Bank of England and City watchdog urge firms to accelerate Libor transition January 16, 2020 The City regulator and Bank of England have joined forces to urge banks and insurers to accelerate plans to transition away from the discredited Libor interest rate benchmark. Firms have until October to stop writing loans tied to the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), which is embedded within some $350 trillion (£268 trillion) of financial [...]
Cautious lenders left companies with lowest level of credit since 2008 January 16, 2020 The amount of credit made available to corporates last quarter fell to a level not seen since the Global Financial Crisis. The Bank of England’s (BoE) credit conditions survey released today showed that available credit for corporates fell for its sixth successive quarter in the fourth quarter of 2019. It dropped to minus 9.2 in [...]
Bank of England policymaker maintains interest rate cut view January 15, 2020 Bank of England (BoE) policymaker Michael Saunders has said he is sticking to his view that interest rates should be cut because of weaknesses in the UK’s labour market and wider economy. “It probably will be appropriate to maintain an expansionary monetary policy stance and possibly to cut rates further, in order to reduce risks [...]
Carney rate cut comment sends pound crashing to two-week low January 9, 2020 The pound slumped to a near two-week low today after Mark Carney warned that the Bank of England (BoE) could cut interest rates to boost the economy. Sterling dropped as much as 0.55 per cent against the dollar to $1.301 as the central bank governor said a cut was possible if weaknesses in the economy [...]
Central banks running low on ammunition to fight recession, Mark Carney warns January 8, 2020 Central banks may not be able to fight off a sharp economic downturn because their monetary policy arsenals are still depleted following the global financial crisis, outgoing Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has warned. “It’s generally true that there’s much less ammunition for all the major central banks than they previously had and I’m [...]
Regulator ramps up Lloyd’s of London whistleblowing monitoring December 23, 2019 The Bank of England has ramped up its monitoring of Lloyd’s on London’s whistleblowing processes, it said today. The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) announced the insurance market had agreed to extra checks. Read more: FCA head Andrew Bailey confirmed as next Bank of England governor In February, Lloyd’s told the PRA its only anonymous whistleblowing [...]
UK GDP growth revised up but ‘shows underlying slowing of economy’, ONS December 20, 2019 A revised estimate showed UK gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2019 showing an underlying slowing of the UK economy. This was higher than the expected 0.3 per cent but reflected high domestic and global uncertainty, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) said today in its quarterly [...]
FCA head Andrew Bailey confirmed as next Bank of England governor December 20, 2019 Andrew Bailey has been named as the new Bank of England (BoE) governor by chancellor Sajid Javid. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) boss will be responsible for steering the world’s fifth largest economy through Brexit and a troubled global macroeconomic climate. Read more: Bank of England refers hedge fund eavesdropping to regulator Announcing Bailey’s appointment, [...]
Bank of England refers hedge fund eavesdropping to regulator December 19, 2019 The Bank of England (BoE) has referred the hacking of its market-sensitive press conferences to the financial watchdog, after it emerged that an audio feed was supplied to high-speed traders moments ahead of the official broadcast. The Bank confirmed what it called a “wholly unacceptable” use of a back-up audio feed by a third-party supplier, [...]
Bank of England holds interest rate at 0.75 per cent December 19, 2019 The Bank of England has decided to hold interest rates at 0.75 per cent in its last meeting of 2019 as it warned there was little chance of significant economic growth this quarter. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 7-2 in favour of maintaining the rate, as it did at its previous meeting in [...]