Sonya Branch

Bank of England

Sonya Branch is the rarest of the rare: a successful magic circle partner who moved into the public sector to become one of the most influential figures in City institutional circles. She is also one of the few people to have made the Hot 100 three times, underlining the extent to which she has excelled in her different roles. From Clifford Chance, and then to the OFT and CMA, she moved to the Bank of England as general counsel in 2015, and was intimately involved in the project to help stabilise the UK financial system after the Covid-19 pandemic struck, delivering complex and innovative solutions relating to the Covid-19 financing scheme. 2021 saw the culmination of a crucial internal project to build in organisational resilience, increase ethnic diversity and also provide clearer paths for progression from the most senior lawyers to junior professionals – including paralegals and apprentices.

With the directorate’s strategic plan done and dusted, Branch can now get to grips with a wider advisory role – something that plays well to a lawyer with her intellectual and commercial firepower. As a key member of the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee, Prudential Regulation Committee and, by invitation, the Monetary Policy Committee, this year will see her grappling with major issues ranging from post-Brexit financial regulation and the status of digital currency to climate change.