In the end, Boris Johnson played it safe. Choosing the long-serving insider, Andrew Bailey, as the next governor of the Bank of England will be widely seen as the low-risk option, despite a string of regulatory failures during his three years as head of the Financial Conduct Authority.

Although the 34-year veteran has never sat on the monetary policy committee that sets interest rates, he has broad experience of the bank’s operations and is well known to the key players in Westminster and Whitehall, including Johnson himself. Bailey is also widely respected internationally, not least in Brussels. Yet even his biggest fans would not claim he is a central-banking rock star.