Fitch Revises the Bank of England's Outlook to Negative; affirms at 'AA-'

Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlook on the Bank of England's (BoE) Long-Term Foreign-Currency (LTFC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to Negative from Stable and affirmed the IDR at 'AA-'.

Fitch reports that it has ''revised the Outlook on the UK's sovereign rating of 'AA-' to Negative from Stable. The BoE's Long-Term Foreign-Currency IDR is directly aligned with that of the UK sovereign. The BoE is the monetary arm of the UK sovereign and as such its credit profile is aligned with that of the sovereign government.

Fitch currently only rates the BoE's three-year maturity US dollar bonds. The rating does not apply to typical central bank liabilities of the BoE, such as bank notes or commercial bank reserves that are monetary liabilities rather than rateable debt.

The BoE's rating reflects the bank's central role in the UK and international financial system. The rating is underpinned by support from the UK sovereign. The near certainty of sovereign support for the BoE derives from its national strategic importance, as well as its ownership by the UK Treasury.''

GBP/USD update

Meanwhile, the price of cable is bearish while below the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level near 1.1350 and there are prospects of a downside continuation for the day ahead: