The Bank of England

Most countries have a central bank, which is responsible for the operation of the banking system. The central bank in the UK is the Bank of England, which was taken into public ownership in 1946. It has many responsibilities, which are summarized below and discussed in more detail later in this chapter.

(a) It is the government's bank. It handles the income and expenditure of the Exchequer and other government departments.

(b) It is the bankers' bank. The clearing banks maintain accounts at the Bank of England. The final cash settlements within the banking system and between the ban-king system and the Bank of England take place through these accounts.

The Bank is also a banker for about 100 overseas central banks and international monetary institutions.

(c) It is the central note-issuing authority for the UK and the sole note issuing authority for England and Wales. Some banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland still issue their own notes but these are largely backed by Bank of England notes.

(d) It manages the national debt. This is a major responsibility which involves making repayments on govern­ment securities when they mature, undertaking new issues of long-term securities, making regular payments of interest to holders of existing government securities, and handling the weekly issues of Treasury bills. The management of the national debt, as we shall see later, has important effects on the supply of money and the rate of interest.

(e) It is the lender of last resort. The Bank of England stands ready to come to the assistance of the banking system in times when it is threatened by a shortage of cash.

(f) It acts as the government's agent in the foreign exchange market, in which it can intervene to influence the value of sterling against other currencies.

(g) It has the responsibility for carrying out the government's monetary policy.

(h) It has legal powers to supervise the operations of other banks. All banks are expected to supply the Bank of England with information about their business, and they have to respond to directives given to them by the Bank.

Although the Governor of the Bank of England has a certain amount of independence and his advice is sought and heeded, the Bank is subordinate to the Treasury which may give instructions to the Governor at any time.

UNIT 7