RBA’s Edey elected head of influential OECD committee

Malcolm Edey, an assistant governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, has been elected chairman of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) influential committee on financial markets.

The central bank said late Tuesday that Edey, the assistant governor in charge of the financial system, had been elected to the role. It is not known if the appointment comes with a fixed term.

The committee on financial markets is the OECD's main organ for dealing with issues in banking, securities, derivatives, and other financial services, with the exception of insurance. It comprises senior central bankers and finance ministry officials from the multilateral organisation's 34 member countries. Estonia is the most recent addition to the OECD, having joined on 9 December.

As assistant governor for the financial system, Edey is tasked with oversight of the Australian central bank's work on financial stability, which includes the production of its biannual Financial Stability Review. He also has oversight of the country's payments system.

Edey is a career central banker. Prior to his current role, which he took on in 2009, he spent seven years as assistant governor in the central bank's economic group. He was head of the domestic markets department for a year, from 2001 to 2002, and head of the economic analysis department for four years before that. From 1995 to 1997, he was head of the central bank's economic research department. He joined the central bank in 1977.

Edey spent three years on secondment to the OECD's economics department, from 1992 to 1995. There, he worked as a senior economist in the money and finance division.

Edey holds a degree in economics from the University of Sydney, awarded in 1980. He also holds a doctorate from the London School of Economics, taken in 1986.