Readers Question: Who owns the Bank of England?
The Bank of England is owned by the UK government.
From Bank of England website
“As a public organisation, wholly-owned by Government, and with a significant public policy role, the Bank is accountable to Parliament”
The Bank of England was set up by, ironically, a Scotsman – William Paterson. It was initially a private bank in 1694 acting as lender to the Government.
The Bank was given a Royal Charter, and in 1844, the Bank Charter Act gave the Bank of England sole right to issue notes and coins.
The Bank of England was nationalised in 1946. (Nationalisation means government takes ownership)
In 1997, the Bank of England was given independence over setting Monetary Policy.
Amusing Yahoo Answers – Who Own Bank of England?
- – The Queen (source: history class),
- The Saudis,
- The public – so go help yourself …..
Update: For some reason, many people think the Bank of England is privately owned by the Rothschilds. (There is a similar conspiracy theory about the US Federal Reserve). I wrote to the Bank of England and asked for clarification. This was their reply.
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and was established as a corporate body by Royal Charter under the Bank of England Act 1694. The Bank was nationalised on 1 March 1946, and gained operational independence to set interest rates in 1997 (the Bank of England Act 1998 Part II sets out the responsibilities and objectives of the Bank in relation to monetary policy).
The Bank is a public sector institution, wholly-owned by the government, but accountable to Parliament. The entire capital of the Bank is, in fact, held by the Treasury solicitor on behalf of HM Treasury. Each year, the Bank is required to submit its Report and Accounts to Parliament, via the Chancellor of the Exchequer. For more information you may be interested to see the Bank’s latest Report and Accounts, which can be found on our website at:
www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/annualreport/index.htm
As to the supposed ‘Rothschild’ connection, I don’t know why people should think that the family own us. But a number of the Rothschilds have served on the Bank’s Court of Directors over the years.
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Let me ask you a simple question: what country in its right mind would create a system that would force it to lend itself money and have to repay the money WITH INTEREST? What country would charge itself interest? What nation would put itself out of business by making it bankrupt because of interest? also why is our money backed by nothing now.
Buy gold and silver. precious metals hedge your bets against this fiat monopoly.
You clearly have such a strong grasp and depth of knowledge when it comes to monetary policy and how the national finances operate, it would be pointless in disputing your points here :’’) lol
I can see that you have no grasp on how the monetary system work.
I would love to have a debate with you.
taken from audited a/cs 2008, note 2 (t):
“The entire equity capital comprising £14,553,000 of Bank Stock is held by the Treasury Solicitor on behalf of HM Treasury.
Under Section 1 (4) of the Bank of England Act 1946, subsequent to the end of each year HM Treasury receives payments
of half the post-tax profits unless the Bank and HM Treasury agree otherwise. The payments are deductible for
corporation tax and charged to equity in the year to which they relate on the basis as agreed at the end of the
relevant year.” looks like the rest of profit just sits in retained earnings. Not sure about the implications of gov paying interest to BoE (as asserted by Mark), who then pay tax back to HMRC, and then share the net profits with the gov.
how can the us have a huge national debt, while Indonesia has recently paid theirs off… and who exactly does the richest country in the world owe money to..and how come Switzerland..wit no real economy is so rich hmm..
if the govt own the bank of england , why are they
borrowing money from it to fight wars etc and why sre we paying for it?
and if my last statment is true ,how much can i borrow and who will pay it back
Interest will always be a problem as far as Government Bonds are issued, whether the BoE is privately or publicly owned. The core problem is the issuance of money as debt.
Since we borrow money by issuing Bonds, which foreign and domestic investors purchase, there has to be an interest rate given as incentive to those lenders to get a return, unless of course it is a charitable donation.
The BoE facilitates the transactions, and also sets the interest rate on those bonds sold. The interest rate impacts on the amount we can afford to technically borrow as a country in two counterbalancing ways:
1. How much we’ll have to pay back in interest payments
2. How willing investors are to pump money into the UK economy at a particular rate of return.
Private ownership (a separate issue) of the Central Bank should be anathema to any democracy. If the BoE is privately owned, then the government can be brought to its knees by private interests, which can never be good for a democracy. However, judging from the sheer lack of oversight in government that we have witnessed over the past few years, and the common whitewashes from the judicial system when considering government affairs, can we truly say that the “public” sector isn’t run by private interests either?
So the government own the bank of England? This means that the government own all of the money within the BoE, if this is the case why do we borrow money from them and pay back with interest? It’s like my left pocket borrowing money from my right pocket.
But what REALLY doesn’t make any sense is this. If the government is so strapped for cash that it needs to borrow money from a bank each year, why is it that as soon as this credit crisis arose the government had a seemingly endless amount of money to lend to the banks? And why is the government not charging the banks interest?
Interest is slavery, no matter who owns what.
The government didn’t have an endless supply of money. The bank of England created it out of this air, loaned it to the gov with interest, the gov then used that no at to bail out the banks.
If you go to the BOE web site, you can take a look at their annual accounts. Looks like it is owned by HM Government.
However, the Federal Reserve in the US is owned by private banks. It’s important not to get confused between the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury (which is part of the US Govt.).
It seems to me that the World is split into three main groups; those who have nothing – Poverty; those who have less than nothing – Debt; those regulate the levels of debt and poverty – ………….
If the UK government really does own the Bank of England why doesn’t it simply issue all the money it needs itself and bypass the BoE? That would save an awful lot of interest, and if the money is issued debt-
free and spent into circulation, e.g. by paying for public works, paying pensions, buying up the odd stricken bank, etc, it won’t actually have to be paid back, because it won’t be owed to anybody.
