Hong Kong Weighs Extending Term of Central Banker Yue
(Bloomberg) — Hong Kong’s government is considering keeping Eddie Yue as its de-facto central bank chief after his current term expires in October, according to people familiar with the matter.
Yue, who has been leading the Hong Kong Monetary Authority since 2019, is likely to stay on the job as the government wants to avoid market disruption at a fragile time for the Asian financial hub, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.
Yue, 59, is seen as a steady hand and still relatively young, said the people. The decision isn’t final and still subject to change, they added. A typical HKMA CEO contract runs for five years.
As one of the world’s highest-paid central bankers, Yue runs the former British colony’s $517 billion war chest, with the main responsibility of ensuring the city’s currency peg to the US dollar. He has also recently assumed a larger role as the city’s face to the banking community with Hong Kong’s status as a global financial hub increasingly being questioned amid a drop off in businesses and Beijing’s tightening grip.
The appointment and reappointment matters of the HKMA are dealt with and announced at appropriate times in accordance with established procedures, a government spokesperson and an HKMA spokesperson said in separate written statements.
Yue is paid HK$10.3 million ($1.32 million) per year, more than many of his peers including the heads of the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve, though less than Thomas Jordan at the Swiss National Bank.
In late 2022, Yue pulled off a major global summit when Hong Kong was still clinging to strict Covid curbs. Some 200 finance leaders flew in, including the likes of David Solomon, James Gorman and Colm Kelleher. The event last year hosted an even bigger turnout of 300.
He also defended the currency vigorously against calls that the peg to the dollar was in peril, spending $37.4 billion from May 2022 to May 2023 to keep the link stable.
Yue has publicly backed Beijing’s tightening grip on the city, saying he heard no concerns from financial institutions about the national security law that was imposed in 2020. More recently he offered support for the local version of security law, known as Article 23, saying the legislation will bring social and financial stability.
Yue had a relatively modest upbringing, growing up in a 100-square-foot (9.3 square meters) apartment as the youngest of seven siblings.
Before joining government service, he worked as a bank teller. He helped set up the HKMA in 1993, then under colonial rule, where he worked alongside his mentor, the first HKMA Chief Executive Joseph Yam.
The HKMA was among the first local regulators to address the business community’s distress in public, urging relaxation as most global cities had gradually reopened to live with virus by mid 2022. Yue and his team even chipped in to send hampers of fine wine and gourmet food to bankers stranded in quarantine hotel rooms, hoping to make them “less angry with Hong Kong.”
As Covid emerged in 2020, Yue and four other senior executives at HKMA froze salary while adding 2.5% to the staff.
–With assistance from Toru Fujioka, Kate Davidson and Zoe Schneeweiss.
(Updates with new chart. Previous version was corrected to say Yue is among the highest-paid central bankers)
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