The US dollar is issued by the Federal Reserve System, which describes itself as the central bank of the United States; the Board is the issuing authority for Federal Reserve notes. Pound sterling is issued by the Bank of England, which has been issuing banknotes for over 300 years and reports over 4.98 billion of its notes in circulation, worth about £91.5 billion. Sterling is unusual in having more than one note issuer: six commercial banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland also issue sterling banknotes, and the Bank of England’s role there is to check that those issuers comply with the asset-backing rules rather than to design the notes. The Banking Act 2009 closed that list — no other bank may start issuing. In ISO 4217, USD is numeric 840 and GBP is numeric 826; both carry two minor units.

This is one of the oldest and busiest crossings in the market. The BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey for April 2025 put USD/GBP at 7.6% of global OTC foreign exchange turnover, with sterling on one side of 10.2% of all trades. Trade is substantial and, unusually for the United States, in surplus: the US Census Bureau recorded 2025 US goods exports to the United Kingdom of $97.4 billion against imports of $64.8 billion. Travel is heavy in both directions — the ONS found that the largest number of visits to Great Britain in 2024 came from residents of the United States, at 5.6 million, and the US National Travel and Tourism Office recorded 4.058 million arrivals in the United States from the United Kingdom in 2025.

The Bank of England is unusually direct about this: it states that it does not set the exchange rate for the pound, that the rate "is decided by supply and demand", and that "an exchange rate is just a price". It then names the mechanism — the pound strengthens when more people want to buy pounds; if Bank Rate goes up, higher UK interest rates lead investors to demand more pounds relative to other currencies; and a UK economy viewed as safe and sound attracts more investment, which has the same effect. The Bank’s own objective is inflation at 2% over the medium term, not any particular exchange rate. The Federal Reserve works to the same kind of mandate on its side: maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates.

The Bank of England publishes indicative middle-market spot rates observed by its Foreign Exchange Desk in the London interbank market around 4pm, and disclaims them squarely: "These are statistical data and do not constitute any form of official rates, nor should they be considered to carry any special authority of the Bank of England." Its shorter form is blunter still — the rates "are no more authoritative than that of any commercial bank operating in the London foreign exchange market". Treat any published benchmark as a yardstick for measuring an offer, not as the offer. Sterling notes also differ in status across the UK: the Bank of England states that Bank of England notes are legal tender in England and Wales, while in Scotland and Northern Ireland only Royal Mint coins are. Both currencies settle to two decimal places.