Anthony Browne (UK politics)

Journalism

Browne began his career as a journalist. He was business reporter and economics correspondent for the BBC; economics correspondent, health editor and environment correspondent for the Observer newspaper; and environment editor, Europe correspondent, and chief political correspondent for The Times. When Europe correspondent for The Times, he covered the enlargement of the EU to Eastern Europe, and the appointment of Peter Mandelson as European Commissioner. He also reported for The Times from Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and has been a regular contributor to the Spectator magazine and the Daily Mail.

A special report Browne authored for The Observer in 2000, titled "The Last Days of a White World", claimed that non-whites will be a majority in the United States and Great Britain by 2050, and compared the fate of white Britons to that of Native Americans, who "used to have the lands to themselves but are now less than 1 percent of the US population, with little chance of becoming a majority again."

Browne writes regularly for City AM and was one of the founding columnists of the website ConservativeHome.

Think tanks

Browne was Director of Policy Exchange, the largest centre-right think tank in the UK, where he succeeded the founding director Nick Boles. He ran Policy Exchange for eighteen months, during which time it doubled in size, but attracted criticism that it came too close to Conservative leader David Cameron.

Browne has written and contributed to various publications, including a book on whether Britain should join the European single currency, which entered the Sunday Times best-seller list; a pamphlet published by Civitas: The Institute for the Study of Civil Society discussing mass immigration which won Prospect magazine's think tank publication of the year award in 2003; and a Joseph Rowntree Foundation book on social evils. He is on the advisory board of the New Culture Forum, and the think tank ResPublica.

Politics

Browne was Policy Director for Economic Development for Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, in charge of economic and business policy for London, sitting on the board of the London Development Agency, and as an observer on the boards of the London Skills and Employment Board, and theCityUK, which represents UK financial services. He was also chairman of the Mayor's Digital Advisory Board.

Lobbyist

After working for Boris Johnson, Browne became Morgan Stanley's head of government relations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

On 1 September 2012 he left Morgan Stanley to become head of the British Bankers' Association.

British Bankers Association

Browne was appointed to the BBA in June 2012, two weeks before the LIBOR scandal broke. Marcus Agius, the chairman of the BBA who appointed Browne, promptly resigned. Shortly after Browne was appointed, the Daily Mail declared he was "the man who must clean up British banks".

Browne was responsible for implementing reforms of LIBOR proposed by a review lead by Martin Wheatley, the then head of Financial Conduct Authority. Browne then worked with a government appointed tendering committee chaired by Baroness Hogg to transfer operation of LIBOR from the BBA. Responsibility for the operation of LIBOR was transferred from the BBA to NYSE Euronext in January 2014. As part of the ensuing Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, chaired by Andrew Tyrie, Browne co-ordinated the industry to establish the Banking Standards Board.

Browne also set up the BBA’s first Consumer Panel. In the wake of the 2016 referendum on Brexit, Browne famously warned in a controversial piece in The Observer newspaper that British based banks were about to relocate operations to the EU, with their hands “quivering over the relocate button”.

In April 2017, he announced he was stepping down after five years as CEO, when the BBA merges with five other trade associations to form UK Finance.

Major publications