Niedermayer to oversee Czech c.bank monetary unit

PRAGUE, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The Czech National Bank (CNB) on Monday put Vice-Governor Ludek Niedermayer in charge of the key monetary and statistics department which draws up inflation forecasts and monthly recommendations for interest rate changes.

The CNB's seven policymakers agreed a fresh division of the oversight powers among themselves after the appointment of two new members at the start of this month to replace bankers whose six-year mandates expired at end-November.

The CNB said in a statement Niedermayer, who is serving his non-renewable second six-year term, took over the monetary division from Jan Frait, who left the bank last month along with Michaela Erbenova.

The department is responsible for a quarterly update of the inflation and economic prediction, the key driver of interest rate changes in the bank's inflation targeting policy regime.

Niedermayer is known in markets for generally leaning towards hawkish views on inflation, unlike Frait, a self-proclaimed advocate of accommodative monetary policy.

In the new set-up, Vice-Governor Miroslav Singer took command of banking supervision and regulation of capital markets and insurance companies, previously under Erbenova.

Each member of the governing board oversees one or more of the bank's departments and units. Governor Zdenek Tuma is responsible for internal affairs and has the wider duty of representing the bank in public and abroad.

Incumbent member Pavel Rezabek retained cash and payment systems and Robert Holman was moved to oversee budget and accounting.

Vladimir Tomsik, one of the two newcomers, is responsible for open market operations, formerly Holman's area. The other newcomer, Mojmir Hampl, took administrative and IT sections. ((Reporting by Marek Petrus; Editing by Gerrard Raven; Reuters Messaging: rm://marek.petrus.reuters.com@reuters.net; e-mail: prague.newsroom@reuters.com or marek.petrus@reuters.com; Tel: +420 224 190 477))

Keywords: CZECH CENTRALBANK/