Bank of Canada names longtime executive Mendes as deputy governor

By Ismail Shakil

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Bank of Canada (BoC) said on Friday it has picked longtime central bank executive Rhys Mendes as its new deputy governor, making him the first person of color to that role.

Mendes, who will start in the role on July 17, will fill a vacancy created by the departure of Paul Beaudry, and will join the six-member interest-rate-setting governing council.

As deputy governor, Mendes will oversee the BoC’s economic and financial research as well as its analysis of international economic developments, according to a statement from the central bank.

Mendes, who joined the bank in 2004, has been on secondment to Canada’s Finance Ministry since 2021, serving as assistant deputy minister.

“We will benefit greatly from his experience and expertise in economic modelling, monetary policy framework design, and international policy issues,” BoC Governor Tiff Macklem said in a statement.

The Bank of Canada is seeking to diversify its workforce and told staff in a memo in 2020 that it planned to double the number of senior officers who are visible minorities by 2030, and increase the number of women in those roles by 45% in the same period.

Mendes’ addition to the Bank of Canada’s governing council, which takes policy decisions by consensus, comes as the bank is assessing whether its record pace of rate hikes has been sufficient to tame inflation.

Mendes holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Toronto. At the bank, he has held positions including managing director of economic and financial research and managing director of international economic analysis.

The BoC kept interest rates unchanged in its last two meetings after hiking at eight consecutive policy meetings, and has said rates may need to stay high for a while to ensure inflation does not get stuck above a bank target.

Canada’s annual inflation rate eased to 4.3% in March, its slowest pace in 19 months, but still more than double the bank’s 2% target.

Last month, the bank said Beaudry would leave at the end of July to return to academia, after a stint of more than four years.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Matthew Lewis and Leslie Adler)