Men and Money - The Machine in Action
In this introductory episode of a series about the financial institutions of the City, Lord Cromer, Governor of the Bank of England, gives his first ever television interview. We learn about the role of the Bank, visit some of the vaults holding £300 million worth of gold, hear about the management of the national debt and spend time in the company of the top-hatted bill brokers who work in the short-term money market.
The Bank of England today is, of course, quite different from the institution depicted in this programme. In 1997, in the biggest shake-up of the bank's 300-year history, Gordon Brown, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, handed over responsibility for setting interest rates to the Bank of England. It effectively became independent of the government and accountable for the country's monetary and financial stability (in other words, regulation). It is now responsible for stable prices and confidence in the pound as well as detecting and reducing threats to the financial system as a whole. Meanwhile, the FSA (Financial Services Authority) is the body that was set up to monitor individual banks and the London Stock Exchange.
