A jump in the pound a minute before the Bank of England said it would keep interest rates on hold led some in the market to ask whether any participants knew of the decision before it became public. The Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Britain’s main market regulator, both declined to comment on whether they were investigating the sudden move. “There were a few gasps around the room when we saw the price jump quite aggressively,” Simon Harvey, of Monex Europe, a brokerage in London, said. “We are not used to seeing a big jump beforehand and so it raised eyebrows,” he said. Markets had been on tenterhooks before the Bank of England meeting, as money markets had seen equal chances of a 25 basis point rate cut or no change in British borrowing costs.

Source: Irish Examiner January 30, 2020 21:11 UTC