Asset Purchase Facility Quarterly Report - 2021 Q1

Overview

This report contains information on the Bank of England’s Asset Purchase Facility (APF) for 2021 Q1, describing operations from 1 January 2021 to 31 March 2021. More information on what the APF is and what it does is available in our Market Operations Guide. A short timeline describing the history of the APF is provided as background at the end of the report.

APF operations in the past quarter

This section contains details of gilt and corporate bond transactions, and gilts lent to the Debt Management Office (DMO), during the quarter.

At its meeting ending on 17 March, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to maintain the stock of sterling non-financial investment-grade corporate bond purchases, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, at £20 billion. The MPC also voted to continue with the Bank of England’s existing programme of UK government bond purchases, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, maintaining the target for the total stock of these government bond purchases at £875 billion. This kept the total target stock of asset purchases at £895 billion.^{footnote [1]}

During 2021 Q1 the APF made £57.7 billion of gilt purchases.^{footnote [2]} Details of the purchase programme for this period can be found in the Market Notices published on 5 November 2020 and 17 December 2020. The APF did not purchase corporate bonds in 2021 Q1.

Table A summarises the stock of APF gilt and corporate bond purchases in 2021 Q1.

Chart 1 shows the cumulative net value of APF transactions between the establishment of the Fund and end-March 2021. As at 31 March 2021, the Bank had reported cumulative asset purchases net of sales, redemptions and repayments totalling £794.1 billion.

Chart 1 is separated into two panels with different scales. Gilt purchases and the Term Funding Scheme (TFS – which from 2016 to 2019 was on the APF balance sheet before its transfer to the Bank’s balance sheet) are on the left panel.^{footnote [3]} The corporate bond schemes and legacy commercial paper schemes that have been operated via the APF balance sheet are on the right panel. The Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF), which was launched in March 2020, is not part of the APF balance sheet.^{footnote [4]}

Chart 1: Cumulative APF purchases by type: amounts outstanding ^(a)(b)

Footnotes

• Source: Bank of England.
• (a) Data based on settled transactions.
• (b) On 21 January 2019 the TFS drawings were moved to the Bank’s balance sheet and therefore are not reported after this date.

Gilts purchased via the APF continue to be made available for on-lending to the market through the gilt lending arrangement with the DMO. The average daily aggregate value of gilts lent by the APF to the DMO during the three months to 31 March 2021 was £3.1 billion.

APF history and background

Below is a summary of some of the key milestones in the history of the APF since its establishment in 2009.

• 19 January 2009 Chancellor’s Statement announcing the intention to set up an asset purchase programme.
• 29 January 2009 Establishment of the APF Fund (see exchange of letters between the Bank and HM Treasury).
• 9 November 2012 HM Treasury announces the transfer of gilt coupon payments to the Exchequer (see exchange of letters between the Bank and HM Treasury).
• 4 August 2016 MPC agrees to expand the APF by launching a Term Funding Scheme (TFS) and a Corporate Bond Purchase Scheme (CBPS) (see exchange of letters between the Bank and HM Treasury).
• 21 June 2018 Bank and HM Treasury agree new capital and income framework codified by a new Memorandum of Understanding.
• 21 January 2019 TFS drawings (and collateral) transferred from the APF to the Bank of England’s balance sheet.
• 19 March 2020 MPC agrees to expand the APF with a £200 billion increase to the stock of UK gilts and sterling non-financial investment-grade corporate bonds to reach £645 billion.
• 18 June 2020 MPC announces decision to expand the APF with a £100 billion increase to the stock of UK gilts to bring the total stock of asset purchases to £745 billion.
• 5 November 2020 MPC announces decision to expand the APF with a £150 billion increase to the stock of UK gilts to bring the total stock of asset purchases to £895 billion.

Links to additional information related to the APF

• Exchange of letters between the Bank and HM Treasury, 17 February and 3 March 2009.
• Asset Purchase Facility Annual Report 2019/20.