BoE to address ‘negative’ rate concerns – papers

Amid concerns the Bank of England may soon introduce "negative interest rates", the deputy governor, Charles Bean, will today convene a meeting of City economists to explain the policy of quantitative easing.

The Bank's chief economist, Spencer Dale, and the executive director for markets, Paul Fisher will also attend, the Independent writes.

While the Bank regularly holds seminars on policy, this meeting is not routine, and seems to have been prompted by Bank concerns that QE suffers from misunderstandings which have undermined its credibility.

Worries about QE and "negative rates" have helped push sterling down by about 10 per cent against the dollar and the euro in the past fortnight. Full story...

THE British Bankers' Association has hit back at accusations of profiteering, publishing a document to explain why lenders' costs are higher than Bank Rate or Libor.

Over the past few months lenders have been accused by consumer groups of profiteering as the cost of mortgages has increased despite the Bank of England's official interest rate standing at an all-time low of 0.5pc for half a year, writes The Telegraph.

Statistics from moneyfacts, the data provider, showed recently that banks were charging an average of 3.14 percentage points above the wholesale cost of funding for two-year fixed-rate mortgages. This margin was the widest since moneyfacts' records began in 1988. Full story...

THE bankruptcy trustee picking apart Bernard Madoff's corrupt investment empire intends to sue the fraudster's sons, brother and niece for the recovery of nearly $200m (£126m) in ill-gotten gains as part of an attempt to recover funds for victims of Wall Street's biggest Ponzi scheme.

Irving Picard, who was appointed by the courts to wind down Madoff Investment Securities, told CBS he intends to file lawsuits as early as this week, writes The Guardian.

Madoff's sons, Andrew and Mark, ran the legitimate trading and market-making arm of their father's firm.

The fraudster's brother, Peter, was chief compliance officer of the family business while Madoff's niece, Shana, was its compliance lawyer. All deny any knowledge of his corrupt activities. Full story...