There are about 480 authorised banks in the UK. More than half of these are branches or subsidiaries of foreign banks. The Bank is also involved in the supervision of certain other institutions - primarily those operating as brokers and marketmakers in the professional (or wholesale) financial markets. The Bank is not involved in the direct supervision of investment business. The Banking Act, which was updated and strengthened in 1987, provides that any UK bank wishing to take deposits from the public (that is, to conduct a banking business) in the UK must gain prior authorisation from the Bank, and must submit to the continued supervision of its activities by the Bank.
The Bank of England is the Central bank of the United Kingdom. Sometimes known as the "Old Lady of Threadneedle Street" it stands, literally and figuratively, at the financial centre of the City of London and is presided over by its Court of Directors . The Bank has many roles: through its Monetary Policy Committee it sets interest rates in order to meet the Government's inflation target; it manages the Government's stock register and it prints the country's bank notes . The Bank has close links with the markets and operates a payments system , the Real Time Gross Settlement System. It collects and publishes, (via MFSD - Monetary and Financial Statistics Division ) money and banking data in order to monitor developments in the financial system; although it is no longer responsible for the day to day supervision of institutions . It is very important to know about existence of a Committee of Court, which consists of the sixteen non-Executive Directors who review the Bank's performance in relation to its objectives and strategy, monitoring its financial management, reviewing its internal financial controls. The Committee is also responsible for reviewing the procedures of the Monetary Policy Committee, and in particular, whether the latter has collected the regional, sectoral and other information necessary for formulating monetary policy. Speaking about the same monetary policy, The Bank's monetary policy objective is to deliver price stability (as defined by the Government's inflation target) and, without prejudice to that objective, to support the Government's economic policy, including its objectives for growth and employment. The Government's inflation target will be confirmed in each Budget statement. The Bank's inflation forecast is published in the form of a probability distribution and it is presented in what is now known as the fan chart. The price stability objective is to achieve underlying inflation of 2.5%. Interest rates are set by the Monetary Policy Committee. However the legislation provides that if, in extreme circumstances, the national interest demands it, the Government will have the power to give instructions to the Bank on interest rates for a limited period. The Bank of England has issued banknotes since it was founded in 1694 and today all English notes are produced at the Bank of England Printing Works, situated at Loughton in Essex. One of the aims at every stage is to ensure that the note is as difficult as possible to counterfeit. Some images are engraved by hand into metal plates, whilst others are created using a Computer Aided Design (CAD) system and are drawn onto film by a laserbeam. The Bank played a key role in helping the City to prepare for euro currency. As part of its communication effort, the Bank started in spring 1996 to produce a quarterly series of booklets which concentrated on the practical issues arising from the introduction of the euro.
Banking system in Latvia: The Bank of Latvia
GENERAL INFORMATION
The Bank of Latvia is the central bank of the Republic of Latvia. The main objective of the Bank of Latvia is to implement monetary policy by controlling the amount of money in circulation with the aim to maintain price stability in the State. The Bank of Latvia is the sole bearer of the right to issue the national currency, banknotes and coins.
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