Speaking to Bloomberg former Bank of England (BoE) policy maker Charles Goodhart has said that the chancellor will struggle to find a successor for Sir Mervyn King who is untainted by the financial crisis and banking scandals.

"There's a general impression that whoever gets appointed needs to be as pure as Caesar's wife (...) In the present climate, and after all the events of the past five to six years, it's actually quite hard to find a Caesar's wife."

On the subject of whether too much power is being handed over to a single person Mr.Goodhart -now a professor at the London School of Economics- answered that: "I think there is some truth in the claim. It's difficult to argue against the suggestion that it does concentrate power very much in a person. [Still, the job is doable and its expanded power] which makes it even more important to appoint a really excellent person for that position."

Until recently the Bank of England's Deputy Governor Paul Tucker was considered to be the front-runner to replace King, but his odds at bookmakers lengthened after he was dragged into the Libor scandal.

Despite all of the above, Goodhart concluded by saying that: "It's not necessarily the case that everybody has got to be 100% experienced in all aspects of the role of being governor."

AB

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