Bank of England ends informal briefings with private companies

The Bank of England said it will no longer hold informal briefings between policy makers and individual private sector firms as scrutiny of the links between central banks and finance grows as the move comes on the heels of growing concern about similar practices in other central banks.

The move is aimed at improving the transparency of the BoE's market intelligence collection processes, and the meetings between the members of the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee and private banks have been described as a way for the Bank of England to gather information about the economy and financial markets. The European Central Bank last month faced calls to end its closed-door meetings with private companies after its chief economist was reported to have disclosed unpublished inflation forecasts at one such event.