Barclays Share News (BARC)

(Sharecast News) - Extensive work was being carried out at the Bank of England on the possible implications and practicalities around adopting negative interest rates.
Speaking following the release of the central bank's Financial Stability Report, its chief, Andrew Bailey, reportedly explained how research shows that the structure of national banking systems is becoming increasingly important in how negative rates influence the economy.

He reportedly added that "most countries that have used negative rates have not on the whole used them in the retail deposit world."

Bailey was also speaking ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee's meeting scheduled for the following week, which would take place just as Brexit talks with the European Union appeared to be taking an unexpected turn for the worse ahead of the country's exit from the bloc at the end of 2020.

Depending on the outcome of those talks, the pressure on Bank to act to cushion the blow would conceivably grow significantly.

Although both the UK and EU both appeared to be focused on yet another self-imposed 13 December deadline to strike a deal, some analysts were openly questioning that.

For some analysts, 31 December was the only real hard deadline and in the case of RBC, it was even plausible that the transition period might be extended past year-end 2020.

As of 1241 GMT, the pound was retreating by 0.97% to 1.3166 against the US dollar.