Bank of England minutes: More light to be shed on BoE’s financial crisis response
Minutes from meetings of the Bank of England’s directors between 2007 and 2009 are due to be released this Wednesday.
The minutes should shed further light on the central bank’s response to the financial crisis which involved cutting its policy rate to a record low of 0.5 per cent and embarking on an ambitious and unprecedented asset purchase programme.
In combination with the recent Plenderleith, Winters and Stockton reviews, the minutes will provide a comprehensive record of the Bank’s activities during the crisis.
Further to this, to the joy of economic historians, hundreds of pages of minutes of directors’ meetings will be released, spanning the period from 1914 to 1987.
The Bank’s board of directors – known as the Court – consists of the governor and three deputy governors, collectively “the governors”, and nine members from the bank’s oversight committee.
The Court manages the affairs of the Bank and, as with the Bank’s other committees, is chaired by governor Mark Carney.
The move is part of the Bank’s attempt to enhance transparency, accountability and governance.
It will also involve releasing minutes of monetary policy decisions on the same day as the decision is made. Currently, there is a two week gap between the meeting and release of minutes explaining the policy decision.