Bank of England

"The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street"

The bank should be called the Bank of Britain

Serious Information

Trivia

The Bank has two core purposes - monetary stability and financial stability. The Bank is perhaps most visible to the general public through its banknotes and, more recently, its interest rate decisions. The Bank has had a monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales since the early 20th century. But it is only since 1997 that the Bank has had statutory responsibility for setting the UK's official interest rate.

Interest rates decisions are taken by the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee. The MPC has to judge what interest rate is necessary to meet a target for overall inflation in the economy. The inflation target is set each year by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Bank implements its interest rate decisions through its financial market operations - it sets the interest rate at which the Bank lends to banks and other financial institutions. The Bank has close links with financial markets and institutions. This contact informs a great deal of its work, including its financial stability role and the collation and publication of monetary and banking statistics.

The Bank of England is committed to increasing awareness and understanding of its activities and responsibilities, across both general and specialist audiences alike. It produces a large number of regular and ad hoc publications on key aspects of its work and offers a range of educational materials. The Bank offers technical assistance and advice to other central banks through its Centre for Central Banking Studies, and has a museum at its premises in Threadneedle Street in the City of London, open to members of the public free of charge.

The Bank of England was founded in 1694 to act as the Government's banker and debt-manager. Since then its role has developed and evolved, centred on the management of the nation's currency and its position at the centre of the UK's financial system.

The history of the Bank is naturally one of interest, but also of continuing relevance to the Bank today. Events and circumstances over the past three hundred or so years have shaped and influenced the role and responsibilities of the Bank. They have moulded the culture and traditions, as well as the expertise, of the Bank which are relevant to its reputation and effectiveness as a central bank in the early years of the 21st century. At the same time, much of the history of the Bank runs parallel to the economic and financial history, and often the political history, of the United Kingdom more generally.

If you want to get closer to the Bank's history and are visiting London, the Bank's Museum provides a unique insight into the history of the Bank and its business, alongside a great deal of material about the Bank today.

The Bank of England has issued banknotes since 1694. Notes were originally hand-written; although they were partially printed from 1725 onwards, cashiers still had to sign each note and make them payable to someone.The first fully printed notes were issued in 1855, an event which brought relief to the bank's team of cashiers, who no longer had to sign each note individually. Until 1928 all notes were "White Notes", printed in black and with a blank reverse. During the 20th century White Notes were issued in denominations between £5 and £1000, but in the 18th and 19th centuries there were White Notes for £1 and £2. In the twentieth century, the Bank issued notes for ten shillings and one pound for the first time on 22 November 1928 when the Bank took over responsibility for these denominations from the Treasury which had issued notes of these denominations three days after the declaration of war in 1914 in order to remove gold coins from circulation.

In working towards its core purposes, the Bank is organised into four main operational areas - Monetary Analysis and Statistics, Markets, Financial Stability and Banking Services, supported by a Central Services area. This structure was introduced in June 1998 to reflect the Bank's new responsibilities in the light of the 1998 Bank of England Act. The Centre for Central Banking Studies offers teaching and technical assistance to other Central Banks.

In 2004 the bank was accused as it was said Bank of England officials "shut their eyes and turned away" instead of clamping down on fraudulent activity at BCCI, the High Court was told. Liquidators of the collapsed bank are suing the UK's central bank for about £1bn for "knowingly or recklessly" failing in its supervisory role. They were acting on behalf of 6,500 UK-based depositors, who lost money when the rogue bank was shut down in 1991.

William Paterson
William Paterson proposed a loan of £1,200,000 to the Government. In return the subscribers would be incorporated as the Governor and Company of the Bank of England.

Sir William Paterson (born April, 1658 in Tynwald, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland ) was a Scottish trader and banker. From 1691 onwards he was principal driving force in the establishment of the Bank of England (1694), the central bank of the Kingdom of England, of which he was one of the founding directors. However, poor relations with his colleagues forced him to withdraw from management within a year of the bank's establishment. Paterson relocated to Edinburgh, where he was able to convince the Scottish government to undertake the Darién scheme, and was influential in the establishment of the Bank of Scotland (1695), the central bank of the Kingdom of Scotland. Paterson accompanied the disastorous Scottish expedition to Panama (1698), where his wife and child died and he became seriously ill. On his return to Scotland in December 1699, he became instrumental in the movement for the Union of the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England, culminating in his support of the Act of Union 1707. He spent the last years of his life in Westminster.

As a public organisation, wholly-owned by Government, and with a significant public policy role, the Bank is accountable to Parliament. The Bank’s Annual Report and Accounts are laid before Parliament each year before they are made available publicly.

The principal means of accountability for the Bank is via the House of Commons Treasury Committee.

http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/treasury_committee.cfm Treasury Committee

Trivia

In Around the World in Eighty Days, Phileas Fogg is hunted around the world under the suspicion that he robbed the Bank of England.

During the Second World War the German Operation Bernhard attempted to counterfeit various denominations between £5 and £50 producing 500,000 notes each month in 1943. The original plan was to parachute the money on Britain in an attempt to destabilise the British economy, but it was found more useful to use the notes to pay German agents operating throughout Europe -- although most fell into Allied hands at the end of the war, forgeries were frequently appearing for years afterward, so all denominations of banknote above £5 were subsequently removed from circulation.

Bank of England RFC is a rugby club

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