Bank of England
The
Bank of England is the
central bank of the
United Kingdom, sometimes known as "
The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street" or "
The Old Lady". The nearest
London Underground station is
Bank station.
It performs all the functions of a
central bank -- to maintain price stability, and subject to that, to support the economic policy of
Her Majesty's Government (Bank of England Act 1998) in order to promote economic growth.
In pursuing its goal of maintaining a stable and efficient financial framework, the Bank has two core purposes;
#
Core Purpose 1 â€" Monetary Stability. Monetary stability means stable prices and confidence in the currency. Stable prices are defined by the Government's inflation target, which the Bank seeks to meet through the decisions on interest rates taken by the
Monetary Policy Committee.#
Core Purpose 2 â€" Financial Stability. Financial stability entails detecting and reducing threats to the financial system as a whole. Such threats are detected through the Bank's surveillance and market intelligence functions. They are reduced by financial and other operations, at home and abroad, including, in exceptional circumstances, by acting as the lender of last resort.
In pursuit of both purposes the Bank works closely with others, including:
*Other central banks and international organisations to improve the international monetary system.
*
HM Treasury and the
Financial Services Authority, under the terms of the 1997 Memorandum of Understanding, to pursue financial stability.
It has a
monopoly on the issue of
banknotes in
England and
Wales (see
Pound Sterling); it is both the Government's banker and the bankers' bank; a "Lender of Last Resort"; it manages the country's foreign exchange and
gold reserves; it used to be responsible for the regulation and supervision of the banking
industry (see
Johnson Matthey,
BCCI, and
Barings), although this responsibility was transferred to the Financial Services Authority in June
1998. Since
1997 the
Monetary Policy Committee has had the responsibility for setting the official
interest rate. With the decision to grant the Bank operational independence, responsibility for government debt management was transferred to the new
UK Debt Management Office in
1998, which also took over government cash management in
2000. The Bank maintains the Government's
Consolidated Fund account.
Computershare took over as the registrar for UK Government bonds (known as
gilts) from the Bank at the end of
2004. The Bank decided to sell its bank note printing operations to
De La Rue in December 2002, under the advice of Close Brothers Corporate Finance Ltd.
and
Northern Irish banks retain the right to issue their own banknotes, but they must be backed one to one with deposits in the Bank of England, excepting a few million pounds representing the value of notes they had in circulation in
1845.The current
Governor of the Bank of England is
Mervyn King, who took over on
June 30 2003 from
Sir Edward George.
The bank was founded by the
Scotsman William Paterson, in
1694 to act as the English government's banker. He proposed a loan of £1.2m to the government; in return the subscribers would be incorporated as
The Governor and Company of the Bank of England with banking privileges including the issue of notes. The
Royal Charter was granted on
July 27 1694. Public finances were in so dire a condition at the time that the terms of the loan were that it was to be serviced at a rate of 8% per annum, and there was also a service charge of £4000 per annum for the management of the loan. The first governor was
Sir John Houblon, who is depicted in the £50 note issued in
1990. The charter was renewed in
1742,
1764, and
1781. The Bank was originally constructed above the ancient
Temple of Mithras, London at Walbrook, dating to the founding of
Londinium in antiquity by Roman garrisons.
Mithras was, among other things, considered the god of contracts, a fitting association for the Bank. In
1734 the Bank moved to its current location on Threadneedle Street, slowly acquiring the land to create the edifice seen today. Sir
Herbert Baker's rebuilding of the Bank of England, demolishing most of Sir
John Soane's earlier building was described by
Pevsner as "the greatest architectural crime, in the
City of London, of the twentieth century". When the idea and reality of the
National Debt came about during the
18th century this was also managed by the bank. By the
charter renewal in
1781 it was also the bankers' bank—keeping enough gold to pay its notes on demand until
February 26,
1797 when
war had so diminished gold reserves that the government prohibited the Bank from paying out in gold. This prohibition lasted until
1821.
