New BoE deputy governor ready to ‘challenge’ Mark Carney

Charlotte Hogg, the new deputy governor of the Bank of England, has said she is ready to challenge the views of Mark Carney as the newest member of the Monetary Policy Committee.

Addressing MPs at her first hearing of the Treasury Select Committee, Ms Hogg said she did not think the BoE suffered from “group think” among its rate-setters.

The former Santander executive will replace Minouche Shafik on the nine-member MPC from March when she will become the most powerful of the BoE’s deputy governors, also sitting on the Financial Policy Committee, the Prudential Regulation Committee and the BoE’s court of governors.

Asked if she thought she was up to the challenge of disagreeing with the views of governor Mr Carney, Ms Hogg said “I do”.

Ms Hogg was also quizzed about a potential conflict of interest with her role at the FPC and her brother who works at Barclays strategic planning unit. Barlcays is among the major bank’s regulated by the UK’s watchdog.

The deputy governor said she was unaware of her sibling’s precise role at the bank before being prompted by the Treasury Select Committee’s questionnaire.

Ms Hogg’s mother, Baroness Hogg, had led John Major’s policy unit in the 1990s and is a current non-executive director at John Lewis. She also dismissed any “perception” of a conflict of interest.

“There is good awareness of her role” said Ms Hogg.

Having worked at McKinsey, Morgan Stanley and Experian before joining the BoE, Ms Hogg said her “different” career path would help bring diversity to the MPC. She will be the only female rate-setter when Kristin Forbes leaves the Bank later this year.

“I have led quite big organisations…I think that makes me different” said Ms Hogg, who said she had taken some “pretty painful” decisions during her time in the private sector.

Although giving no specific comments about the BoE’s current low interest rates, Ms Hogg said she “expected rates would slowly begin to increase”.

Ms Hogg said the BoE should strive to be more representative of the British people. She will attend her first monetary policy meeting next week.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, a conservative MP sitting on the TSC, later revealed he had invited Ms Hogg’s grandfather, Baron Boyd-Carpenter, as an Eton schoolboy to address students in Greek.

Ms Hogg’s father, Viscount Hailsham, was a cabinet minister in the Major government and an MP until he stood down in 2010.

Image via Bloomberg