BoE to publish transcripts of policy discussions

The Bank of England (BoE) announced landmark changes to the way it publishes monetary policy decisions, pledging to make minutes from discussions and interest rate announcements available to the public from August 2015.

The BoE said that it would start publishing transcripts of its policy discussions with an eight-year lag.

The first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting to be covered by the new transcripts would be in March 2015, including a breakdown of how the nine members voted.

In other changes, the Bank said it was proposing that the MPC should meet eight times a year, starting in 2016, down from the current 12. Such a change would require approval by Britain's parliament.

Since taking over in 2013, Carney has sought to make the BoE more transparent.

He said on Thursday: "Today I am pleased to announce the most significant set of changes to how we present and explain our interest rate decisions since the Monetary Policy Committee was formed in 1997."

The secrecy until now around the BoE's meetings contrasts with most other British public bodies, which must release records of meetings 20-30 years after they were created.