Sir Jon Cunliffe to be replaced by Sarah Breeden as Bank of England deputy governor
Sir Jon Cunliffe will step down as one of the Bank of England’s chief market watchers later this year, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced on Tuesday.
Cunliffe, who was appointed Threadneedle Street’s deputy governor for financial stability a decade ago, will be succeeded by Sarah Breeden, also a long servant at the central bank.
Breeden will take on the role on 1 November under a five-year term.
It means the Bank’s nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) – the group which sets the UK’s official interest rate every six weeks or so – will get another new member after welcoming Megan Greene last month.
She replaced Silvana Tenreyro, who served on the rate-setting committee for several years, carving out a position as one of the group’s top doves.
Cunliffe at the MPC’s last meeting in June voted with the majority for a 50 basis point increase.
It is unclear whether Breeden will lean toward favouring looser or tighter monetary policy as her previous role as executive director for financial stability strategy did not require her to vote on interest rate decisions.
She did though play a crucial role in the Bank’s response to the bond market turmoil after last year’s calamitous mini budget, which prompted the central bank to launch an emergency debt purchase package to curb soaring gilt yields.
Breeden has also spearheaded the Bank’s work on climate change since 2016. She will remain a member of the financial policy committee alongside Bank governor Andrew Bailey and Financial Conduct Authority chief Nikhil Rathi.
She has previously highlighted the risk that global warming poses to the health of the global financial system. In a speech in 2019, she said mitigating the damage of global warming required “action today” from the world’s largest financial institutions.
Bailey said Breeden “will bring a wealth of financial and economic policy knowledge to the role, both domestically and internationally”.
Chancellor Hunt said of the departing Cunliffe: “Over the last 10 years, he has led the Bank’s work on delivering financial stability and has played a key role in ensuring Britain’s financial services are well placed to thrive in the future.”
Analysts think Swati Dhingra, now seen as the top dove, will vote to keep rates unchanged.