The
1844 Bank Charter Act tied the issue of notes to the gold reserves and gave the bank sole rights with regard to the issue of banknotes. Private banks which had previously had that right retained it, provided that their headquarters were outside
London and that they deposited security against the notes that they issued. A few English banks continued to issue their own notes until the last of them was taken over in the
1930s. The Scottish and Northern Irish private banks still have that right. Britain remained on the
gold standard until
1931 when the gold and foreign exchange reserves were transferred to the
Treasury. But their management was still handled by the Bank. In
1870 the bank was given responsibility for interest rate policy.
During the governorship of
Montagu Norman, which lasted from
1920 to
1944, the Bank made deliberate efforts to move away from
commercial banking and become a central bank. In
1946, shortly after the end of Norman's tenure, the bank was nationalised.
In 1997 the bank's Monetary Policy Committee was given sole responsibility for setting interest rates to meet the Government's stated
inflation target of 2.5%. This decision was taken by the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Gordon Brown in consultation with Tony Blair prior to the
1997 general election though the announcement was made the day after the election. Should inflation overshoot or undershoot the target by more than 1%, the Governor will have to write a letter to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer explaining why, and how he will remedy the situation. This was considered an astute move for several reasons:
* It removed the politically controversial responsibility from the government.
* It was very popular with the
City of London, showing a sign of the new government's desire for a strong economy.
** Following the announcement the
FTSE 100 Index leapt rapidly.
** The
pound reached its highest level against the
Deutsche mark since Sterling's exit from the
ERM.The target has now changed to 2% since the replacement of
RPI (Retail Price Index) with
CPI (Consumer Price Index) as the treasury's inflation index. RPI / CPI figures are produced in Britain by the
Office for National Statistics, whose independence from direct political control and interference was announced in 2005, also by the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Gordon Brown. He modelled this move on his decision affecting the Bank of England.
A Conservative MP
Nicholas Budgen had proposed this as a
Private Member's Bill in 1996, but the bill failed as it had neither the support of the government nor that of the opposition.
In 2006 a sum in excess of £25 million in banknotes belonging to the bank was stolen from a depot in
Tonbridge, see
Securitas depot robbery.
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. Notes were fully printed from
1855, no doubt to the relief of the bank's workers. 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.
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.
All old Bank of England notes remain exchangeable for current notes forever. Forgeries however will be retained and destroyed by the Bank (including Bernhard notes), and it is not therefore advisable to send notes to the Bank in order to confirm whether or not they are forgeries. Notes can either be taken in person to the Bank in London during normal business hours, or sent by post at the sender's risk to:
Exchanges,:Custodial Services,:Threadneedle Street,:London EC2R 8AH
10/-
The Bank of England's first ever ten shilling note was issued on
22 November 1928. This note featured a vignette of
Britannia, a feature of the Bank's notes since 1694. The predominant colour was red-brown. Unlike previous notes it, and the contemporaneous £1 note, were not dated but are instead identified by the signature of the Chief Cashier of the time. In 1940 a
metal security thread was introduced for the first time, and the colour of the note was changed to mauve for the duration of the war. The original design of the note was replaced by the "Series C" design in 1960, when
Queen Elizabeth agreed to allow the use of her portrait on the notes. The ten shilling note was withdrawn following the introduction in 1969 of the
fifty pence coin.
£1
The Bank of England's first one pound note since 1845 was issued on
22 November 1928. This note featured a vignette of
Britannia, a feature of the Bank's notes since 1694. The predominant colour was green. Unlike previous notes it, and the contemporaneous ten shilling note, were not dated but are instead identified by the signature of the Chief Cashier of the time. In 1940 a metal security thread was introduced for the first time, and the colour of the note was changed to pink for the duration of the war. The original design of the note was replaced by the "Series C" design in 1960, when Queen Elizabeth agreed to allow the use of her portrait on the notes.In 1977 the "Series D" design (
known as the "Pictorial Series") featuring Sir
Isaac Newton on the reverse was issued, but following the introduction in 1983 of the
One Pound coin, the note was withdrawn from circulation in Summer 1988.
