Citigroup hires former Bank of England Governor King

New York: Mervyn King, the former Bank of England governor who has lambasted bankers and the financial industry, joined Citigroup Inc as a senior adviser in April, the Financial Times reported.

King, 68, retired from the Bank of England in 2013 after a decade overseeing UK monetary policy and has since taught at New York University’s Stern School of Business. His willingness to embrace radical stimulus after the financial crisis — including taking interest rates to record lows and starting a government bond-purchasing programme — helped steer Britain clear of a depression.

King joins a line of economic policymakers to take positions at financial services firms after leaving government service. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is a senior adviser at Pacific Investment Management Co, and former US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is now president of private-equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC.

King has described bankers as “incompetent and greedy” and said that their compensation created a reckless culture, according to the Financial Times.

Mark Costiglio, a spokesman for New York-based Citigroup, declined to comment. King didn’t immediately respond to a message left with an assistant at New York University.