Megan Greene to replace Silvana Tenreyro on Bank of England’s rate-setting committee this summer April 11, 2023 Megan Greene has been appointed by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to the Bank of England’s interest rate-setting committee, replacing top dove Silvana Tenreyro from 5 July. Greene will join the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) from consultancy Kroll, where she has been global chief economist and a regular columnist for the Financial Times. The Treasury announced [...]
Bank needs to ‘see the job through’ on inflation, says Pill – but divisions remain April 4, 2023 The chief economist at the Bank of England, Huw Pill, has suggested that more work is needed to tame price rises because there is a danger of high inflation becoming embedded in the UK economy. “The onus remains on ensuring enough monetary tightening is delivered to ‘see the job through’ and sustainably return inflation to [...]
Let’s face it: Profiteering is feeding the inflation beast, not just pay rises April 4, 2023 Inflation is a pernicious beast that is plainly bad for people and businesses. It can ease governments’ debt burdens by (artificially) boosting tax revenues, but that can lead to severe bouts of price rises that, often, lead to societal decay. So it’s easy to see why policymakers in the UK are sweating over the rate [...]
Speedy rate hikes could knock shaky UK economy, former BoE chief economist warns April 2, 2023 Former chief economist of the Bank of England Andy Haldane has cautioned his old colleagues against raising rates too fast, warning it might unsettle an economy that is on “unsteady legs”. “I think given the extent of tightening we had during the course of last year, and the early part of this, and given the [...]
Recession? Five graphs that show where the UK economy is and where it is heading March 31, 2023 Are we in a recession? Aren’t we in a recession? Are we headed into a recession? At this point, who knows. At the start of the year, everyone said “yes definitely, and a bad one”. Now, those projections look a bit overcooked. Essentially, it’s on a knife edge. City A.M. takes a look at the [...]
Arbuthnot profit leaps after rate hikes but bank backs ‘conservative’ model as UK prospects ‘not clear’ March 30, 2023 Arbuthnot Latham saw its profit surge with rising interest rates boosting its coffers, as the lender sought to distance itself from recent difficulties in the banking sector. Pretax profit in 2022 lept to £20m, up from just £4.6m last year as net interest income grew by over £30m. The boutique bank said this increase [...]
Mortgage approvals snap back following mini budget chaos, but net lending at lowest since 2016 March 29, 2023 Mortgage approvals have improved for the first time since August, as the market begins to shake off the stress of the mini-budget, however experts have warned that the housing market will “remain price sensitive”. According to the Bank of England’s Money and Credit report for February, net mortgage approvals for house purchases increased to 43,500 [...]
Bank of England backs ‘substantial’ LDI cash buffer boost to prevent repeat of mini budget chaos March 29, 2023 Pension funds that borrow hundreds of billions of pounds to maximise returns for clients need to keep more money aside to withstand a repeat of the financial market aftershocks which followed Liz Truss’s mini-budget, the Bank of England has recommended. Liability driven investment (LDI) funds that are used by retirement funds to boost returns for [...]
UK banks still ‘resilient’ but BoE warns of ‘urgent need’ to address less regulated areas of finance sector March 29, 2023 UK banks are “resilient” despite global banking turmoil, the Bank of England said today, but warned there was an “urgent need” for further rules in the less tightly regulated market-based finance sector. Amidst volatility in the financial sector following Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse and the emergency acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS, the Bank reaffirmed [...]
Andrew Bailey dismisses banking volatility as ‘testing out’ but stresses BoE remains ‘vigilant’ March 28, 2023 Andrew Bailey today dismissed recent volatility in the banking sector as “testing out” firms although he stressed that officials in the UK remained “very vigilant” for further signs of friction. Responding to a grilling by MPs on the treasury committee, the governor of the Bank of England said “there’s been quite sharp moves in markets [...]