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☆ Don't confuse customers over stablecoins, Bank of England warns lenders
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-06 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A pedestrian walks past the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, September 25, 2023. REUTERS/Hollie Adams/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Bank of England FollowLONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - The Bank of England told lenders on Monday that they must avoid any risk that customers might confuse new forms of e-money like 'stablecoins' with standard deposits which are guaranteed against bank failures. Stablecoins are a cryptocurrency backed by a traditional currency such as sterling or the U.S. dollar, or an asset. To the extent that systemic payment systems using stablecoins pose similar risks as other systemic payment systems, they should be subject to equivalent regulatory standards, the BoE said. There are no systemic sterling stablecoins, but Tether, issuer of the world's largest stablecoin, pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed by assets including U.S. government debt, said last year it would launch a sterling stablecoin.

Persons: Hollie Adams, BoE, stablecoins, Sheldon Mills, David Milliken, Tom Wilson, Kylie MacLellan, Kirsten Donovan, Bernadette Baum Organizations: Bank of England, City of, REUTERS, Companies Bank of England, U.S ., Financial, European, Thomson Locations: City, City of London, Britain

☆ Bank of England tells UK to hold insurers to account on infrastructure
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A general view of the Bank of England (BoE) building, the BoE confirmed to raise interest rates to 1.75%, in London, Britain, August 4, 2022. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Bank Of England FollowLONDON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The government should check that insurers are spending up to 100 billion pounds ($125 billion) on Britain's economy after their capital rules were eased, Bank of England Deputy Governor Sam Woods said on Wednesday. "I think it may happen, but I can't guarantee it," Woods told a sub-committee of parliament's Treasury Select Committee. The finance ministry overrode the Bank of England to ease some capital rules more than Woods had wanted, which could make an insurance company failure more likely. This means insurers will have more money to invest, currently only a modest part of their portfolios is in infrastructure, Gerken said.

Persons: BoE, Maja Smiejkowska, Sam Woods, Woods, Charlotte Gerken, Gerken, Huw Jones, Alexander Smith Organizations: Bank of England, REUTERS, Bank, Association of, Thomson Locations: London, Britain

Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey speaks as he attends a press conference for the Monetary Policy Report August 2023, at the Bank of England in London, Thursday, August 3, 2023. "But I think we are much nearer to it on interest rates on the basis of current evidence." It is expected to raise borrowing costs again later this month, taking Bank Rate to 5.5%. In May, Bailey told the same panel of lawmakers that the BoE was "nearer" to the peak in interest rates. After that, the central bank increased Bank Rate in June and in August.

Persons: Bank of England Andrew Bailey, Alastair Grant, Andrew Bailey, we're, we've, Bailey, BoE, I've, Jon Cunliffe, Cunliffe, Swati Dhingra, Dhingra, Farouq Suleiman, Suban Abdulla, Kylie MacLellan, William Schomberg, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Bank of England, Monetary, Companies Bank of England, Treasury, Thomson Locations: London, British

But signs of a slowdown are mounting, highlighting the BoE's dilemma as it continues to grapple with inflation. But the BoE looks set to keep on raising rates with inflation still more than three times its 2% target. Below are key readings of Britain's economy that the BoE will assess before its next scheduled announcement on interest rates on Sept. 21. But many analysts expect the lagged impact of the BoE's rate rises to hit spending soon, adding to the drag on the economy. Many economists think the delayed impact of higher interest rates and still elevated inflation will hit growth in the coming months.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, BoE, Andrew Bailey, GfK, Sumanta Sen, Devika Organizations: REUTERS, Bank, Bank of England, Brexit, P, CIPS, Nationwide, Halifax, Reuters Graphics LABOUR, Employers, European Union, Reuters, Reuters Graphics, Thomson Locations: Britain

☆ UK pay deals cool for first time in 2023, easing pressure on BoE: XpertHR
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Median basic pay deals in the three months to the end of July fell to 5.7% following six consecutive quarters at a record 6%, human resources publication and data provider XpertHR said. Pay awards remained below the rate of inflation. Sheila Attwood, senior content manager at XpertHR, said pay awards had likely hit their peak and expects the gap between pay deals and inflation to narrow. However, official figures from the Office for National Statistics showed annual wage growth excluding bonuses rose to 7.8% in the three months to June, the highest in records going back to 2001. XpertHR said median pay awards for the public sector stood at 5% in the year to July, up from 3.2% in the year before.

Persons: Kevin Coombs, XpertHR, BoE, Sheila Attwood, Attwood, Suban Abdulla, Andy Bruce Organizations: REUTERS, Companies Bank of England, Bank of England, Office, National Statistics, Thomson Locations: Canary Wharf, London, Britain, XpertHR

[1/2] Chinese Yuan and U.S. dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration taken March 10, 2023. That represented the highest annual growth rate since comparable records began in 2001. "BoE Sep rate hike bets have jumped ... providing support for the GBP," said Scotiabank chief FX strategist Shaun Osborne. The yuan briefly bounced back as major state-owned banks were seen selling dollars to support the local currency. Punctuating those worries, Chinese data on industrial output, retail sales and investment released shortly after the PBOC's rate cut showed unexpected slowdowns.