A truly debt-free economy. But then that wouldn’t suit the international banking houses, who love weak, bankrupt governments, and weald so much power through finance. This isn’t some conspiracy theory. See “Superclass” by David Rothkopf (available from Amazon) in which he boasts how the world is really governed by around 6,000 powerful people, most of whom know each other.
And the whole basis of their power is the debt-based economic system foisted on virtually all governments. This “global elite”, so-called, doesn’t actually produce anything (other than debt and misery for everyone else) but they are the creditors and everyone else –
governments, corporations, big and small businesses, local and state governments, public service institutions, right down to you and I are the debtors.
What do you say? Carry on trying to work within this evil and insane system, or sweep it all away and start afresh with a debt-free economy for every country, and without the parasitic and insidious “global elite”?
Very good analysis Philip, the awful truth is that 300 years ago Rothschilds pulled a fast trick because when Wellington won the war, Rothschild had advanced knowledge because the Rothschild’s had the fastest messenger and knew but through sleight of hand pretended that Napolian won which crashed the stock exchange and Rothschild sold their stock as fast as they could and so did the stock exchange, but secretly the Rothschilds were buying back the stock for pennies in the pound and they bought the bank of England and the bank of France from the Governments. Rothschilds own or control the central banks in 194 countries and lend money at 6% interest net 5% on Bonds issued by the treasury and but from in Europe from the Bank of Europe via the Nationalised 1948 Banks through the Bank of England. the IMF control the Central Banks including the USA Federal Reserve established in 1913. Of course, they don’t want us general public to know about this fraud because the Central Banks buy Treasury Bonds with a cheque drawn from their Bank which has not a penny in it. In other words, creating money out of nothing for us to pay back plus interest and pay the stockholders their dividend. See Mike Maloney Secrets off Money Ep 4 The Biggest Scam in the History of Mankind. The same families who took our land through feudalism.
Thanks to everyone who has posted. When I can make sense of the madness, I will post it on my face book. I feel all those little bits of information that are left out there, People can get informed. It may be slow but if I have woken up, we can all wake up.
The monetary system is all about CONTROL. And humans need to be controlled – we are an unbalanced species with diverse emotions, backgrounds, education and desires – which change over time, or even instantaneously, irrational at times. Without this CONTROL, there would be anarchy and frequent revolutions and even more wars based on various reasons. – economic land grab, religion, other national objectives.
The best form of CONTROL is the monetary system (issuing living tokens for individual work done). The monetary CONTROL system has evolved over the last 3 centuries and now enjoys the enforcement of laws, taxation, police and even military force where necessary.
Take away the “living token” monetary system, and very few would work, and daily rampant theft, and maruading pillage would dominate and plunder society back several thousands of years.
Why the “money as debt” system?
It forces (enslaves) the masses into a daily work system – so that almost ever individual is actively contributing to society – for positive, coordinated good.
Why the secrecy of the elite powers – who actually meet and decide global monetary systems and policy?
Because then the gullible, uneducated, lazy, incompetent masses would rise up and cause frequent anarchy, revolution and chaos.
Certainly, there is a secret, arcane group of as little as 100 people, or less – who understand the need to maintain CONTROL, law and order for the food of the masses / society.
Of course, the “money as debt system” – to be repaid with interest is impossible to repay and no designed to be repaid – because it maintains this control mechanism of keeping the entire population and every country in perpetual debt – every person is enslaved to this need to work to earn living tokens to survive, and distracted by hundreds of entertainment options to enjoy their enslaved life.
The monetary system became of age through the collaboration of Nathan Rothschild, David Ricardo and later Marx and various other economists.
Rather than criticise the Rothschild dynasty for their input (perceived by some as positive negative) into econmic history vermthe past 200+ years, we should reflect on the fact that the unbalanced, irratic and mostly lazy masses need an organised CONTROL mechanism / system.
Read the inside cover page of every Economist Magazine (est. 1843) issue – explains clearly the challenge: “To take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress”.
Rather criticise the monetary CONTROL system, we should praise it for the enormous growth, inventions, innovation and quality of life we currently enjoy.
Be enlightened.
good explanation
I was fortunate enough to have entered into correspondence with Walter Stewart before his untimely death at the turn of the century -such communication being prompted by my reading of his two books on Banking “Towers of Gold-Feet of Clay” and “Bank Heist” in which he pointed out that the Government of Canada (up to Trudeau’s time) borrowed money from itself by (in effect) expanding it’s own bonds through the Bank of Canada This prompted me to contact the UK Government to ask why the UK did not do likewise only to be told by the then Chief Secretary to the UK Treasury that it was perfectly feasible to do so but that it would be “potentially inflationary”
When I sent this reply to Walter Stewart his comment was simply that the reply was
“bafflegab” !
It is interesting to learn that the USA when going through the motions you describe , after paying the interest due on the relevant , bonds’ then
require the banks in question to pay a “special tax: exactly equivalent to the bond interest !!
Hmmm ! makes one think -does it not !
The English,French and Spanish empire’s took 4.5 continents Of the world for the bankers who financed them.the bankers then set up the financial system,the printing and distribution of money and the setting of interest rates .it is the job of the American military to take the other 1/2 continent and to keep the 4.5 in line.all central banks r control ed by the same bankers who financed these empires.thank you!
Are the masses ignorant by design? Does the education system perpetuate unthinking worker bees? If debt is slavery, what is true freedom?
Are you idiots or have you not understood economy? The instution belongs to England but the money in the accounts not. It belongs to the English citizens who want to know what the government is doing with their money and of course they want to have interest which the government pays with the taxes that they receive when people are saving a lot of money…
Rothschild owns the majority of Bank of England stocks since the Napoleon war.
The last line says it all