Sweeping New Changes Announced at the Bank of England
- Written by: Gary Howes
-
The Bank of England has announced a raft of changes aimed at increasing transparency with the public.
The moves will also have significant implications for the monthly exchange rate calendar and trade of the pound sterling.
The Bank announced, “a series of significant transparency, accountability and governance enhancements designed to put the Bank at the forefront of international best practice and enhance its ability to fulfil its mission to promote the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial stability.”
The moves are a reaction to an independent report into governance at the Bank of England conducted by former Federal Reserve Board Governor Kevin M. Warsh.
The following changes were announced:
- publication of both the minutes of its policy meetings and (in the relevant months) the Inflation Report at the same time as its policy decisions, starting in August 2015;
- publication of written transcripts of the meetings at which monetary policy is decided, and related staff policy briefing material, with an 8-year lag, as of the March 2015 policy meeting;
- alteration of its 2016 meeting schedule to provide scope to move to eight policy meetings a year;
- plan to hold four joint meetings between the Monetary and Financial Policy Committees in 2016.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has made one of the hallmarks of his time at the helm of the Bank his efforts to make the institution more transparent.
UK parliamentarians have previously expressed concern over the BoE's practice of only publishing heavily edited minutes of key meetings, rather than following the U.S. Federal Reserve's example of releasing full transcripts five years later.
Senior BoE official Paul Fisher said at the time that publishing full transcripts could discourage frank discussion.