£5
The first Bank of England £5 note was issued in 1793 in response to the need for smaller denomination banknotes to replace gold coin during the French Revolutionary Wars (previously the smallest note issued had been £10). The 1793 design, latterly known as the "White Fiver" (black printing on white paper), remained in circulation essentially unchanged until 1957 when the multicoloured (although predominantly dark blue) "Series B" note, depicting the helmeted
Britannia was introduced. This note was replaced in turn in 1963 by the "Series C" £5 note which for the first time introduced the portrait of the monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, to the £5 note (the Queen's portrait having first appeared on the Series C ten shilling and one pound notes issued in 1960). In 1971 the "Series D" pictorial £5 note was issued, showing a slightly older portrait of the Queen and a battle scene featuring the
Duke of Wellington on the reverse. On
7 June 1990 the "Series E" £5 note, by now the smallest denomination issued by the Bank, was issued. The Series E note (
known as the "Historical Series") changed the colour of the denomination to a turquoise blue, and incorporated design elements to make photocopying and computer reproduction of the notes more difficult. Initially the reverse of the Series E £5 note featured the railway engineer
George Stephenson, but on
21 May 2002 a new Series E note was produced featuring the prison reformer
Elizabeth Fry. The initial printing of several million Stephenson notes was destroyed when it was noticed that the wrong year for his death had been printed. The original issue of the Fry banknote was withdrawn after it was found the ink on the serial number could be rubbed off the surface of the note. The Stephenson £5 note was withdrawn as legal tender from
21 October 2003, at which time it formed around 54 million of the 211 million £5 notes in circulation.
£10
 |
A £10 Bank of England note. |
The first ten pound note was issued in 1759, when the Seven Years War caused severe gold shortages. Following the withdrawal of the denomination after the Second World War, it was not reintroduced until the Series C design of the mid 1960s produced the brown ten pound note. The Series D pictorial note appeared in the early 1970s, featuring nurse
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) on the reverse, plus a scene showing her work at the army hospital in
Scutari during the
Crimean War. This note was subsequently replaced in the early 1990s by the Series E note, where the predominant colour was changed from brown to orange. The reverse of the first Series E £10 featured
Charles Dickens and a scene from the
Pickwick Papers (this note was withdrawn from circulation in July 2003), while a second Series E note was issued in 2000 featuring
Charles Darwin, the
HMS Beagle, a hummingbird, and flowers under a magnifying glass, illustrating the
Origin of Species.
£20
 |
A £20 Bank of England note. |
After the Second World War, the £20 denomination did not reappear until Series D in the early 1970s. The predominant colour of this denomination is purple. The reverse of the Series D £20 features a statue of
William Shakespeare and the balcony scene from
Romeo and Juliet. In 1992 this note was replaced by the first Series E note, featuring the physicist
Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution lectures. By 1999 this note had been extensively copied, and therefore it became the first denomination to be replaced by a second Series E design, featuring a bolder denomination figure at the top left of the obverse side, and a reverse side featuring the composer Sir
Edward Elgar and Worcester Cathedral.
£50
The fifty pound denomination, much beloved of second hand car and antique dealers, did not reappear until 1981 when a Series D design was issued featuring the architect
Christopher Wren and the plan of Saint Paul's Cathedral on the reverse of this large note. In 1990 this denomination saw the start of the Series E issue, when the Bank commemorated its own impending tercentenary by putting its first governor, Sir
John Houblon on the reverse.
