GBP strengthened against its major rivals in the European session on Thursday as market participants assessed the outcomes of the Bank of England's (BoE) first monetary policy meeting this year. The members of the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted by a majority of 7-2 to keep Bank Rate at 0.75 percent and unanimously to maintain an asset-purchase program at GBP 435 bln.

In its policy statement, the BoE noted that the UK's economy had picked up since December's election, and the near-term uncertainties facing businesses and households had receded.

The Bank also said that its "policy may need to reinforce the expected recovery in UK GDP growth should the more positive signals from recent indicators of global and domestic activity not be sustained or should indicators of domestic prices remain relatively weak" but added that "if the economy recovered broadly in line with its latest projections, some modest tightening of policy may be needed".