Remembering Charles Freeland

Charles Freeland, who died last year at the age of 75, was the key behind-the-scenes official in the secretariat of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision for longer than anyone else. As Ryozo Himino, the vice-minister for international affairs at Japan’s Financial Services Agency and a former secretary-general of the Basel Committee, notes: “Charles embodied the club culture of the pre-crisis Basel processes. He had a dry sense of irony. He was friendly and considerate while maintaining a p