Mark Carney confirms talks with the Treasury about staying on as Bank of England governor
2 min read
Mark Carney has confirmed that he spoke with the Treasury about extending his period as Bank of England governor beyond next year.
Britain’s top central banker had been due to stand down from the post in June 2019, but signalled today that he would be prepared to extend his time at the helm in order to ease the Brexit process.
Mr Carney added another year to his governorship in 2016 in order to support the transition beyond next March, but said he had made ministers aware of his “willingness to do what I can to support the process” beyond that date.
Speaking to MPs today he confirmed that while he had discussed the issue of staying on further with Philip Hammond, he was not in a position to confirm anything.
Addressing MPs at the Treasury Select Committee he said: “Even though I have already agreed to extend my time to support a smooth Brexit, I am willing to do whatever else I can in order to promote both a smooth Brexit and an effective transition at the Bank of England.”
He added: “I think we all know that there is a lot on at the moment, the government has a lot on its plate, parliamentarians have a lot on their plates and so I would expect this to be resolved relatively soon, but as I say it’s not for me to resolve.”
Mr Carney said he recognised the importance of those in public life such as business people, parliamentarians and central bankers “doing everything they can to help with the transition”.
"We (the Bank of England) have a very important supportive role to make sure whatever Brexit the government negotiates, that Parliament decides, that that is as much of a success as possible," he said.
He added that there were “advantages” in pushing back the process to find a new governor given the direction of Brexit was not yet known.
"There are some advantages for that process to be run in the context of full knowledge both of the government of the day and the applicants, those interested parties in the position, of the exact form of Brexit that the country has decided to take," he said.
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