Like most of the banks, the Bank of England has made a bundle out of the credit spreads of the last six months. Locking in bank loans at 5.5 percent interest rates fixed for nine months, the rapidly dropping rates to just 0.5 percent earlier this year meant that the Bank made a billion in fact.
That's about 50 years worth of spending a dollar a second (see earlier blog).
The Bank made £7 million from Bradford & Bingley's failure, and £4 million from Northern Rock's.
No wonder Mervyn King's pension pot has shot up to £5 million this year.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...