❓WHAT HAPPENED: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is emphatically denying a report by The Financial Times, which suggests he is pushing for the Treasury Department to exert a level of control over the Federal Reserve more akin to the British Treasury’s oversight of the Bank of England.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the Federal Reserve, and Financial Times journalists.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Statement released on March 27, refuting the claims made by The Financial Times.
💬KEY QUOTE: “By publishing this explicitly false story, the FT has officially become tabloid trash for market participants.” – Scott Bessent
🎯IMPACT: Bessent accuses the FT of fabricating a false narrative and damaging journalistic credibility.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is emphatically denying a report by The Financial Times, which suggests he is pushing for the Treasury Department to exert a level of control over the Federal Reserve more akin to the British Treasury’s oversight of the Bank of England. The preservation of central bank independence from direct executive branch intervention has long been the political standard in the United States, with Bessent publicly declaring that the relationship should not be changed, despite claims to the contrary from anonymous financial industry executives speaking with The Financial Times.
“By publishing this explicitly false story, [The Financial Times] has officially become tabloid trash for market participants,” Secretary Bessent wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “Despite my direct, on-the-record denial of ever having advocated, explored, or espoused the idea that Chancellor-Bank of England statute serving as a prototype for a Treasury-Federal Reserve relationship, FT journalists manufactured a story with the headline, ‘Scott Bessent praised Bank of England as model for tighter oversight of the Federal Reserve,'” he continued.
“Their mendacious assertion is based on vague statements from unnamed ‘financial industry executives familiar with the matter,'” Bessent stated. “In short, FT has literally manufactured an entirely fake policy position for me and the Administration. Other than furthering a maliciously false narrative of dysfunction and divisiveness, it baffles the mind as to why they would shred their already diminished journalistic credibility.”
While U.S. presidents, including Donald J. Trump, have often used the public bully pulpit to push for or against certain Federal Reserve monetary policy and lending decisions, they have no direct way to intervene in the central bank’s policies. However, in the United Kingdom, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)—which sets monetary policy—can be subject to direct intervention by His Majesty’s Treasury, with the approval of Parliament.
Additionally, the British central bank is answerable to the Treasury on a number of policy decisions, having to provide an open letter outlining future policy plans each month if the country’s two percent inflation target is not met.
By publishing this explicitly false story, the @FT has officially become tabloid trash for market participants.
Despite my direct, on-the-record denial of ever having advocated, explored, or espoused the idea that Chancellor-Bank of England statute serving as a prototype for a… https://t.co/VmQKvGcsZG
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) March 27, 2026
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