Riddle - Signatures on Australian banknotes - Ernest Cooper Riddle - Coins and Australia

In 1925, Riddle was appointed deputy governor of the Commonwealth Bank and in 1927 became the bank's governor, a position he held until his retirement in 1938. Riddle served as Australia's most senior banker through the entire Great Depression. He attended the British Empire Economic Conference in Ottawa in 1932 as an adviser on financial matters to the Australian delegation. He also travelled twice to London where he played a vital part in exchange-rate deliberations. Riddle argued against exchange-rate appreciation, opposing the position of the Commonwealth Bank's chairman Sir Robert Gibson. Supported by the Bank of England and aided by a lack of enthusiasm for Gibson's proposal by some board members, Riddle's advice was accepted. Riddle gave evidence at the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into Australia's monetary and banking systems, which ran from 1935 to 1937. Riddle resigned from the Commonwealth Bank on 28 February 1938 due to ill health.