Minutes of the Money Market Committee meeting – March 2026

Minutes

Item 1 – Welcome

The Chair thanked members for attending and confirmed that the Minutes of the Money Markets Committee (MMC) December 2025 meeting had been published on the Bank’s website.^{footnote [1]}

The Chair welcomed Ian Williams from the Royal Bank of Canada to their first meeting as a new member of the MMC and welcomed those who were attending as part of the Bank’s Meeting Varied People (MVP) initiative.

Item 2 – Update on the balance sheet transition and the Discount Window Facility (DWF) recalibration

Vicky Saporta, Executive Director for Markets, provided remarks around the recently published Bank Insights article ‘Resilience and readiness across the Sterling Monetary Framework’^{footnote [2]} which provides an update on the transition to a repo-led, demand-driven system and the recalibration of the Discount Window Facility (DWF).

Vicky set out the Bank’s decision to lower and simplify the pricing structure of the DWF, moving to a fixed spread to Bank Rate across each collateral set. The spread for Level A drawings was now +15bps, +25bp for Level B, and +50bp for Level C.^{footnote [3]} These changes aim to strengthen the facility’s role as an accessible, on-demand tool, while maintaining incentives for routine daily liquidity management and avoiding the risk of disintermediating private markets.

Phil Evans, Director for Prudential Policy of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), emphasised that the positions of the Bank of England and the PRA were fully aligned with respect to usage of the Bank’s market-wide and bilateral facilities of the Sterling Monetary Framework .^{footnote [4]} He flagged that the PRA recently launched a consultation paper that sets out proposals to modernise the liquidity framework, with emphasis on firms’ readiness to use central bank liquidity facilities when faced with liquidity shocks.^{footnote [5]} This includes aligning language, such as that around PRA110, with the Bank’s framework and encouraging usage of facilities for liquidity management. Phil reiterated that these facilities remain ‘open for business’ and should be used by SMF participants for the purposes of liquidity management.

Item 3 – Enhanced discussion on market conditions

The discussion began with members giving their perspective of the impact of recent events on various segments of sterling money markets. Members opening remarks encompassed three main areas: (1) the broader market volatility since the start of the conflict with energy moves and the associated macroeconomic implications; (2) the moves in market-implied central bank policy expectations; and (3) funding market resilience amidst the broader volatility, with repo rates remaining within usual ranges and unsecured rates largely holding steady.

The Committee emphasised that funding conditions across sterling money markets had remained resilient amid recent volatility. Members noted that inflows into sterling money market funds and a shortening of average maturities in response to heightened uncertainty had supported stability in near-term money market rates. Members also noted the continued stability of the FX basis. One member observed that there had been some pockets of reduced liquidity in longer-term unsecured sterling funding markets.

Members noted stability in funding markets across other jurisdictions, albeit with some divergence across secured and unsecured markets.

Item 4 – Early morning extension to CHAPS settlement hours

A member of Bank staff provided an update on the delivery of the early morning extension to CHAPS settlement hours^{footnote [6]}. The presentation noted that CHAPS settlement will open at 01:30 from September 2027, reflecting industry support for CHAPS settlement in the early morning, while recognising the need to avoid undue operational burdens. In line with the optional sending model that will be applied before 06:00, the update recommended that firms assess the potential use cases and benefits of the earlier start time for CHAPS.

Committee Attendees

Committee members

James Winterton – Association of Corporate Treasurers
Gareth Jones – Barclays
Inna Shaykevich – Goldman Sachs
James Murphy – HSBC
Chris Brown – Insight Investment
Tony Baldwin – LCH
John Wherton – L&G
Scott Creed – Lloyds Bank
Nina Moylett – M&G
Nic Erevik – Newcastle Building Society
Chirag Patel – Rabobank
Ian Williams – Royal Bank of Canada
Alan Williams – Santander UK
Romain Sinclair – Société Générale
Natasha Vowles – Tesco
John Argent – Tradition

Observers and MVP attendees

Ross Barclay – DMO
Shaun Wyles – FCA
Duygu Beylan – HSBC
Fearghal Burke – Rabobank

Bank of England

Matt Roberts-Sklar (Chair)
Victoria Saporta
Phil Evans
Waris Panjwani
Arif Merali
Simon Dolan
Callum Ashworth
Jack Welling
Kash Chundoo
Tom Gifford
Rebecca Hall
Thomas Baines

Apologies

Gordon Lowson – Aberdeen
Cristiano Guidi – Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Emma Cooper – BlackRock
Sara Carter – CME Group
Marije Verhelst – Euroclear
Ina Budh-Raja – ISLA
Edward Bond – J.P. Morgan