Haldane joined the
Bank of England in 1989. He worked in monetary analysis, on various issues regarding monetary policy strategy,
inflation targeting, and
central bank independence. He had a secondment to work at the
International Monetary Fund. Haldane's senior experience back in the Bank of England includes heading up the International Finance Division and the Market Infrastructure Division. In 2005 Haldane assumed responsibility for the
Systemic Risk Assessment Division within the Financial Stability department. In 2009 he became the Bank of England's executive director of financial stability. Haldane has been widely cited as a leading Bank of England expert on financial stability and is a co-author with
Adair Turner and others of the
London School of Economics The Future of Finance report. His 2012 speech, called "The Dog and the Frisbee"—delivered to the
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's annual
Jackson Hole,
Wyoming meeting—received widespread attention in the financial media and prompted
Forbes to describe him as a "rising star central banker". In the speech, Haldane drew on
behavioural economics to argue that complex financial systems cannot be controlled with complex regulations. In October 2012 Haldane said the
Occupy movement protesters had been right to criticise the financial sector and had persuaded bankers and politicians "to behave in a more moral way". Interviewed on the BBC's
The World at One radio programme, ahead of the
chancellor's 2012
Autumn Statement, Haldane said the financial effect of the bank crisis, i.e., the loss of income and damage to output was as severe as a world war. He feared the cost would fall on the next generation or even the generation afterwards. Public anger was justified as banks had made loans which could never be repaid and these loans were sold on around the world creating the
subprime mortgage crisis. The banks still had undeclared risky assets. In the meantime,
bankers' pay, which in 1980 was comparable with a doctor or lawyer, had risen to four times that value by 2006 and Haldane said it needs to fall to that of other professions. He introduced the "non-bank, non-insurer globally
systemically important financial institution" (NBNI G-SIFIs) into the lexicon at this event, and detailed the thrust of regulators as "modulating the price of risk, when this is materially mispriced, could be every bit as important as controlling its quantity". Haldane said in March 2017 that "Bad managers stand accused of holding back economic growth in the UK by undermining productivity, preventing pay and living standards rising." Haldane said in 2017 the rise in self-employment and drop in union membership mirrors weak workforces of the pre-1750 era. He also said a period of "divide and conquer" had left workers less able to bargain for higher wages. "There is power in numbers. A workforce that is more easily divided than in the past may find itself more easily conquered." In April 2021, he announced that he was resigning from the Bank of England in June and becoming chief executive of the
Royal Society for Arts in September, replacing
Matthew Taylor. In September 2023, RSA workers voted to strike for the first time in the organisation's history, saying management had entered into pay negotiations in "bad faith". In September 2021, Haldane was appointed as the head of the
Levelling Up Taskforce in the newly renamed
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, under Secretary of State
Michael Gove. In April 2023, Haldane was appointed to
HM Treasury's Economic Advisory Council. In January 2026, he became the Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, replacing
Anne Rafferty. which aims to persuade economists to donate their time and expertise to help charities on a
pro bono basis. It has partnered with charities such as
St Giles Trust and
Barnardo's. They tapped
Gus O'Donnell to help promote the initiative. It is also backed by
Gavyn Davies, former BBC head;
Howard Davies,
London School of Economics director;
Rachel Lomax, former
Bank of England deputy director on the
Monetary Policy Committee;
Adair Turner, who chaired the now-defunct
Financial Services Authority; and
Jim O'Neill, the
Goldman Sachs economist who came up with the term
BRIC: Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Honours and awards In 2016, Haldane was elected a
Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS). In 2019, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Warwick. In 2021, he was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). Haldane was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the
2023 Birthday Honours for services to the economy and public policy. In 2014 he was named by
Time magazine as amongst the
world's 100 most influential people. In 2023, Haldane was named as the UK's forty-fourth most powerful
left-wing figure by the
New Statesman.
Publications Haldane has authored (or co-authored) more than 70 articles His published books include: •
The Future of Payment Systems •
Fixing Financial Crises in the 21st Century ==Personal life==