Minutes of the special Monetary Policy Committee meeting ending on 10 March 2020

The Monetary Policy Committee at its ending meeting on 10 March voted to cut Bank Rate to 0.25% and introduce a new Term Funding Scheme with incentives for SMEs.
Published on 13 March 2020

The Governor invited the Committee to vote on the propositions that:

  • Bank Rate should be reduced by 50 basis points to 0.25%;
  • The Bank of England should introduce a Term Funding scheme with additional incentives for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, that would:  help reinforce the transmission of the reduction in Bank Rate;  provide participants with a cost-effective funding backstop;  and incentivise banks to provide credit to bridge economic disruption, particularly to SMEs by providing an additional five pounds of funding for every pound of positive net lending to them;
  • The Bank of England should maintain the stock of sterling non-financial investment-grade corporate bond purchases, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, at £10 billion;
  • The Bank of England should maintain the stock of UK government bond purchases, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, at £435 billion. 

The Committee voted unanimously in favour of all four propositions.

PDFMinutes of the meeting