What Will Mark Carney do for the Wealthy?

Freddy Barker looks to Canada for hints of what the wealthy should expect when Carney becomes governor of the Bank of England in July

With Mark Carney replacing Mervyn King as governor of the Bank of England in July, a glimpse into how Canada’s HNWs performed under his aegis is welcome.

WealthInsight, the London-based wealth management consultancy, estimates that Canada’s HNWs outperformed the global average from 2007 to 2012, rising 1.8 per cent in number in contrast to a worldwide fall of 0.3 per cent.

Canada’s 422,000 HNWs are spread across a vast terrain — Ontario being the largest state with 198,000 then Quebec with 81,800 and finally Alberta at 58,700 — so Carney will, on the surface, find it much easier communicating with the more concentrated HNW community in the UK.

Yet the fact that Canada’s HNWs are largely dependent on transport and tech, according to Andrew Amolis at WealthInsight, in contrast to finance and retail in the UK means that the former Goldman Sachs banker will be shepherding a more cyclically exposed set of HNWs in future.

Spears readers will thus be hoping he hits the ground running when he takes over at the Bank of England in two months time.