We speak with a wide range of people and institutions for a given issue. We systematically aggregate the feedback, distil the conclusions and challenge them against our own judgement. Our qualitative assessment is then combined with market data, models and surveys to inform our policymaking committees: the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), Financial Policy Committee (FPC) and the Prudential Regulation Committee (PRC), as well as the Bank's Executive.
Why do we gather market intelligence?
Gathering market intelligence means that we can make policy decisions with a detailed understanding of the financial market context in which we operate. Market intelligence can:
- provide fresh qualitative information to supplement our quantitative analysis
- support the design of our operations and assess their impact
- provide insights on markets, products and sectors for which little or no public data is available
- alert us to actual and potential sources of monetary and financial instability.
What markets do we gather intelligence on?
We have conversations with contacts from across regulated and unregulated markets, as well as market participants that operate in major overseas financial centres. We prioritise the markets, products and sectors we think are most likely to pose risks to the UK’s monetary and financial stability.
Find out more about our work in this area:
How do we make sure we gather a diversity of views?
It’s essential we gather views from a wide range of market contacts. Ensuring our information comes from many different perspectives enables us to:
- better track market developments
- explore different possible interpretations of market trends
- challenge the market consensus and identify emerging risks
In April 2021, we launched our ‘Meeting Varied People’ (MVP) initiative, which aims to connect our market intelligence gatherers with a wider variety of contacts across financial markets.
Our initiative aims to widen the diversity of the institutions and the people within those institutions that we talk to.
Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is reflected in the Market Intelligence Charter.
- Opening remarks: meeting varied people - speech by Andrea Rosen
- Meeting varied people - speech by Andrew Bailey
We ask our market contacts to support our MVP initiative by helping to connect us with a broad range of contacts within their organisations.
Market Participants Survey (MaPS)
The Market Participants Survey acts as a quantitative complement to the Bank's routine market intelligence gathering. The survey collects information on market participants' expectations about monetary policy and financial markets. It runs eight times a year, aligned with the six-week schedule of the monetary policy meetings of the MPC. The results are published in aggregate form for each round on the Friday following the release of the MPC Minutes.
Market Participants Survey results
This page was last updated 31 March 2023