Pound soars on Bank meeting notes

The Bank has kept rates on hold for seven straight months

The pound has rallied after the Bank of England said its monetary policy committee voted 9-0 earlier this month not to pump more cash into the economy.

The pound got as high as up 1.8% against the dollar at $1.6630, and up 1.1% against the euro at 1.1087 euros.

The MPC was also unanimous in agreeing to keep interest rates on hold at 0.5%.

The decision not to inject more money was seen as a positive sign that the UK economy was recovering and did not need further help from the central bank.

Figures out on Friday could show that the UK has exited recession.

The Bank agreed that it would not extend its £175bn programme of quantitative easing (QE), but would keep it "under review".

The committee said that QE had had a "substantial" impact, but all members agreed that "recent developments were not sufficiently compelling to justify revising the target level of asset purchases that had been agreed in August".

The Bank raised the total amount of funds for QE by £50bn to £175bn in August, although Governor Mervyn King and two other policymakers had argued for a £75bn extension.

The Bank publishes the minutes of its meetings on monetary policy two weeks after the event.

On Tuesday, Mr King said that a fundamental rethink of how UK banks are structured was needed.

In a speech in Edinburgh, he said some banks might have to split their core business from riskier practices, so they did not get too big to be allowed to fail.