Paul Myners, City of London Titan and Minister, Dies at 73

(Bloomberg) -- Paul Myners, the City of London grandee who helped oversee Gordon Brown’s response to the financial crisis, has died. He was 73.

Myners died on Sunday, according to a statement by Edelman UK, where he served as chairman.

“With great sadness we announce the loss of our beloved father Lord Paul Myners,” his five children said in a statement. “He passed away peacefully in the early hours of this morning at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital.”

Myners, who began his career as a teacher and then a financial journalist, got his start in the City of London when he joined investment bank Rothschild. He spent nearly two decades as Gartmore’s chief executive officer and was also a director of NatWest Group Plc, Coutts and Lloyd’s of London. 

Some of his other positions included chairman of retailer Marks & Spencer Group Plc and the Guardian Media Group. He was appointed Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury in 2008, just two weeks after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

“I was confronted with a single item agenda: the banking system,” he said in a 2016 interview. “I just rest my case on the fact that the building was alight, but it didn’t burn down.”

Former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said Myners was “focused, driven and effective during crisis; irreverent and challenging during calm.”

One of the most memorable moments of Myners’ ministerial career came came when he went toe-to-toe with Fred Goodwin, the then-CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Describing his talks with Myners over a bailout, Goodwin said it was “less of a negotiation, more a drive-by shooting.” 

Myners left the post in 2010. A member of the House of Lords, he peppered government ministers with hundreds of questions on issues including Greensill Capital, which collapsed last year.

On Brexit, Myners was critical of the government’s lack of interest on the impact on the City. Speaking to Bloomberg in 2021, he warned “the change over the next 10 years could be quite profound,” and the U.K. would come to regret its stance.

“His experience was truly unmatched and there are few people who bring such depth of knowledge and experience from the top of both the private and public sector,” Ed Williams, president and chief executive officer of Edelman EMEA, said in the statement. “Through his professional life, he led some of Britain’s largest and most cherished companies, and in government as a key figure helping to resolve the financial crisis.”

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