Mark Carney has been named as the new governor of the Bank of England by Chancellor George Osborne.

Mr Carney, the governor of the Canadian central bank, will serve for five years and will hold new regulatory powers over banks.

He was a surprise choice for the head of the UK's central bank and had previously ruled himself out.

The post is seen as one of the most important positions in the stewardship of the UK economy.

Current governor Sir Mervyn King steps down from the post next June.

Sir Mervyn said Mr Carney represented "a new generation of leadership for the Bank of England, and is an outstanding choice to succeed me".

'Critical time'

Mr Osborne told Parliament that Mr Carney, 47, would bring the "strong leadership and external experience the Bank needs" and added that the Canadian would apply for British citizenship.

He said Mr Carney was acknowledged as "the outstanding central banker of his generation".

During Mr Carney's five years as governor in Canada, Mr Osborne said he was "acknowledged to have weathered the economic storm better than any other major Western economy".

Mr Carney said he was "honoured to accept this important and demanding role" at a "critical time for the British, European and global economies".

David Fuller's view There are eleven previous references to Mark Carney in the Fullermoney Archive and both Eoin and I have long regarded him as an outstanding Central Bank governor. That said, the last one was posted nearly a year ago and while I knew he was on Chancellor George Osborne's 'short list', both this appointment and its acceptance are more than I dared hope for.

Well done George Osborne for your vision, and well done Mark Carney for accepting this challenge at a very important time for the United Kingdom.

In addition to the article above, you may also be interested in Mark Carney's interview comments with the BBC (see link in the upper portion of the online article).