The Bank of England is breaking down its veil of secrecy it announced on Thursday, vowing to increase transparency.
In an effort to increase visibility, the central bank has promised to publish the votes and minutes of its interest rate decision simultaneously to their announcement, starting in August 2015.
The Bank will also publish the transcripts of monetary policy meetings with an eight-year lag instead of deleting the recordings.
The governor, Mark Carney, said these decisions “mark a step change in the governance of this institution. These changes will enhance our transparency and make us more accountable to the British people”.
He also noted these are “the most significant set of changes to how we present and explain our interest rate decisions since the Monetary Policy Committee was formed in 1997”.
The BoE has also decided to hold fewer meetings, with the aim of moving to eight policy meetings a year.
In 2016, it will hold four joint meetings between the Monetary and Financial Policy Committees.
Other changes included publishing the minutes of meetings of the BoE Court, its governing body, between 1914 and 1987, to align practices with the rest of Whitehall.
