Mandarins storm the Bank

As governor of the Bank of england, Mark Carney has delivered openness and shaken up its fuddy-duddy image.

This was epitomised by the open Forum in 2015 when Carney led a great public debate on the role of markets in society. Taking the reform agenda forward requires original thinking of the kind often heard from Bank chief economist Andy Haldane.

The choice of sir Dave ramsden to be the new deputy governor for markets and banking looks like a sideways step.

ramsden has done a sound job as chief economic adviser to the Treasury, despite his association with HM Treasury’s discredited Brexit forecasts. He also has been Whitehall’s silent presence at meetings of the Monetary Policy Committee.

But appointing a second Treasury mandarin as deputy governor, joining the admirable sir Jon Cunliffe, looks like one too many.

The whole purpose of the independence of the Bank, engineered by ed Balls and gordon Brown, was to free it from the stays of government and underpin its independence, not to become a rest home for former Treasury mandarins.

ramsden’s job places him at the heart of London’s financial markets at a critical moment in the City’s history as it heads out of the eU.

Clearly, his knowledge of government and Brussels will be vital.

But one cannot but help think that it might have been better if the Treasury and the Bank had identified someone with intimate, daily knowledge of how financial markets work.

Admittedly, in the post-crisis world it is hard to find market experts with the right kind of background because of taint from the meltdown.

gender imbalance at the top of the Bank also means that an opportunity has been missed. In addition to the promotion of the head of human resources Joanna Place to chief operating officer, another woman would have been welcome. Almost anyone involved in the City and global finance could come up with names who might have brought visionary thinking as well as deep market knowledge to the post.

everyone will wish ramsden, the nicest of men, well.

But he is an unimaginative choice.

Lloyds’ hubris

no one can dispute that Lloyds Banking group is doing better than its rivals in lowering costs and delivering for investors after gaining a stranglehold on the High street when it bought HBos at the height of the financial crisis nine years ago.

But for longstanding Lloyds investors it has been a painful recovery which devastated savings and dividend income.

now that the bank is firing on all cylinders, it should focus on culture.

Anecdotal evidence points to a huge variability in the quality of service among its 1,800 branches.

It is fine claiming to be the most digitally enabled bank in the country, but the Black Horse had a reputation for being better than the rest ahead of the crisis.

Lloyds is still having to put aside large sums of money to pay for past and present mistakes. The bill for payment protection insurance is now up to £18.1bn.

The bank has become a source of quantitative easing in its own lifetime. Add to that the latest decision to redress the fees incurred by 590,000 customers on missed mortgage payments and wrangles about compensation over the fraud at its reading operation (provided for in the first quarter), and one begins to wonder if there is a pattern of neglect.

An increasingly remote chief executive Antonio Horta-osorio should be striving to address this.

reputation is everything in retail banking, as Wells Fargo would no doubt testify after losing its halo.

As a big player in both the personal contract purchase car market and with 26pc of UK credit cards (following the MBnA purchase) Lloyds cannot afford complacency.

Are you listening, Antonio?

Poison pill

PAsCAL soriot at AstraZeneca made a huge mistake in betting a chunk of the company’s future on Imfinza, the drug in the disappointing Mystic trial, seeking a blockbuster lung cancer treatment.

As a result, the pharma giant’s share value has tanked by an alarming £10bn.

In a clever move, AZ is linking with its biggest rival in immunology treatments, Merck, in an effort to crack cancer treatments in a deal which could deliver it a payment of at least £6.5bn.

That should help vaccinate the Angloswedish firm against an opportunist takeover bid.