Contrary to common belief the Bank of England is not a privately-owned institution. It is owned wholly by HM Treasury, since being nationalised in 1946. In 1998 it was given certain powers, which are sometimes described as ‘independent’, but this does not alter the ownership. As the Bank describes it on its own website: “We are owned by the UK government. But we have specific statutory responsibilities for setting policy – for interest rates, for financial stability, and for the regulation of banks and insurance companies. And we carry those out (…) within a framework set by Government but free from day-to-day political influence.” We would argue that ‘free from political influence’ is not really accurate, as the framework set by the government for the Bank is designed to achieve its political objectives.
Read more on the Bank of England’s website:
http://edu.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/who-owns-the-bank-of-england/
Also, see our fact sheet on The Bank of England