The Bank of England increased its budget by 10% for the 2025/26 fiscal year while simultaneously cutting staff, channeling resources toward a planned £300 million investment over three years to modernize its forecasting and data systems.

The spending surge follows an independent review led by former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, which laid bare significant weaknesses in how the Bank predicts inflation and communicates monetary policy.

**What the Bernanke review actually found**

The review, published on 12 April 2024, was commissioned in July 2023 after the Bank’s inflation forecasts proved spectacularly wrong during the 2022 energy crisis. When energy prices spiked and inflation surged across the UK, the Bank’s models failed to keep pace with reality.

Bernanke’s team produced 12 recommendations, primarily targeting the Bank’s forecasting infrastructure and its communication with the public and markets. The Bank committed to implementing all 12.

**What this means for markets and investors**

For crypto markets specifically, there’s nothing in the Bernanke review or the Bank’s response that directly addresses digital assets, stablecoins, or blockchain-related monetary policy. No pivot toward crypto-adjacent policy tools, no mention of digital asset considerations in the review framework.