Monetary Policy Committee

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the group at the Bank of England that sets Bank Rate, the UK's main interest rate. Nine people sit on it: the Governor, other senior Bank officials and outside experts. Each casts a vote, and the split is published.

That vote split is gold for traders. A 9–0 decision says the committee is united; a 5–4 squeaker says the next move could easily go the other way, and the pound can react more to the split than to the decision. Several other central banks, including India's, also call their rate-setting group an MPC.