| The central bank of the United Kingdom, sometimes known as the 'Old Lady' of Threadneedle Street. The Bank was founded in 1694, nationalised on 1st March 1946, and given operational independence for interest rates in 1997. Standing at the centre of the UK's financial system, the Bank is committed to promoting and maintaining monetary and financial stability as its contribution to a healthy economy. It is similar to the Federal Reserve in the United States and the Bundesbank in Germany. Its main functions are: to ensure the stability and promote the efficiency and competitiveness of the financial system, to set the official interest rate in order to achieve the government's inflation target, to manage the government's foreign currency borrowing programme, to act as banker to the banks (and to act as the lender of last resort to banks facing liquidity problems), to support the government's exchange rate policy by intervening in the currency markets, to control the design, production and issue of banknotes in England and Wales.
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