Persons: Yuan, Dado Ruvic, Sterling, BoE, Shaun Osborne, Scotiabank's Osborne, Osborne, Shinichiro Kadota, Shunichi Suzuki, Joice Alves, Samuel Indyk, Brigid Riley, Kevin Buckland, Susan Fenton Organizations: REUTERS, Bank of, Kremlin, Bank of England, Scotiabank, People's Bank of China, U.S, Traders, Barclays, Finance, Thomson Locations: Russian

☆ Bank of England set to raise rates for 14th time in a row
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( David Milliken | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A pedestrian carrying an umbrella walks near the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, July 30, 2023. Market expectations for peak Bank Rate reached 6.5% on July 11 after data showed record wage growth before falling back to 5.75% after a sharp decline in consumer price inflation. Investors see a two-in-three chance of the BoE raising Bank Rate to 5.25% on Thursday but for most economists polled by Reuters the BoE's decision is finely balanced. However, some BoE critics argue it risks causing an unnecessary downturn, and that higher rates are a poor tool to tackle inflation caused by higher food and energy prices. "The main winners are banks, whose profits have flourished thanks to higher rates," said Fran Boait, co-executive director of campaign group Positive Money.

Persons: Hollie Adams, Bailey, BoE, Rishi Sunak, James Smith, Smith, Andrew Bailey, Dave Ramsden, Swati Dhingra, Silvana Tenreyro, Megan Greene, Fran Boait, ING's Smith, David Milliken, William Schomberg, Giles Elgood Organizations: Bank of England, City of, REUTERS, U.S . Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Mortgage, Investors, Reuters, ING, Kroll Institute, Monetary, Thomson Locations: City, City of London, Britain, Germany

☆ Bank of England poised to raise rates again to tackle stubborn inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( William Schomberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Investors are fully pricing in another quarter-of-a-percentage point increase in Bank Rate, taking the BoE's benchmark rate to 4.5%, when the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announces the outcome of its May policy meeting at 12 p.m. (1100 GMT). Markets' main focus will be any signals from the BoE about the likelihood of further rises in the months ahead. "We expect that the Bank will only start to reduce rates from 2024 Q2 given resilient growth momentum," Goldman Sachs economist James Moberly told clients this week. "We have to be very alert to any signs of persistent inflationary pressures," Bailey said on March 27, before the latest round of data showed inflation fell less than expected. Last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank both raised their benchmark borrowing rates by 25 basis points.

☆ Bank of England set to raise rates to 4.5% next week, a possible peak
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( David Milliken | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Economists polled by Reuters this week were unanimous that the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will raise rates to 4.5% next week, in sharp contrast to a poll two weeks earlier which showed only a slim majority expecting a hike. "Previously we had seen the MPC holding Bank Rate at 4.25% but the April labour market and March CPI inflation data were too much to ignore," said Peter Schaffrik, global macro strategist at Royal Bank of Canada. Only a minority of economists polled by Reuters this week expect the BoE to raise interest rates above 4.5% this year. But investors in interest rate futures - whose views shift more rapidly - see rates reaching 4.75% or 5% by September. "In our view, further tightening beyond May can't be ruled out," said Andrew Goodwin, chief UK economist at Oxford Economics.

Softening their forecasts of recession this year, the BoE's nine interest rate-setters voted 7-2 to increase Bank Rate to 4.0% - its highest since 2008 - from 3.5%. The announcement comes a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve slowed the pace of its rate hikes with a smaller quarter-point move, but said it expected further increases would be needed. The European Central Bank raised rates by a half a percentage point on Thursday to 2.5%. They said further interest rate hikes would hinge on evidence of more persistent price pressures appearing. That represented a signal to investors that its sharp run of rate hikes might be coming to an end.

☆ Fire-fighting Bank of England forced to buy inflation-linked bonds
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Andy Bruce | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Citing a "material risk" to financial stability arising from a rout in British government bonds - known as gilts - the BoE said it would buy up to 5 billion pounds ($5.51 billion) of index-linked debt per day, starting Tuesday. Rather than increase the existing commitment to buy up to 10 billion pounds of gilts each day, as announced on Monday, the purchases will run alongside existing purchases of long-dated conventional bonds, now worth up to 5 billion pounds. British inflation-linked gilts - known as linkers - suffered a massive sell-off on Monday, despite the BoE doubling the maximum size of its buy-backs of conventional long-dated gilts. "Dysfunction in this market, and the prospect of self-reinforcing 'fire sale' dynamics pose a material risk to UK financial stability." To halt freefalling prices, the BoE was forced to pledge to buy as much as 65 billion pounds ($73.63 billion) of long-dated government bonds, known as gilts.

☆ Bank of England to buy 65 billion pounds of UK bonds to stem rout
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( David Milliken | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Citing potential risks to UK financial stability, the BoE also said it would delay the start of a programme to sell down its 838 billion pounds ($891 billion) of government bond holdings, which had been due to begin next week. "Were dysfunction in this market to continue or worsen, there would be a material risk to UK financial stability," the BoE said. "This would lead to an unwarranted tightening of financing conditions and a reduction of the flow of credit to the real economy." "There are schemes running out of cash at the moment," one pensions consultant said before the BoE intervention. The BoE's intervention reduced long-dated bond yields back to their level at the end of Friday - after the initial negative reaction to Kwarteng's statement - but shorter-dated yields were still higher.

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