The new Master of the Universe

A financially stricken nation, unsure that even a modest recovery is gaining purchase, wants to see quick wins after paying top dollar for this Canadian import. His reputation as a miracle worker rests on decisive, innovative and well-communicated actions in Ottawa, including slashing interest rates, offering reassuring "forward guidance" on future measures, and effective co-operation with regulators to steer Canada through the worst of the financial crisis of 2008.

Carney seems to have luck on his side, with several signs of recovery converging on his arrival last week, but the picture is, of course, extremely complex, complicated by sharply rising borrowing costs, and rumblings of another summer eurozone crisis, this time in Portugal.

The degree to which Carney's central banking skills are transferable to the BoE – which is more collegiate than the Bank of Canada, as well as more arcane – is unknowable to outsiders, as is his view of the post-crash actions of his relatively academic predecessor. Sir Mervyn (now Lord) King's unsettled reputation will rise or fall depending on what the new governor does and whether it works.

For now at least, Carney's recruitment, intended to energise the continuing transformation of the UK's monetary landscape, looks like being a rare masterstroke by a low-rated chancellor. Even Carney's arrival at work by Tube – possibly an ironic nod towards populism by the £874,000-a-year man – was seen as portending a new era.

The Carney effect was in evidence on Thursday when the Monetary Policy Committee's expected decision to hold interest rates came with a heavy hint that they would not be rising until such time as Carney judges that enough "escape velocity" or upwards momentum has been achieved.

"The implied rise in the expected future path of bank rate was not warranted by the recent developments in the domestic economy," the MPC said.

We will have to wait until July 17 and the publication of the minutes of the meeting to see how Carney voted, and for more detail on his view of "asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves" or quantitative easing (QE), which was held at £375 billion last week. The weeks ahead will reveal how much stock he places on improvements in the services purchasing managers' index (PMI) and other indicators of business confidence, such as rising house prices, improvements in business lending and other better-than-expected data.

Above all, the first phase of Carney's governorship looks likely to be defined by the dexterity with which he weans the UK off "unconventional stimulus" as QE is classified. A pioneer of such measures, he arrives just as most commentators agree that QE has reached its limits, although US experience suggests that markets tend to overreact to explicit expressions of that belief by central bankers.

In the meantime, there are almost as many people claiming to read Carney's mind as there are giving him advice. Interestingly, given the importance of their potential future relationship, these do not include Scotland's Finance Secretary John Swinney.

A Yes vote next September would lead to negotiations on the terms on which an independent Scotland will join the "sterling zone", and Carney would become a far more powerful figure in Scottish life than any of his predecessors. That consideration, as much as normal courtesy, may lie behind First Minister Alex Salmond writing to Carney to congratulate him on his appointment last November.

Although not normally shy of using criticism of anything emanating from HM Treasury in order to make the case for Scottish independence, or of stressing Scotland's joint ownership of the UK's central bank, Swinney has kept his own counsel on Carney's best course of action, declining the Sunday Herald's offer to comment on the appointment.

In turn, the new BoE governor is very unlikely to twitch so much as an eyebrow in response to questions about the implications for the Bank of a possible break-up of the UK, though King is likely to have briefed his successor on the substance of "technical discussions" held last month between the outgoing governor and the First Minister.

Carney will be also be briefed by the Bank of England's eyes and ears in Scotland, Glasgow-based BoE "agent" William Dowson. However, their discussions are likely to have been at least as much about Scottish business confidence than about planning for an imminent overhaul of the Bank's entire constitutional basis.

Some of the economists with most influence on the Scottish debate, notably on the question of the currency and monetary supervision of a future independent Scotland, have dispensed free advice to the new governor.

Professor John Kay, a former Scottish Government adviser who has poured public scorn on the "sterling zone" envisaged by Salmond & Co, has been equally caustic about the "improbable premise that [Carney] brings some magic Canadian formula for growth".

In Kay's view, the easiest way for the Canadian to keep his invincible aura is to stick to King's slow but steady progress in purging the poison from the UK banking system, regardless of the City's disapproval.

Professor Joseph Stiglitz, the Scottish Government's current favourite international guru (or he was until he questioned the wisdom of corporation tax cuts), shares Kay's belief that Carney's energy should be deployed not on "an excessive focus on inflation" but on bringing the banks to order and creating the kind of credit market that will enable growth.

"Making the financial system more accountable, more responsible and more likely to fulfil its societal role should be Carney's central mission," he wrote last month.

"Before the crisis there was excessive faith in the efficiency of markets, in the notion that keeping inflation low was necessary to attain sustained growth, that monetary policy should exercise its influence mainly through interest rates.

"We now know the deficiencies of these models. Carney's challenge will be to respond to the exigencies of the moment while creating a new policy framework ensuring stability with full employment and high growth."

At least some of the vacuum of speculation about what exactly Carney's appointment means for the UK, will be filled next month, when he gives a press conference following the August inflation report, followed at the end of the month by a speech to a business audience in the Midlands.

However Delphic or explicit his "forward guidance" may be on these occasions, expect a flurry of market over-interpretation of these utterances, as it parses them for evidence of how exactly he links interest rates and monetary policy to growth and jobs targets.

Renowned as a dangerous season for markets – more so at such a dangerous stage of the global recovery – these long summer months will show how well Carney lives up to his role as a great communicator of timely messages.

His immediate priority is to avoid giving too stark a message about the anticipated removal of stimulus, as that could have catastrophic effects on investor confidence.

Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, has characterised the job of the governor of the Bank of England as "systemic risk centred on one person".

Aware of the magnitude of this responsibility, Carney has pledged to work in a consensual way, while simultaneously being expected to offer bolder, clearer leadership than the professorial and temperamentally downbeat predecessor.

If he is skilful enough somehow to effect such contrasting aims, then even fatcat-haters will have to admit – however grudgingly – that he will have earned that salary.