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Chancellor Alistair Darling said that King had played a key role in delivering macroeconomic stability in the UK, and that his leadership and experience would continue to prove invaluable to the Bank of England.

King was first appointed as the Governor of the Bank of England on 1 July 2003 for a period of five years.

In this role he is also Chairman of the Monetary Policy Committee. He was previously Deputy Governor from 1998 to 2003, and Chief Economist and Executive Director from 1991. King was a non-executive director of the Bank from 1990 to 1991.

Born in 1948, King studied at King's College, Cambridge, and Harvard (as a Kennedy Scholar) and taught at Cambridge and Birmingham Universities before spells as Visiting Professor at both Harvard University and MIT.

From October 1984 he was Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics where he founded the Financial Markets Group.

King is a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of King's and St John's Colleges, Cambridge and holds honorary degrees from Birmingham, City of London, Edinburgh, London Guildhall, London School of Economics, Wolverhampton, Cambridge and Helsinki Universities.

He is a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is on the Advisory Council of the London Symphony Orchestra, is Patron of Worcestershire County Cricket Club and is a Trustee of the National Gallery.

Under the Bank of England Act 1998 the Governor of the Bank of England is appointed by Her Majesty the Queen on advice from the Prime Minister, who is in turn advised by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The appointment is for a period of five years.

Related links

• Bank of England
• HM Treasury