The UK government built a $146 billion war chest to stop a run on the pound in the case of a 'no-deal' Brexit, Bank of America says

The UK government built a $146 billion war chest in the fourth quarter to defend against an anticipated run on the pound if Britain left the EU with no deal, according to a foreign exchange reserve analysis by Bank of America. BofA analysts Kamal Sharma and Sebastien Cross called the buildup 'unprecedented' among the larger global economies, in a note to clients seen by Business Insider. 'In the fourth quarter, UK FX reserves rose $23 billion to $146 billion (gross reserves),' they wrote. 'In nominal terms, this is a 19% quarter-on-quarter increase in reserves and the largest quarterly increase since our series began in 2000. The scale of this pace of reserve accumulation compared to other G10 economies is unprecedented.'