Bank of England

Central bank of the United KingdomTemplate:SHORTDESC:Central bank of the United Kingdom

Template:Infobox central bank
Template:Politics of the United Kingdom

The **Bank of England** is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of the United Kingdom, it is the world's eighth-oldest bank. It was privately owned by stockholders from its foundation in 1694 until it was nationalised in 1946 by the Attlee ministry.

The bank became an independent public organisation in 1998, wholly owned by the Treasury Solicitor on behalf of the government, with a mandate to support the economic policies of the government of the day, but independence in maintaining price stability.

The bank is one of eight banks authorised to issue banknotes in the United Kingdom, has a monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales, and regulates the issuance of banknotes by commercial banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The bank's Monetary Policy Committee has devolved responsibility for managing monetary policy. The Treasury has reserve powers to give orders to the committee "if they are required in the public interest and by extreme economic circumstances", but Parliament must endorse such orders within 28 days. In addition, the bank's Financial Policy Committee was set up in 2011 as a macroprudential regulator to oversee the UK's financial sector.

The bank's headquarters have been in London's main financial district, the City of London, on Threadneedle Street, since 1734. It is sometimes known as "The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street", a name taken from a satirical cartoon by James Gillray in 1797. The road junction outside is known as Bank Junction.

As a regulator and central bank, the Bank of England has not offered consumer banking services for many years, but it still does manage some public-facing services, such as exchanging superseded bank notes. Until 2016, the bank provided personal banking services as a privilege for employees.

## Governance of the Bank of England

### Governors

Main article: Governor of the Bank of England
Following is a list of the governors of the Bank of England since the beginning of the 20th century:

### Court of Directors

The Court of Directors is a unitary board that is responsible for setting the organisation's strategy and budget and making key decisions on resourcing and appointments. It consists of five executive members from the bank plus up to 9 non-executive members, all of whom are appointed by the Crown. The Chancellor selects the Chairman of the Court from among the non-executive members. The Court is required to meet at least seven times a year.

The Governor serves for a period of eight years, the Deputy Governors for five years, and the non-executive members for up to four years.

### Other staff

Since 2013, the bank has had a chief operating officer (COO). As of 2017[update], the bank's COO has been Joanna Place.

As of 2021[update], the bank's chief economist is Huw Pill.

## See also

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* List of British currencies
* Bank of England Act
* Coins of the pound sterling
* Financial Sanctions Unit
* Commonwealth banknote-issuing institutions
* Bank of England Museum
* Deputy Governor of the Bank of England
* List of directors of the Bank of England
* List of central banks

## References

1. ↑ "House of Commons Debate 29th October 1945, Second Reading of the Bank of England Bill". *Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)*. 29 October 1945. Archived from the original on 5 April 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2012.; "Bank of England Act 1946". June 1998. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
2. ↑ "Freedom of Information – disclosures". Bank of England. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
3. ↑ "The Bank of England Act 1998" (PDF). *Bank of England*. 2015. p. 50. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
4. ↑ 1 June 1998, The Bank of England Act 1998 (Commencement) Order 1998 Archived 11 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine s 2.; "BBC On This Day – 6-1997: Brown sets Bank of England free". 6 May 1997. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 14 September 2014.; "Bank of England – About the Bank". Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 14 September 2014.; "Bank of England: Relationship with Parliament". Archived from the original on 8 July 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
5. ↑ "The Bank of England's Role in Regulating the Issue of Scottish and Northern Ireland Banknotes". *Bank of England website*. Archived from the original on 3 May 2019. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
6. ↑ "Act of Parliament gives devolved responsibility to the MPC with reserve powers for the Treasury". Opsi.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 14 March 2010. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
7. ↑ Bank of England, "Who is The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street? Archived 15 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine". Accessed 15 January 2018.; Allan C. Fisher Jr. (June 1961). ""The City" - London's Storied Square Mile". *National Geographic*. **119** (6): 735–778. Traditionally this men's club looks to a feminine leader, the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street. A cartoon of 1797 depicted the Bank of England as a rich dowager sitting atop a money box, and the name stuck.
8. ↑ "Exchanging old banknotes". Bank of England. Archived from the original on 4 November 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
9. ↑ Topham, Gwyn (17 July 2016). "Bank of England to close personal banking service for employees". *The Guardian*. Archived from the original on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
10. ↑ "Governors of the Bank of England: A chronological list (1694 – present)" (PDF). Bank of England. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
11. ↑ "Court of Directors". Bank of England. Archived from the original on 9 January 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
12. ↑ "Court of Directors". *www.bankofengland.co.uk*. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
13. ↑ "News Release – Appointment of Chief Operating Officer". *Bank of England*. 18 June 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
14. ↑ "Joanna Place – Chief Operating Officer". *Bank of England*. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
15. ↑ Elliott, Larry (1 September 2021). "Bank of England appoints Huw Pill as chief economist". *The Guardian*. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2021.

## Further reading

* Brady, Robert A. (1950). *Crisis in Britain. Plans and Achievements of the Labour Government*. University of California Press.

, on nationalisation 1945–50, pp 43–76

* Capie, Forrest. *The Bank of England: 1950s to 1979* (Cambridge University Press, 2010). xxviii + 890 pp. ISBN: 978-0-521-19282-8 excerpt and text search
* Clapham, J. H. (1944). *Bank of England*.

* Fforde, John. *The Role of the Bank of England, 1941–1958* (1992) excerpt and text search
* Francis, John. *History of the Bank of England: Its Times and Traditions* excerpt and text search
* Hennessy, Elizabeth. *A Domestic History of the Bank of England, 1930–1960* (2008) excerpt and text search
* Kynaston, David. 2017. Till Time's Last Sand: A History of the Bank of England, 1694–2013. Bloomsbury.
* Lane, Nicholas. "The Bank of England in the Nineteenth Century." *History Today* (Aug 1960) 19#8 pp 535–541.
* O'Brien, Patrick K.; Palma, Nuno (2022). "Not an ordinary bank but a great engine of state: The Bank of England and the British economy, 1694–1844". *The Economic History Review.*
* Roberts, Richard, and David Kynaston. *The Bank of England: Money, Power and Influence 1694–1994* (1995)
* Sayers, R. S. *The Bank of England, 1891–1944* (1986) excerpt and text search
* Schuster, F. *The Bank of England and the State*
* Wood, John H. *A History of Central Banking in Great Britain and the United States* (Cambridge University Press, 2005)

## External links

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