£1,000,000
Bank notes issued by the banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland are required to be backed pound for pound by Bank of England notes. Due to the large number of notes issued by these banks it would be cumbersome and wasteful to hold Bank of England notes in the standard denominations. Special one million pound notes are used for this purpose. These are used only internally within the Bank and are never seen in circulation. [
1]
*John Kendrick 1694
*Thomas Speed 1694-1699
*Thomas Madockes 1699-1739
*James Collier (jointly with Daniel Race) 1739-1751
*Ellas Simes (jointly with Daniel Race) 1751-1759
*Daniel Race 1759-1775
*Charles Jewson 1775-1778
*Abraham Newland 1778-1807
*Henry Hase 1807-1829
*Thomas Rippon 1829-1835
*Matthew Marshall 1835-1864
*William Miller 1864-1866
*George Forbes 1866-1873
*Frank May 1873-1893
*Horace George Bowen 1893-1902
*John Gordon Nairne 1902-1918
*Ernest Musgrave Harvey 1918-1925
*C.Patrick Mahon 1925-1929
*Basil G. Catterns 1929-1934
*Kenneth O. Peppiatt 1934-1949
*Percival S. Beale 1949-1955
*Leslie K. O'Brien 1955-1962
*Jasper Q. Hollom 1962-1966
*John S. fforde 1966-1970
*John B. Page 1970-1980
*David H.F. Somerset 1980-1988
*G. Malcolm Gill 1988-1991
*Graham E.A. Kentfield 1991-1998
*Merlyn Lowther 1999-2003
(first woman to hold the post)*Andrew Bailey 2004 -
*
Sir John Houblon (1694-1697)
*
Sir William Scawen (1697-1699)
*
Nathaniel Tench (1699-1701)
*
John Ward (1701-1703)
*
Abraham Houblon (1703-1705)
*
Sir James Bateman (1705-1707)
*
Francis Eyles (1707-1709)
*
Sir Gilbert Heathcote (1709-1711)
*
Nathaniel Gould (1711-1713)
*
John Rudge (1713-1715)
*
Sir Peter Delme (1715-1717)
*
Sir Gerard Conyers (1717-1719)
*
John Hanger (1719-1721)
*
Sir Thomas Scawen (1721-1723)
*
Sir Gilbert Heathcote (1723-1725)
*
William Thompson (1725-1727)
*
Humphry Morice (1727-1729)
*
Samuel Holden (1729-1731)
*
Sir Edward Bellamy (1731-1733)
*
Horatio Townshend (1733-1735)
*
Bryan Benson (1735-1737)
*
Thomas Cooke (1737-1740)
*
Delillers Carbonnel (1740-1741)
*
Stamp Brooksbank (1741-1743)
*
William Fawkener (1743-1745)
*
Charles Savage (1745-1747)
*
Benjamin Longuet (1747-1749)
*
William Hunt (1749-1752)
*
Alexander Sheafe (1752-1754)
*
Charles Palmer (1754-1756)
*
Matthews Beachcroft (1756-1758)
*
Merrik Burrell (1758-1760)
*
Bartholomew Burton (1760-1762)
*
Robert Marsh (1762-1764)
*
John Weyland (1764-1766)
*
Matthew Clarmont (1766-1769)
*
William Cooper (1769-1771)
*
Edward Payne (1771-1773)
*
James Sperling (1773-1775)
*
Samuel Beachcroft (1775-1777)
*
Peter Gaussen (1777-1779)
*
Daniel Booth (1779-1781)
*
William Ewer (1781-1783)
*
Richard Neave (1783-1785)
*
George Peters (1785-1787)
*
Edward Darell (1787-1789)
*
Mark Weyland (1789-1791)
*
Samuel Bosanquet (1791-1793)
*
Godfrey Thornton (1793-1795)
*
Daniel Giles (1795-1797)
*
Thomas Raikes (1797-1799)
*
Samuel Thornton (1799-1801)
*
Job Mathew (1801-1802)
*
Joseph Nutt (1802-1804)
*
Benjamin Winthrop (1804-1806)
*
Beeston Long (1806-1808)
*
John Whitmore (1808-1810)
*
John Pearse (1810-1812)
*
William Manning (1812-1814)
*
William Mellish (1814-1816)
*
Jeremiah Harman (1816-1818)
