BoE deputy governor resigns
THE DEPUTY Governor of the Bank of England (BoE), Charlotte Hogg, has resigned for failing to declare a potential conflict of interest about her brother’s role at a leading bank which had prompted a fierce rebuke from lawmakers.
The bank said yesterday that Hogg stepped down voluntarily. She joined the BoE in 2013 as chief operating officer and expanded her position to become deputy governor for markets and banking on March 1.
However, she admitted last week that she only revealed her brother’s job guiding Barclays’ response to bank regulation when she prepared information for lawmakers who were reviewing her appointment as deputy governor.
“While I fully respect her decision, taken in accordance with her view of what was the best for this institution, I deeply regret that Charlotte Hogg has chosen to resign from the Bank of England,” BoE Governor Mark Carney said.
Promoted
Hogg was promoted to serve on the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee this month, just as the central bank is preparing to steer Britain’s economy through its divorce with the EU. Hogg would have been in charge of the Bank’s massive bond-buying stimulus programme. Earlier yesterday, a committee of lawmakers said Hogg could no longer be considered suitable for her role.
“The committee considers that her professional competence falls short of the very high standards required to fulfil the additional responsibilities of Deputy Governor for Markets and Banking,” the Treasury Committee of the lower house of parliament said. One committee member said this kind of criticism was without precedent.
Hogg said she had not shared confidential information or misused it any way. “However, I recognise that being sorry is not enough,” she said in a letter to Carney and Anthony Habgood, the chairperson of the Bank’s court, an oversight body.
Her family have played a prominent role in British public life, producing several generations of senior politicians and lawyers. Some critics of the bank have questioned why the BoE was not aware that Hogg’s brother was employed by Barclays.