Appointment of Paul Fisher to the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England - Treasury Contents


2  Paul Fisher

Background on Paul Fisher

5. Paul Fisher has worked as an economist at the Bank of England since 1990, having previously worked at the University of Warwick between 1980 and 1990 where he specialised in research on macroeconomic models. From 1999 to 2002, he served as Private Secretary to Sir Edward George, who was then the Governor of the Bank of England. In that capacity, Paul Fisher was responsible for organising the Governor's office and acted as secretary to committee meetings of the Governors and Executive Directors. From 1995 to 1999, he was Head of the Conjunctural Assessment and Projections Division in which role he was responsible for the Bank's domestic and international forecasts and economic assessment of the major international economies. The data analysis role included assessing the work of the Bank's regional agents. From June 1997, he presented both data assessment and forecasts to the MPC.

6. Since 2002, Paul Fisher has worked as Head of Foreign Exchange Division (FED) at the Bank. In this role he was responsible for the management of the UK's official foreign exchange reserves and the foreign currency operations of the Bank of England. As part of the Bank's Markets Area, this division was also responsible for gathering market intelligence on international financial markets to feed in to monetary policy and financial stability. Since 2006, he worked as part of the MPC secretariat, co-writing the Minutes. As head of FED, he also chaired the London's Foreign Exchange Committee. He has written extensively on economic models of the UK economy and written or contributed to numerous articles on macroeconomic models, business cycles and exchange rates.[6]

Our evidence

7. In oral evidence, we asked Paul Fisher about his experiences relevant to his post as Executive Director, Markets, including—

  • his experience outside academia and the Bank of England;
  • liaison with financial market participants;
  • the concept of moral hazard within financial markets;
  • confidence in Sterling and intervention in the foreign exchange markets;
  • regulation of the financial markets;
  • the concerns of holders of subordinated debt in respect of the authorities' response to the banking crisis;
  • his international experience; and
  • the role of credit ratings in the Bank of England's programmes.

We asked him about his priorities in his new post, including ways in which he will seek to add to the public's understanding of the role and decisions of the MPC. We also questioned him about current issues in monetary policy, including—

  • the outlook for the economy and the impact of quantitative easing;
  • the impact of the first and the potential for a second fiscal stimulus;
  • house prices and the housing market;
  • unemployment;
  • the outlook for the international economy;
  • the switch from the Retail Prices Index to the Consumer Price Index; and
  • the composition of the MPC.

Conclusions

8. We are satisfied that Paul Fisher meets our two criteria for appointment to the Monetary Policy Committee of professional competence and personal independence. We acknowledge Paul Fisher's strong record in academia and the Bank of England, but note it is important that he should widen his experience of financial markets. We wish him every success as a member of the MPC.


6   "Members of the Monetary Policy Committee", Bank of England website, www.bankofengland.co.uk Back


 
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Prepared 24 April 2009