Canadian central banker Mark Carney to take over at Bank of England

Canadian central banker Mark Carney is set to take over from Bank of England chief Mervyn King, in preference domestic candidates.

The appointment of the first foreigner to the post was announced by chancellor George Osborne to the House of Commons. He told the house that the ex-Goldman Sachs banker was ''quite simply the best, most experienced and most qualified person in the world to do the job.''

In 2006 former chairman of the US Fed, Alan Greenspan was appointed advisor to the UK Treasury by former Chancellor Gordon Brown (See: Update: Retired in the US, Greenspan is hired in the UK).

Carney would be tasked with integrating the BoE with parts of the Financial Services Authority and face demands of cutting excessive deference and hierarchy from the culture at the bank.

The Financial Times, quoting Treasury insiders, said Osborne always wanted Carney for the job and he know Carney would be popular across the political divide as he  possessed more rounded experience of private banking, central banking and financial regulation than any other individual in the world.

Carney would take over at the BoE after a five-year stint in oversight of a Canadian economy that picked up from the 2009 global turmoil ahead of the UK, largely because its banks did not require bailouts. As against this, the UK is facing the prospect of recession, the biggest fiscal squeeze since World War II and trying to plan a future for its rescued financial sector.

Carney is expected to oversee an overhaul of the central bank to free of the taint of banking scandal.

Carney had earlier said he was not a candidate. When quizzed in the BBC's ''Hardtalk'' programme in August over his interest taking over at the BoE, he said he was ''very focused'' on his current posts and ''interested in who they pick.'' When asked whether that meant ''a no or a never consider the job?'' he said: ''It's both. How's that?''