BoE chief says '3 days left' on bond intervention

Bank of England chief Andrew Bailey said Tuesday bond investors have "three days left" until the British central bank phases out emergency bond-buying efforts.

"We think the rebalancing must be done and my message to the funds involved and all the firms involved managing those funds: you've got three days left now," Bailey said.

"You've got to get this done," he said at an appearance at the Institute of International Finance, a Washington trade group.

The comments, which rebuffed calls from some investor groups for a longer program to allow markets to stabilize, sent the pound sharply lower.

The statement was a reiteration of the timetable on the emergency program, which was expanded earlier Tuesday by the central bank in the latest in a series of responses to upheaval in financial markers.

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"We've been up all nights in recent days working how to solve the problem," Bailey said. "That's a financial stability intervention."

This week's actions are a fresh bid to soothe the bond markets in particular, as state borrowing -- and its costs -- soar following finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng's debt-fueled mini-budget last month.

The poor market response to it saw UK bond yields spike and the pound tumble to a record low against the dollar, prompting the BoE to step in over recent weeks vowing to protect the nation's financial stability.

The Bank of England on Monday revealed it was launching a temporary facility aimed at easing liquidity pressures, and followed that up Tuesday by announcing plans to expand the program to include index-linked securities.

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association praised the BoE's latest manuevers but said in a statement Tuesday that the "purchasing should not be ended too soon," adding that "many" have called for the program to be prolonged to "31 October and possibly beyond."

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Near 2000 GMT, the pound was at $1.0987, down 0.6 percent from the prior day.

Source: AFP