By Ismail Shakil
OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Bank of Canada said on Tuesday that Deputy Governor Paul Beaudry will leave at the end of July to return to academia, after an over four-year stint during which the bank dealt with challenges tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine.
Beaudry was appointed a deputy governor in February 2019 to the six-member governing council that makes policy decisions and was initially responsible for overseeing the bank’s financial system activities and then oversaw international economic analysis.
His departure opens up one of the six policy-making slots at the central bank at a time of concern around banks globally after the failure of two U.S. regional banks in March sparked a loss of confidence in the sector.
The Bank of Canada’s governing council takes policy decisions by consensus without voting, unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Beaudry will return to an academic position at the University of British Columbia, the central bank said in a statement, adding that it will soon begin an internal recruitment process for the deputy governor position.
After looking externally earlier this year for the deputy governor position filled by Nicolas Vincent, a professor of applied economics, the Bank of Canada is choosing to fill Beaudry’s position internally, spokesman Paul Badertscher said.
Over the past year, the bank has raised interest rates at a record pace in an effort to tame inflation, which touched a four decade high in June. It then became the first major central bank to pause its monetary tightening campaign by leaving rates unchanged in March.
“Paul has been a crucial member of the Governing Council team during one of the most challenging periods in the Bank’s history,” Governor Tiff Macklem said in the statement.
BoC deputy governors are usually appointed indefinitely, unlike the governor and senior deputy, who have seven-year terms.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa, additional reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Deepa Babington)
