The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney is due to step down from his post with his replacement, Andrew Bailey, already in line to take over.

Carney, who started the role in 2013 and has steered the central bank through a downturn, Brexit and the ongoing climate change crisis, will leave the role on 16 March.

Canadian banker Carney's final job as governor was to cut interest rates in order to help households and businesses tackle the economic hit as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

LEGACY

He will most notably be remembered as a pragmatic Bank of England governor, having slowed down mortgage lending in order to stop a boom-bust in the property market as well as turning Britain's banknotes plastic, ending 320 years of paper money. Carney also played a key role reassuring markets following the 2016 Brexit referendum.

He was a keen advocate for the financial sector to do more in its fight to help tackle climate change and said this last December: "I would say we are in a climate crisis, just like a financial crisis, where action needs to be taken.”

But he sometimes gave mixed signals on interest rates and was fiercely criticized for his stance about what could happen when Britain eventually leaves the European Union.

Brendan Brown, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, discussed Carney's techniques. "In terms of his monetary policy he was very much a disciple, or you could say lower member of the global central bankers club, carrying a 2 percent inflation target at a time of massive disinflation in the world economy," he said. "So, the result of that was keeping interest rates at pretty much near zero – and that, in turn, had all the effects we know about in driving up asset markets and housing booms and everything else.”

WHAT'S NEXT?

Carney's successor, Andrew Bailey, is a British central banker who was also worked alongside Carney before in his role as deputy governor of the Bank of England, from April 2013 to July 2016.

Bailey's first challenges in his new role are tough, with the UK economy facing its weakest growth for years as well as having to deal with Brexit issues.

As for Carney, he has agreed to become the United Nations' special envoy on climate action and finance.