June 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. Treasury approached seven people to apply for the position awarded last week to Adam Posen on the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee.

Posen, deputy director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, defeated 49 other candidates for the job, the U.K. Treasury said in an e-mailed response to a freedom of information request from Bloomberg News. Forty-four applicants were male and five were female, with one declining to specify gender.

Half of the candidates didn’t give their nationality, 14 said they were British or mixed British, three were English, one a U.S. citizen, one was described as Swedish/American/French, and six were of an unspecified nationality. Of those that stated their ethnic identity, 22 were white, and there was one each of Bangladeshi, Cantonese and Indian ethnicity.

Posen, 42, will serve a three-year term and said last week his biggest challenge is helping the bank decide when to stop buying assets with newly created money. A U.S. citizen, he said in an interview that he intends buy a home in the U.K. He will replace Timothy Besley in September.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Ryan in London at Jryan13@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 24, 2009 05:07 EDT