Bank of England sheds senior staff as 75 get top £150,000 payout
As part of cost-cutting efforts, 8% will depart in the coming months
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[LONDON] Seventy-five Bank of England (BOE) staff received the maximum payout of £150,000 (S$255,223) after volunteering for layoffs that ended in many senior departures from the UK central bank.
One in six of the 446 staff leaving in the coming months were paid the top settlement, under what it called a “mutually agreed resignation scheme”, a source said.
As the central bank looks to cut costs, it also shed 16 staff who were in the highest pay grades – which includes division heads, directors and executive directors.
Around 8 per cent of its staff will depart in the coming months as a result of these efforts.
While the staffing cuts will lead to an upfront cost, the BOE expects to save £35 million in the next financial year, as it seeks to shore up its strained finances.
The settlements were calculated by multiplying a 10th of the employee’s final salary by the number of years they had served.
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The average payout was £81,000 for each staff member, coming up to a total cost of £36 million.
Bloomberg was the first to report that the central bank, in its cost-cutting drive, had invited its staff to come forward under the programme in 2025.
Since Andrew Bailey became governor in 2020, its wage bill has climbed by 55 per cent to over £450 million, its most recent annual accounts revealed.
The departures are part of efforts to ease budgetary pressure on Threadneedle Street after its expenses were pushed up by a modernisation effort, which former US Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke urged on.
The BOE has invested heavily in its modelling, which was outdated, and technology infrastructure following Bernanke’s critical review.
It had been criticised for underestimating the size and persistence of the inflation surge after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Earlier in March, a BOE spokesperson said the change “leaves the central bank in a stronger position to deliver” the savings it needs and is part of a “significant, multi-year transformation” of its operations.
Bloomberg first reported that as part of the efforts, the BOE is also overhauling its property portfolio.
The central bank is also moving its banking regulation arm out of its Moorgate office and looking to sell a London sports centre that helps host the annual Wimbledon tennis tournament. BLOOMBERG
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