An American economist who recently called for Wall Street bank chief executives to be fired is joining the Bank of England's interest-rate setting monetary policy committee.

Adam Posen is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC and a visiting scholar at various central banks around the world.

He is moving to England to take up the post, replacing the outgoing Tim Besley as one of nine members of the MPC.

During the banking crisis, Posen advocated the nationalisation of the biggest Wall Street banks.

"They also must have top management replaced and current shareholders wiped out," he said.

Posen will be paid £128,000 a year plus benefits and, in all likelihood, considerable travel expenses.

The committee meets for two days each month.

Posen is the second American to serve on the MPC, following DeAnne Julius who sat between 1997 and 2001.

That he must be based here is a new rule - a reflection of heightened public interest in the role of the MPC.

Chancellor Alistair Darling praised Posen's "deep understanding of monetary policy".