Starting off as head of sovereign bonds at Lombard Odier, Cunliffe later joined ABN Amro Asset Management and Aberdeen Asset Management before becoming head of fixed income and multi-asset investment strategy at Tesco’s in-house pension scheme.
It was here he took on responsibility for asset allocation across the scheme and set up the fixed income team.
After 15 months at the helm as CIO at Charles Stanley, Cunliffe says his time at the central bank gave him a solid grounding in macro policy, a bonus given the impact of the Bank of England’s actions in recent years.
“I understand the impact of regulation on markets and the impact it can have on investor behaviour and how well-intentioned regulation can have negative effects,” Cunliffe adds.
“I realise also that policy making is as much an art as it is a science, when it comes to trying to influence institutions in the financial system in general.”
But even his years of experience did not prepare him for the distorting impact the bank’s policies would have on wider markets.
“The problem with it was that the money didn’t find its way into the real economy it stayed within the financial system, so all the reflation we got was actually in financial assets not in the real economy.
“So, I think policy makers have back-filled the narrative to make it seem like all along they knew people would go up the risk curve and would buy assets and that would ease financial conditions.”
Cunliffe believes many people at the bank truly believed the money would trickle into the wider economy and stimulate consumer spending and boost inflation.
“It didn’t happen, the only inflation we got was in asset markets which of course has given rise to other criticism of its making people who are asset rich, richer, and the people who aren’t asset rich worse off,” he adds.
