He is a part of the Monetary Policy Committee, the Financial Policy Committee and the Prudential Regulation Committee, meaning he votes on decisions ranging from interest rates, addressing risks to the economy and setting the strategy for regulating other banks in our economy. He had an apparent personal interest in economic history which he said we are living through.

I was given a 15-minute time slot which ran slightly over, where I got to hear many things from someone so senior in the bank. He showed a great interest in macroeconomics and suggests that one should always understand macroeconomics before specialising as it greatly affects them. He spoke about how he attained an interest thanks to a great A-level professor and how he cares to apply economics to help people.

In response to being asked about what small change he wanted to make, he replied lowering the inflation rate back to 2%, which I found simple but amusing. He has a strong belief that banking will be vital going forwards, and that AI could only become a general purpose tool rather than a key driver in the economy. He sees that its future is hard to gauge, and we have yet to see what could happen as it develops.

In hindsight to his career, he wishes to have taken a secondment to a commercial bank to understand how they operate in greater depth and expand his knowledge from the receiving side of monetary policy.

Raphel Swaroop, Year 11