CITY AND SUBURBAN
New eyes behind the Bank's windowless wall
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
It is more than 20 years since I first began to call at the Bank of England and impede the work of the Discount Office. This was the Bank's eyes and ears, the window in its windowless wall. The Dis- count Office then batted: Hilton Clarke (later, James Keogh), George Blunden, Rodney Galpin. Mr Clarke has since re- tired from one grand City chairmanship to another, Mr Keogh is ensconced on a hilltop in Perugia, Mr Galpin is a director of the Bank and effectively the gainer from this week's reshuffle. As for Mr Blunden, he has now out-retired Mr Clarke. Retiring as an executive director two years ago but remaining on the Court (for the Bank, nothing so vulgar as a board), he now returns as Deputy Governor. To that post he will bring authority, entangling humour (he is a gladiator who prefers the net and trident), and banking skills and experience which have long earned him a position of respect among bankers, central or com- mercial. He has, too, an advantage his predecessor, Kit McMahon, was denied: he gets on well with the Prime Minister. There is one decision which his appoint- ment ducks, deliberately, or so it seems. To have chosen a Deputy from among the executive directors (as had been expected) would have been to name an heir presump- tive to the Governor. Now that race is wide open.
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