News Release
Bank of England Appoints Two New Agents
15 December 1998
The Bank of England announces the appointment of two new Agents, as from 1 January 1999.
Mr Chris Brown has been appointed as the Bank's new Agent for the East Midlands, based in Nottingham, and Mr Mark Pratt as the new Agent for Yorkshire and the Humber, based in Leeds.
The function of the Bank's Agents is to report to the Bank's Head Office and to the Monetary Policy Committee on economic conditions in their regions, and to represent the Bank. In that way they help the Bank and the MPC in the formulation of monetary policy. They depend on contacts with business people, labour representatives, trade associations and other groups. The Bank publishes a quarterly summary of business conditions based on the Agents' regular reports, and their monthly reports to the MPC are summarised in the annex to the MPC minutes.
Chris Brown joined the Bank in 1973. In November 1992 he became manager of the Bank's Branch in Birmingham, where he was responsible for note distribution in the area and for business liaison. In October 1997, following a review of note operations, the Bank closed the Branch in Birmingham. Since that time Mr Brown has been the Deputy Agent for the West Midlands and has been occupied full time on liaison with businesses in the region.
Mr Brown says: "Our Office in Nottingham is relatively new. Before it was opened, as part of my role in the West Midlands, the region was covered from the Bank's Birmingham Office. I am therefore moving to an area that is already familiar to me. I look forward to re-acquainting myself with old contacts, developing further the new relationships already started by the Nottingham team and building on the Bank's representation of the East Midlands as a whole."
Mark Pratt has worked in the Bank since 1975 following brief spells with the National Coal Board and Hill Samuel. He has specialised in corporate finance for much of his career, and has been for the past nine years a Senior Adviser in Bank's Business Finance Division. This has entailed extensive liaison with the company finance directors and treasurers, as well as with corporate bankers and investors. During the early 1990s, he was actively involved in facilitating agreement on the terms of corporate workouts.
Mr Pratt says: "I am looking forward very much to getting to know the business community in Yorkshire and Humberside and to passing their views on the local economy to the Monetary Policy Committee. At a personal level, I am relishing the prospect of living in an interesting and beautiful part of the country.
Notes to Editors
The Bank has been represented in Leeds since 1827 and in Nottingham since 1997.
