Today's LIBOR Rates
1 M |
0.31563 |
 |
3 M |
0.47500 |
|
6 M |
0.68794 |
|
1 YR |
1.06438 |
|
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The People Behind LIBOR
Angela Knight, Chief Executive of the British Bankers’ Association
February 24, 2009
Angela Knight is on the front lines of the global economic crisis. As Chief Executive of the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), she must provide insight and reassurance regarding the UK’s banking institutions, and by extension the state of worldwide banking and business. She is also entrusted with LIBOR, the daily index of interbank lending rates published by the BBA. It is Ms. Knight’s job to oversee, explain, and at times defend LIBOR. Over $360 trillion in financial instruments are tied to the index. It constitutes no mere number and no small task.
Ms. Knight is no stranger to challenge and responsibility. Born in 1950, she was raised in the historic steel town of Sheffield and graduated Bristol College with a degree in Chemistry. The Times of London reports that her choice of major was rare among women during the period of her studies. After graduation, she went to work for Air Products Ltd., an American industrial gas company. According to her BBA bio, she served as product development manager for nitrogen, marketing it as an inert carrier during the treatment of ferrous metal components. She later founded Cook & Knight Metallurgical Processors Ltd., a specialist contract heat treatment company treating precision engineering components. Per The Times, the then-Angela Cook married her business partner David Knight in the early 1980s, but they later divorced after having two sons.
In the late 1980s, Ms. Knight entered politics, serving on the Sheffield City Council as Councillor and Chief Whip. In 1992, she was elected a Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Erewash. In 1995, Chancellor of Exchequer Kenneth Clarke appointed her Economic Secretary. During her tenure, she played a significant role in introducing the £2 coin. Ms. Knight lost reelection with Tony Blair’s Labor Party landslide of 1997.
Reentering the private sector, Ms. Knight became Chief Executive for the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers (Apcims), a position she held until her appointment to the BBA in 2007. She became known for going to the media to promote trade association goals and defend business practices. While leading Apcims, she fought for the elimination of a stamp duty on shares, which The Times notes was a tax that she supported while in government.
Her current employer, the BBA, calls upon Ms. Knight to be a spokesperson as well, especially when issues become contentious. When the Wall Street Journal questioned the accuracy of reported interbank lending rates comprising LIBOR, Ms. Knight defended the index: “I see no reason suddenly to up sticks and change a process that has actually served the financial community world-wide extremely well for a very considerable number of years.”
Regarding the mission of the BBA, Ms. Knight stated in a recent annual report: “The BBA does not believe in standing still. We need to be at the heart of the decision making processes so that we are better at influencing before a consultation, during a consultative process and afterwards. We need to bring forward our own ideas, not simply react to those of others and we need to help, mould and shape for the better policy that impacts our members in the UK, in Europe and more internationally.”
Angela Knight, chemist, businesswoman, cabinet member, public advocate, and steward of LIBOR, the world’s most important financial gauge.