Financial Policy Committee

The European Central Bank is taking part in a hearing of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, where lawmakers question central bank officials on monetary policy, inflation and eurozone financial stability. Such hearings are a regular part of the ECB's accountability to the Parliament, giving MEPs a chance to scrutinise decisions affecting the euro area economy.

Catherine Mann, a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, has publicly criticised the monetary policy response to the economic shock stemming from Iran. Her comments, reported by financial news outlets, suggest disagreement within the Bank over how policymakers have handled the situation. Markets and analysts tend to scrutinise MPC dissent closely for signals about the future direction of UK interest rates.

The Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee published the record of its quarterly policy meeting on Wednesday, discussing corporate debt issuance tied to technology investment alongside energy shocks and sovereign bond volatility. Observers say the move signals that large-scale tech capital spending has become a macroeconomic concern in its own right, placing corporate borrowing for technology squarely within the central bank's financial stability monitoring.