The Treasury Select Committee’s chairman has written to Mark Carney, the Bank of England’s governor to request a re-examination of the Monetary Policy Committee's Code of Conduct, following its latest appointment.
At the end of last month the Treasury confirmed that Gertjan Vlieghe, a partner and senior economist at hedge fund Brevan Howard Asset Management, was to replace David Miles as an external member of the MPC.
In response to this, Andrew Tyrie has today (24 August) written to Mr Carney asking him to undertake a review of MPC’s code.
“The appointment of Dr Gertjan Vlieghe to the Monetary Policy Committee and the subsequent need to remove any perception of a conflict of interest between his role and his stake in Brevan Howard, suggests that the code of conduct for MPC members would benefit from re-examination,” he wrote.
“It is essential that those appointed to the MPC have no conflicts of interest, nor perception of them,” he continued, adding that a well designed code, sensibly applied, should be capable of achieving this without diminishing the quality of applicants.
peter.walker@ft.com
