SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Sunday he planned to name a new Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor in the next month, after Michele Bullock vacated the role to take the reins as RBA governor.
“I’m hoping to announce the new deputy governor before the meeting of the Reserve Bank on the fifth of December,” Chalmers told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Bullock, appointed RBA governor in July, has the task of leading the bank through a major internal shakeup after a review urged changes including a separate specialist board to manage monetary policy, fewer meetings and more public communication.
Chalmers said shortlisted candidates for the deputy role – “some international some external, some from Australia some from overseas” – were being interviewed, adding that Bullock had been “deeply involved”.
On implementing the Reserve Bank review, Chalmers said laws would be introduced at the end of November. They would include the RBA governor chairing a new governance board “at least for the first five years”.
“Until we review it and make sure it’s working as we intended,” Chalmers said.
The review, released in April, recommended such a board be set up to guide and oversight RBA management, in line with corporate governance best practice.
Bullock, the first woman to helm the country’s central bank, took over from Philip Lowe in the top job in September.
Chalmers comments come ahead of a meeting on Tuesday of the RBA, tipped to raise its key policy rate by 25 basis points to 4.35%, according to a Reuters poll on Friday, after keeping borrowing costs steady at its last four meetings.
(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
