy from 2001 to 2002, secretary of the Federal Open Market Committee from 1987 to 2002, director of the Division of Monetary Affairs from 1987 to 2001, and deputy staff director for Monetary and Financial Policy from 1983 to 1987. He also held several positions in the Board’s Division of Research and Statistics. From 2006 to 2010 he served as Chair of the Committee on the Global Financial System at the BIS and on the Financial Stability Forum and Financial Stability Board.
- Richard Sharp has over thirty years of experience in the financial sector, including commercial banking, derivatives, fixed income, private equity and investment banking. He spent twenty-three years at Goldman Sachs where he held a number of senior roles, most recently as Chairman of Goldman Sachs’ Principal Investment business in Europe. Prior to this, he worked in both commercial banking and investment banking for JP Morgan. He is Chief Executive of DII Capital, Chairman of Huntsworth PLC and is a Director of Oncimmune, a former Chairman and an Emeritus Trustee of the Royal Academy and a Director of International Rescue UK.
- Martin Taylor is, until next month, chairman of Syngenta AG. He is also Vice-Chairman of RTL and was a member of the Independent Commission on Banking chaired by Sir John Vickers. In a career spanning the worlds of finance, industry, public policy, and journalism, he has been Chairman of WHSmith plc (1999-2003), Chief Executive Officer of Barclays plc (1993-1998) and Courtaulds Textiles (1990-1993). From 1999-2005 he was an adviser to Goldman Sachs International.
- The Bank of England Act 1998, as amended by the Financial Services Act 2012, provides for external members to be appointed for a term of three years. External members can serve a maximum of two terms.
- The legislation provides for the initial round of appointments to be for a period of less than three years in order to prevent a large cluster of appointments in future. Any initial terms that are shorter than the standard three years will not count towards the two term limit. Don Kohn and Martin Taylor have been appointed for a period of two years. Dame Clara Furse and Richard Sharp have been appointed for a term of three years. All future appointments to the FPC will be for terms of three years.