By Stuart Manning of the Bank’s Customer Banking Division.
Much is published about the Bank of England’s policy functions and its financial operations. But less is typically known about the Bank’s role as a bank in the more traditional sense, offering accounts and banking services to its customers. The three main customer groups to which the Bank provides banking services are: the UK Government; overseas central banks; and certain other financial institutions, such as central counterparties. The Bank’s approach is not to compete with commercial banks, but to provide banking services where doing so supports its mission and in particular its objective to maintain financial stability.
The Bank of England as a bank