News Release
Bank of England Opens the Greater London Agency
10 December 1996
The Bank of England's Greater London Agency will be launched officially at a reception to be held at the Bank on Wednesday 11 December. The reception, hosted by the Deputy Governor, Howard Davies, will be attended by leaders of the London Boroughs and representatives of London-wide agencies, including chambers of commerce and training and enterprise agencies.
The Bank now has eleven Agencies in a network across the United Kingdom and a twelfth is planned. The primary role of the Agents is to assess economic conditions in their region as an important part of the process of shaping the Bank's monetary policy advice to the Chancellor. They do this by meeting with business contacts (including business supporting agencies) to talk about the workings of the "real economy". Information received by the Agents helps to shed light on what lies behind the national statistics and often serves to identify emerging trends. Contacts also have the opportunity to discuss areas of interest across a wide spectrum of business activity.
In recognising the important link between business and the Bank, and as part of a programme to expand regional coverage, the Bank has established the Greater London Agency based on the 33 London boroughs, including the City of London.
The Greater London Agent is Wendy Hyde and her Deputy is Roger Beales. They will be seeking to make new contacts with a wide range of businesses across all economic sectors and initial approaches made to potential new contacts have been received very positively. They will also be developing links in the London area with, among others, chambers of commerce, the CBI, Training and Enterprise Councils, Business Links and enterprise agencies.
Notes to Editors
1 In order to understand domestic economic developments it is important for the Bank of England to be aware not only of national issues but also of developments in the economies of the regions. In recognising the significance of this the Bank is expanding the number of regional agencies from 9 to 12. In addition to the new Greater London Agency, a new Agency for Wales was opened in Cardiff by the Governor on 6 December and another will open in Nottingham next year. The nine other agencies are located in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Winchester and East Anglia/South East region.
2 Wendy Hyde and Roger Beales have both worked for the Bank for over 20 years, most recently at senior management level, and possess a wide and practical knowledge of banking and business-related matters. They are both Londoners and have a keen interest in the capital, its environs and both its actual and potential economic activity.
3 The Agency will be based at Threadneedle Street until the middle of January 1997, when it will relocate to offices in the Bank's New Change building.
