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Bank of England
Practical Law UK Glossary 4-107-6469 (Approx. 3 pages)
Glossary
Bank of England.
The UK's central bank. Its main purpose is to promote and maintain monetary stability (that is, meeting the Chancellor of the Exchequer's inflation targets) and financial stability (that is, enhancing the resilience of the UK's financial system).
Since 1997, the Bank of England (BoE) has had statutory responsibility for setting the UK's official interest rate (the rate at which the BoE lends to banks and other financial institutions). Interest rate decisions are made by the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee.
The BoE's other activities include:
- Macroprudential regulation of the financial system as a whole through its Financial Policy Committee. For more information, see Practice note, FPC: role, governance and powers.
- Microprudential regulation of deposit-takers, insurers and major investment firms through its subsidiary, the Prudential Regulation Authority. For more information, see Practice note, PRA: role, governance and powers.
- Supervising recognised clearing houses, UK-incorporated securities settlement systems, and inter-bank payment systems (collectively referred to by the BoE as financial market infrastructures (FMIs)). For more information, see Practice note, Bank of England regulation of FMIs.
- Managing the UK's foreign exchange and gold reserves.
- Providing banking services to the UK's banking system.
- Maintaining close links with the financial markets.
- Printing the country's bank notes.
- Collating and publishing monetary and banking statistics.
For more information, see Practice note, Bank of England: role, governance and financial stability powers.