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Bank of England

The Bank of England, founded in 1694 as the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, is the central bank of the United Kingdom and was originally founded to act as the banker to the English Government (it maintains this role today as banker to the government of the United Kingdom). The Bank of England operates a monopoly on the issuance of banknotes in England and Wales. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (which meets monthly to decide the official interest rate of the UK) has been given a degree of independence from the government, although the Treasury can give the Committee orders in extreme circumstances, and any order must be approved by Parliament within 28 days of issuance

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Services boom is a quandary for the Bank of England Factories in turnaround on output

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Don’t put all your faith in models

06.11.09
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Bank prints £25bn more and warns of rise in prices

05.11.09
The Bank of England is to pump another £25 billion into Britain’s ailing economy, it said today, and warned that the nation is set to experience a sharp dose of inflation ... more

British Airways is tumbling despite hopes for Iberia deal

05.11.09
Is the board of British Airways about to buy a one-way ticket to Madrid? That was the story doing the rounds in the Square Mile this morning amid claims that the proposed merger with Spanish carrier Iberia could be completed by the second quarter of next year ... more

QE may be winding down but no rate rises yet

05.11.09
After injecting a whopping £200 billion into the quantitative easing programme over the past nine months it now seems as though the Bank is embarking on the “wind-down” stage of quantitative easing, weaning the economy and the financial markets off their life-support system ... more

Services boom is a quandary for the Bank of England

04.11.09
Britain moved a step closer to the end of recession today as the Bank of England grappled with how to secure a lasting recovery... more

Time for the MPC to make up its mind on QE

04.11.09
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Another £40 billion from us to the banks

03.11.09
The taxpayer bail-out of the banks continues apace, with the biggest cash injection by the state to date... more

Goldman bans parties during festive season

03.11.09
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Sanctimony that leads to the real scandal of office sex

02.11.09
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Home loans remain cheap but holidays abroad will cost more

23.10.09
The shock figures on the poor state of the economy today offer good and bad news for consumers... more

Economists fear a long battle ahead as recovery hopes dashed

23.10.09
Hopes of a swift recovery from the recession were dashed as City economists warned that Britain is now likely to face a longer battle to restore the country to prosperity... more

Bank of England is set to reverse quantitative easing

23.10.09
The Bank of England said it is ready to reverse quantitative easing as the housing market showed further signs of recovery... more

Struggling firms paying more for bank loans

22.10.09
Banks have jacked up the cost of lending to British businesses which are fighting the survive the recession... more

Crunch time ahead for private equity

13.10.09
The British Venture Capital Association deserves some marks for chutzpah ... more

QE key to rate rise timing

08.10.09
The Bank of England held interest rates at 0.5% for the seventh month running today, leaving economists speculating on when it will feel able to start pushing them up ... more

Why it’s a good thing the pound is weaker

30.09.09
One of life’s current mysteries is why people are so surprised at the abrupt decline of sterling, and in particular the weakness of the past few weeks when the markets came to the conclusion that the Bank of England would like to see the rate lower ... more

Mortgage lending bounces to six month high

29.09.09
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No change for interest rates as Bank takes a breather

10.09.09
The Bank of England paused for breath today amid further signs that the housing market is on the mend and the economy is pulling out of recession ... more

The Bank’s data are united: They all promise disaster

03.09.09
If there were ever any doubt about how bad the effects of recession will be and how long they might last the Bank of England’s plethora of lending data this week did all that was needed to dispel them ... more

More debt repaid than taken out for first time on record

01.09.09
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High Street banks hit by soaring bad debts

01.09.09
The scale of the bad debt problem facing Britain’s High Street banks and building societies was highlighted by figures buried in the Bank of England’s mass of data released ... more

City shock as inflation blip hints at early rate rises

18.08.09
The City was wrong-footed again by shock figures showing inflation remained stubbornly above expectations last month... more

Banks under pressure to pass on cuts as Libor hits record low

14.08.09
Libor, the rate at which banks lend to one another, has fallen 7.7% in the last week to a record low, piling the pressure on lenders to pass on cuts to borrowers in full... more

Bank of England decides on cash plan

05.08.09
The Bank of England was meeting to discuss its programme of printing money against a backdrop of rising confidence among UK consumers ... more

Factories in turnaround on output

03.08.09
The Bank of England’s interest-rate setters had more positive news on the economy to chew over at this week’s meeting after figures showed British factory output back in growth ... more

City 'experts' are left looking foolish by huge dive

24.07.09
City economists scrambling to rewrite forecasts for the year after a shocking decline in second-quarter output that none of them managed to predict... more

Tories way off target on bank reform

21.07.09
As a general rule of thumb, the more a politician leaks a speech in advance, the more disappointing the actual result will be when it is delivered ... more

Tories vow to scrap FSA and give power to Bank of England

20.07.09
City faces a major shake-up in banking regulations as the Tories and Liberal Democrats unveil plans for reform... more

Bank reeling from Darling's boost to FSA

26.06.09
The Bank of England was working out how it would respond to the Government's decision to strengthen the role of the FAS in banking supervision to the detriment of the central bank's powers... more

Getting the books in order is our biggest challenge

18.06.09
According to Sir Howard Davies, the first chairman of the FSA, speaking yesterday on Radio 4, research in the United States has established a link between the trust that business and investors have in the regulatory system and their willingness to invest.... more

More related topics: Bank of England and

  • Facts
  • Since 1734, The Bank’s official headquarters have been on Threadneedle Street in the City of London, leading to the nickname Old Lady of Threadneedle Street or just Old Lady
  • As of July 2009, the current Governor of the Bank of England is Mervyn King, having taken up the post in 2003
  • During the Second World War, Nazi Germany attempted to counterfeit Bank of England banknotes to be dropped over the UK in order to destabilise the British economy. Although no notes were eventually dropped (the Luftwaffe could not spare the aircraft), by the end of the war, Operation Bernhard (which had used the labour and counterfeiting skill of a select team of concentration camp prisoners) had produced 8,965,080 banknotes valuing a total of £134,610,810
  • The £50 note features the face of Sir John Houblon, who was the first Governor of the Bank of England from 1694 to 1697

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