Bank of England Seeks New FX Head as Churm Takes New Role

The Bank of England is seeking a new head of its Foreign Exchange Division with news that incumbent Rohan Churm has been appointed head of future balance sheet at the central bank.

Churm, who has worked at the bank for over 20 years, has been head of the FX division since November 2017 and has sat on the Global FX Committee during that time. His new role is at the head of a unit that the Bank of England says is a “once-in-a-generation work programme to re-shape how we use our balance sheet”.

It adds the new business “…offers an exciting opportunity to leave a lasting legacy, in terms of the Bank’s own role and operations, and to contribute to what we intend to be world-leading thinking on 21^st century central banking.”

Thew new unit will address questions such as to the size and composition of the central bank’s balance sheet over the longer term and to what uses it should be put? Additional themes, the bank says, are the level of access provided to non-bank financial institutions and the conditions under which it should be granted; should the Old Lady operate as a market maker, rather than lender, of last resort; and how might a central bank digital currency (CBDC) and private sector stablecoins impact? “The introduction of a CBDC would be the most significant change in the nature of our balance sheet in 300 years,” the bank says, adding, markets has a key role in helping to assess this idea, and in implementing any approach agreed.

“Work on these questions will be led by the Future Balance Sheet Unit of around 25 staff, in collaboration with other divisions in Markets and across the Bank,” it further explains. “The unit will be a combination of permanent staff and rolling secondees from other Markets divisions. There would be 2 or more (around 2 Full Time Equivalent) Senior Managers to lead teams of those staff, reporting to [Churm].”