After all, he is the first Canadian -- indeed, the first non-European -- to head the Bank for International Settlements in the 73-year history of the bankers’ bank. Moreover, Knight’s departure from the Bank of Canada, where he was senior deputy governor and a member of its six-person monetary policy board, leaves the central bank with a skeleton crew on that key committee. Deputy governor Charles Freedman is retiring in September. That could mean just four economic seers will be left at the BoC to set monetary policy when inflation is rising and economic uncertainty high.
The central bank “is very well positioned to fill the vacant positions,” says Knight diplomatically. “There is a very effective search process that will be put in place that involves the governor and outside directors of the board.” He knows the hiring drill. Knight, a London School of Economics graduate who spent 24 years at the IMF before joining the BoC in 1999, was passed over for central bank governor two years ago.
Knight, 58, dismisses the notion that it’s curious for a Canadian to be running the Basel-based BIS: “Canada is a member of the board of directors of the BIS, and Canadians have always been very active members, so it is not surprising that the new general manager is chosen from somewhere among the membership of the BIS.”
