Crockett's new career at J.P. Morgan

Nothing could be further from the truth, insists Crockett, who left the BIS in March after nine years as general manager. "What I really wanted at this point in my life was a private sector job," explains the 60-year-old career civil servant.

This month Crockett gets his wish: He starts a new job at J.P. Morgan Chase in New York as an all-around rainmaker and relationship manager with the title of president of J.P. Morgan Chase International.

The donnish Glasgow native, who holds master's degrees in economics from both Cambridge and Yale, admits that his new assignment will be a departure. After six years at the Bank of England, Crockett spent 17 years at the International Monetary Fund, where he put out the Fund's closely watched "World Economic Outlook." He returned to the Bank of England in 1989 as head of international affairs.

At Chase he'll be drumming up business from some of the same governments and central banks whose regulatory efforts he used to coordinate before joining the BIS.

"I expect to be working just as hard as I did at the BIS, but I will be working with colleagues who are designing products and winning mandates," Crockett says. He'll also be contending with all those pesky international regulations he helped to write.