New Bank of England governor to be announced at 3.30pm

George Osborne will name the next governor of the Bank of England in a statement to the House of Commons on Monday.

The office of speaker John Bercow confirmed the chancellor will make a statement to MPs on the governor at 3.30pm.

Speculation is mounting that Sir Mervyn King will be replaced by his deputy governor Paul Tucker.

King has just over seven months to run before his second term ends on 30 June.

But by naming a successor today, Osborne may be hoping to ensure stability ahead of his autumn statement on 5 December.

The job is considered to be one of the most powerful in Britain, with the Bank of England taking on extra responsibilities for banking supervision as part of an overhaul of financial regulation following the economic crisis.

Charged with steering the economy through periods of both boom and bust, the Treasury wants "a person of undisputed integrity and standing" to take up King's mantle.

The governor will have responsibility for setting interest rates, regulating banks and other financial firms, and heading a new committee designed to spot and ward off future crises.

Frontrunner Tucker was recently embroiled in controversy surrounding the Barclays Libor rigging scandal.

Emails between himself and former Barclays boss Bob Diamond emerged that appeared to show Tucker sanctioning the bank's efforts to manipulate its borrowing costs downwards.

But he survived a grilling on the issue by MPs on the Treasury select committee.

Other candidates are said to include Lord Turner, former chairman of the Financial Services Authority; Sir John Vickers, former Office of Fair Trading boss who led the government's review into breaking up the banks; and Santander UK chairman Lord Burns.

A panel including Sir Nicholas Macpherson, permanent secretary to the Treasury, his deputy Tom Scholar and Court of the Bank of England chairman Sir David Lees sifted through CVs before interviewing candidates.