Bank Rate
Bank Rate is the Bank of England's main policy rate and a benchmark influencing sterling money-market, lending, and savings rates.
Rates set or administered by monetary authorities for policy implementation, reserves, and central-bank liquidity facilities.
Central bank administered rates are set or directly managed by a monetary authority for policy implementation, reserve remuneration, or liquidity facilities. Their names and functions differ by jurisdiction: Bank Rate, key rate, Lombard rate, and discount-window rates are not universally interchangeable.
These official settings influence bank funding and customer pricing, but they do not automatically equal the rate on a mortgage, credit card, deposit, or business loan. A customer-facing Prime Rate belongs to loan pricing because banks set it, even when policy-rate changes strongly influence it.
When reading an administered rate, confirm the central bank, currency, facility, eligible counterparty, collateral, effective date, and whether the number is a target, deposit rate, lending rate, or market outcome. Use the official central-bank release rather than assuming a familiar label carries the same meaning across countries.
These pages explain rate mechanics and policy context; they do not predict future rates or recommend a financial product.
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Bank Rate is the Bank of England's main policy rate and a benchmark influencing sterling money-market, lending, and savings rates.
A key rate is a central-bank policy rate or group of official rates whose exact meaning depends on the monetary authority and operating framework.
The Lombard rate is the rate on short-term credit secured by eligible assets, a historically important but jurisdiction-specific central-bank and banking term.