On 21 April 2021, the Bank of England published speeches from:

• Andrea Rosen (AR) – Opening remarks: meeting varied people. In her opening remarks AR briefly covers the BoE’s market intelligence activities and why pursuing diversity in the markets contacts is so important. In particular AR states that gathering the widest possible range of well-informed views from diverse market contacts is essential to what the BoE does. It ensures that it gets the best information possible to fulfil its mission: testing its views against those in the market, across regions and asset classes, exploring the different possible explanations for trends, and understanding the expectations and impact around each of the BoE’s policy decisions. AR also explains that the BoE already pursues diversity as a regular course of business but it is now taking things further by: (i) relaunching the BoE’s Market Intelligence Charter to reflect its diversity objectives more clearly; (ii) publishing the UK Money Markets Committee’s three-yearly update to its Code, which highlights more prominently the importance and benefits of a diverse team; and (iii) building connections between the BoE’s intelligence gathers at all levels with future and diverse leaders within institutions.
• Andrew Bailey (AB) – Speech: Meeting varied people. Among other things AB states that the BoE’s priority is to speak to a diverse group of people from a broad range of financial institutions. These discussions with market participants help the BoE understand market developments, and the implications for its Policy Committees. AB also explains that diversity in who the BoE speaks to in financial markets has direct benefits. It improves the BoE’s understanding of what is driving markets, what people expect from future policy and the potential impacts of different decisions. And that is critical – because financial markets are global, complex and interconnected. A failure to understand those diverse components heightens the chances of making analytical, and hence policy, mistakes.