The Bank of England (BoE), the British central bank, Thursday announced that it plans to reduce the number of meetings of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) from once per month to eight times per year starting 2016, one of the reform measures which it describes as the "most significant" set of changes over the past 17 years.

The BoE said that it will adopt a series of significant transparency, accountability and governance enhancements designed to put itself at the "forefront" of international best practice and enhance its ability to fulfill its mission to promote of the good of the people of Britain by maintaining monetary and financial stability.

Accepting recommendations from former Federal Reserve Board Governor Kevin Warsh, the Bank announces the following changes to its practices: alteration of its 2016 meetings schedule to provide scope to move eight policy meetings a year; plan to hold four joint meetings between the Monetary and Financial Policy Committees in 2016; publication of both the minutes of its policy meetings and the Inflation Report at the same time as its policy decisions, starting in August 2015; publication of written transcripts of the meetings at which monetary policy is decided, and related staff policy briefing material, with an 8-year lag, as of the March 2015 policy meeting.

Currently, the bank's MPC holds 12 meetings, usually on the first Thursday of every month, in a year, and publishes the minutes on the third Wednesday. While Inflation Report and the afterward press conference is released and hosted quarterly by the MPC.

Mark Carney, the Governor of the BoE, described the reforms as the most significant set of changes since the MPC was formed in 1997.

He said: "The bank now has immense responsibilities for monetary stability, financial stability and for micro-prudential regulation. And with these responsibilities comes the need for effective transparency, genuine accountability and robust governance."