Adrian Boulding: The spectre of negative interest rates

In early February, the governor of the Bank of England (BoE) Andrew Bailey, told banks and building societies they have six months to prepare for negative interest rates. The BoE made it clear that this would not happen if, as is predicted, the economy begins bouncing back after the MPC-anticipated 4% fall in GDP in Q1 2021. So, all eyes will be on the level and speed of recovery from this month as the effects of the easing of lockdown #3 feed through to economic activity. But how do banks and building societies prepare for being charged by the BoE for holding their excess cash deposi...