People: Bank of Canada names senior deputy governor

Canada: The Bank of Canada has named Carolyn Rogers as its new senior deputy governor, it announced on July 12. She begins a seven-year term on December 15.

Rogers becomes part of the bank’s six-member governing council, which determines Canadian monetary policy. She “will oversee the bank’s strategic planning and operations, and provide leadership in promoting a stable and efficient financial system”.

According to the central bank’s organisational chart, the senior deputy governor oversees the other four deputy governors and the bank’s chief operating officer. All five deputy governors sit on the governing council, but only Rogers will be on the board of directors, along with governor Macklem and 12 independent directors.

Rogers will become the only woman on the governing council, though women comprise the majority of the board of directors.

The central bank’s new number two is an external hire, who has spent most of her career in various financial regulators. An accountant by profession, Rogers was chief executive of the provincial finance regulator in British Columbia between 2010 and 2016. From 2016 to 2019, Rogers was an assistant superintendent of the regulation sector at Canada’s federal financial regulator.

Since 2019, Rogers has worked for the Bank for International Settlements, where she is secretary-general of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

Senior officials at the Bank of Canada tend to be bilingual in English and French. Rogers is understood to speak French and is currently working to improve her fluency.

Rogers succeeds Carolyn Wilkins, who left office last December. Wilkins began a three-year term as an external member of the Bank of England’s financial policy committee in June.

Turkmenistan: The president of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, named Gadirgeldi Mushshikov governor of the central bank on July 9, according to media reports. Mushshikov had previously served as deputy prime minister, with responsibility for finance and the economy.

Mushshikov replaces Merdan Annadurdyyev, whom Berdimuhamedov had reprimanded in February. According to Turkmen Portal, a newspaper based in the country’s capital, Berdimuhamedov had complained that the central bank was doing too little to manage credit and stabilise the currency. Annadurdyyev first took office in 2015.

The Turkmen news agency reported that Berdimuhamedov had “reprimanded” the deputy governor of the central bank, M Orazdurdyev, “for shortcomings in the performance of his official duties”.

Serdar Berdimuhamedov, the president’s son, is the new finance minister and deputy prime minister. His father became Turkmenistan’s second president in 2007.

Brazil: The Brazilian senate on July 8 confirmed Fernanda Magalhães Rumenos Guardado as a member of the central bank’s board of directors. The Senate voted 39–3 in favour of Guardado’s appointment, proposed by president Jair Bolsonaro.

Guardado has extensive experience as an economist in the finance recently. Since 2019, she has been chief economist at Banco Bocom, which is a subsidiary of the Bank of Communications of China. She holds a PhD in economics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, where she also taught.

The new director replaces Fernanda Nechio, who announced her resignation in March. The San Francisco Fed revealed in June that Nechio would head up its sustainable research group.

The Central Bank of Brazil has a nine-member directorate, with each member holding a portfolio of responsibilities. Nechio held the international affairs and corporate risk portfolios.

Malaysia: The Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, announced the appointment of a new managing director on June 29. Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir will start work on July 16. He succeeds Shahril Ridza Ridzuan.

Zahir has both public and private sector experience. For the last seven years, he has worked at Maybank, a large private bank. He became Maybank’s CFO in 2016. He was head of investment banking at Maybank between 2008 and 2010.  He holds an accounting and finance degree from the London School of Economics.

The Malaysian government established KNB in 1993. Primarily owned by the finance ministry, it has “realisable assets” worth 95.3 billion Malaysian ringgits ($22.73 billion).

The prime minister of Malaysia is also the chairman of the KNB board.