What does the Bank of England do??

Dear Mr Charlesworth

Thank you for your email dated 28 July requesting access under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ('FoI Act') to:

(1) List all customers of the Bank of England.
(2) List all owners of assets held by Bank of England Nominees Limited.
(3) List all assets held by Bank of England Nominees Limited.

As the central Bank of the UK, the Bank of England provides a range of wholesale banking services to central government, central banks and certain international financial institutions and to market infrastructures. The Bank also provides settlement services to the Exchange Equalisation Account (the account in which the UK's reserves are held, managed by the Bank for HM Treasury) and a banking service to its staff and pensioners. A custody service for gold bullion to central banks and the EEA and to members of the London bullion market is also provided.

We do not propose to release the remaining information you have requested in points 1 to 3 of your e-mail. This is because Parts I to V of the FoI Act (including the general right of access to information in section 1) do not apply to information held by the Bank 'for the purposes of its functions with respect to the provision of banking services and related services' (see section 7 and Schedule 1, Part VI). Moreover, information held by Bank of England Nominees Limited is not subject to the FoI Act, as it is not a 'public authority' within the meaning of the FoI Act. Even if the private banking exclusion which I have referred to were not applicable, the information you have requested, insofar as it may be held by the Bank, would be exempt from disclosure under section 41 of the FoI Act because of the duties of confidentiality owed by the Bank to its customers.

You suggest that there may be a conflict of interest between the Bank's mandated role in relation to interest rates and the interests of customers of the Bank. The Bank's decisions on interest rates and other monetary measures are taken within a clear framework of governance and public accountability; they are linked to meeting the inflation target set by Government. To the extent that any of the Bank's customers has different interests, they would have no influence on the Bank's decision making-process.

Yours sincerely

Stuart Allen
Deputy Secretary of the Bank

Your right to complain under the FoI Act
If you are unhappy with the Bank's response, and insofar as it relates to information which is not excluded under the FoI Act, you may ask for that decision to be reviewed internally. In order to do so, please set out the grounds for your appeal and send it to Wendy Galvin, PIEG (HO-M), Public Communications & Information Division, Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London, EC2R 8AH or by email to [Bank of England request email] for the attention of Wendy Galvin.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

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