Another five years for Steady Eddie at the Bank

EDDIE GEORGE was yesterday re-appointed by the Prime Minister to a second five-year term as Governor of the Bank of England, ending an increasingly embarrassing delay in announcing the Government's decision. The City welcomed the news that `Steady Eddie', a Bank of England man since 1962, will be at the helm for a full term rather than the two years some had expected. The announcement showed that early tensions between Mr George and Gordon Brown were in the end no obstacle to the Governor's re-appointment. Mr George, speaking in front of a giant video projection at the Euromoney International Bond Congress in central London yesterday, restated his belief that the euro will be introduced on time in 1999 and that it will be launched on a `broad basis'. At the same time, six new non-executive directors were appointed to the Bank, intended to introduce broader regional and business experience to its Court. They are: Roy Bailie, chairman of W&G Baird Holdings; Graham Hawker, chief executive of Hyder; Sheila McKechnie, director of the Consumers' Association; Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport & General Workers' Union; Jim Stretton, chief executive of Standard Life in the UK; and Howard Davies, chairman of the FSA and a former deputy director of the Bank.

Outlook, page 25

Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid