As you know, the governor of the Bank of Canada accepted an offer to become the head of the Bank of England. The job is supposedly more difficult. This article points out that, at the Bank of Canada, the governor is the most important member of the policy-making body (the Governing Council).
Decisions are made by consensus, and only the governor has the right to change interest rates. The governor explains the changes and other members of the Governing Council talk to various stakeholders (business groups, bankers, etc) and provide the same explanation. Nobody offers a dissenting opinion.
In the Bank of England members of the policymaking body vote on the decision. Disagreement are accepted and dissent noted. The governor has less power.
David Dodge, Mr. Carney's predecessor points out other differences:
1. Bank and regulator talk to each other in Canada, less so in the UK;
2. Bank of England is responsible for bank regulation, Bank of Canada is not
3. What is the biggest financial centre in the world?
So Mr. Carney chose to be a smaller fish in a bigger pond. Given his character, he will try to become a big fish in the bigger pond. We will see how it goes.
By the way, the governor of the Bank of Canada has to be Canadian (see the next post), the governor of the Bank of England does not have to be British.
But, apparently, there is not much to do for the first 18 months
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