*
George Dorrien (1818-1820)
*
Charles Pole (1820-1822)
*
John Bowden (1822-1824)
*
Cornelius Buller (1824-1826)
*
John Baker Richards (1826-1828)
*
Samuel Drewe (1828-1830)
*
John Horsley Palmer (1830-1833)
*
Richard Mee Raikes (1833-1834)
*
James Pattison (1834-1837)
*
Timothy Abraham Curtis (1837-1839)
*
Sir John Rae Reid (1839-1841)
*
Sir John Henry Pelly (1841-1842)
*
William Cotton (1842-1845)
*
John Benjamin Heath (1845-1847)
*
William Robinson Robinson (April 1847-August 1847)
*
James Morris (1847-1849)
*
Henry James Prescot (1849-1851)
*
Thomson Hankey (1851-1853)
*
John Gellibrand Hubbard (1853-1855)
*
Thomas Matthias Weguelin (1855-1857)
*
Sheffield Neave (1857-1859)
*
Bonamy Dobree (1859-1861)
*
Alfred Latham (1861-1863)
*
Kirkman Daniel Hodgson (1863-1865)
*
Henry Lancelot Holland (1865-1867)
*
Thomas Newman Hunt (1867-1869)
*
Robert Wigram Crawford (1869-1871)
*
George Lyall (1871-1873)
*
Benjamin Buck Greene (1873-1875)
*
Henry Hucks Gibbs (1875-1877)
*
Edward Howley Palmer (1877-1879)
*
John William Birch (1879-1881)
*
Henry Riversdale Grenfell (1881-1883)
*
John Saunders Gilliat (1883-1885)
*
James Pattison Currie (1885-1887)
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Mark Wilks Collet (1887-1889)
*
William Lidderdale (1889-1892)
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David Powell (1892-1895)
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Albert George Sandeman (1895-1897)
*
Hugh Colin Smith (1897-1899)
*
Samuel Steuart Gladstone (1899-1901)Baron O'Brien of Lothbury
*
Augustus Prevost (1901-1903)
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Samuel Hope Morley (1903-1905)
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Alexander Falconer Wallace (1905-1907)
*
William Middleton Campbell (1907-1909)
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Reginald Eden Johnston (1909-1911)
*
Alfred Clayton Cole (1911-1913)
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Walter Cunliffe, Baron Cunliffe (1913-1918)
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Sir Brien Ibrican Cokayne (1918-1920)
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Sir Montagu Collet Norman, 1st Baron Norman, (1920-1944)
*
Thomas Sivewright Catto, 1st Baron Catto (1944-1949)
*
Cameron Fromanteel Cobbold, 1st Baron Cobbold (March 1949-
30 June 1961)
*
George Rowland Stanley Baring, 3rd Earl of Cromer (
1 July 1961-1966)
*
Sir Leslie O'Brien, Baron O'Brien of Lothbury (1966-1973)
*
Gordon Richardson, Baron Richardson of Duntisbourne (1973-1983)
*
Robin Leigh-Pemberton,
Baron Kingsdown (1983-1993)
*
Sir Edward George (1993-
30 June 2003)
*
Mervyn King (
1 July 2003-)
* In
Around the World in Eighty Days,
Phileas Fogg is hunted around the world under the suspicion that he robbed the Bank of England.
* In
The Million Pound Note by
Mark Twain, a penniless American is given a million-pound note as a practical joke to settle a bet.
*
Bank of England Museum*
Bank of Japan*
British coinage*
British banknotes*
European Central Bank*
Federal Reserve*
Pound Sterling*
UK topics*
Bank of England*
1694 Act of Parliament founding the bank
