Matthew Elderfield

A non-Irish external candidate has been appointed as Head of Financial Supervision in what has been termed the "new" Central Bank of Ireland.

Matthew Elderfield, currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), will be responsible for all regulatory activities in the Central Bank. The appointment has been welcomed by the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, who earlier this year announced that the Government intends to bring forward legislation to establish a single fully integrated regulatory institution within the Central Bank of Ireland.

Announcing the appointment today, the new Central Bank Governor, Patrick Honohan said: “I am delighted to welcome Matthew Elderfield to the Central Bank. He has very extensive experience of financial supervision and he has the qualities that are ideally suited to this very challenging role. We look forward to working with him as we re-shape the financial regulatory system in Ireland.”

Matthew Elderfield has been Chief Executive of the BMA since July 2007. The BMA is the integrated regulator of the financial services sector in Bermuda and supervises all segments of the Bermuda financial markets.

Prior to joining the BMA, Elderfield spent eight years at the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) as a Head of Department in a variety of posts, responsible for exchange and clearing house supervision, for secondary markets and listing policy and for banking supervision. In this latter role, he represented the FSA on the Basel Accord Implementation Group and chaired the FSA panel responsible for economic capital model review.

Before joining the FSA, Elderfield established the European operations of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) and held posts at the London Investment Banking Association, the British Bankers Association and a Washington, DC based consultancy firm, the Institute for Strategy Development.

Matthew Elderfield graduated from Cambridge University in 1988 with a Masters degree in International Relations, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service, cum laude, from the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University in 1987.

Speaking about his appointment to the Central Bank, Elderfield said:"I am very much looking forward to joining the Central Bank and to working with my new colleagues and our stakeholders on the challenges facing the financial regulatory system in Ireland."

He will take up his new position in January 2010.

The Central Bank and its unit the Financial Regulator had adopted a so-called "light touch" approach to regulation during the boom and it turned out to be a soft touch.

In contrast with the Spanish central bank, the Irish bank relied on pleadings for restraint, which were simply ignored.

SEE Finfacts article Sept 07, 2009: Irish Central Bank declared its impotence before launch of the euro; Why Spain's biggest banks survived huge housing boom  

SEE Finfacts article May 26, 2009: Irish Financial Regulator’s failure to control property bubble contributed to economic crash and consumer wealth losses