Speculation has been growing that the Bank of England might announce an extension of its emergency gilt-buying programme which is set to end on Friday. Despite the Treasury moving forward its ‘medium-term fiscal plan’ announcements from November to the end of this month, gilt yields have been rising yet again this week in the lead-up to the end of the scheme. It seemed likely that the Bank’s gilt-buying programme might be extended for another two weeks as a result, in order to buy time before the Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s announcement on 31 October.

But tonight Andrew Bailey put that speculation to bed. Speaking at the Institute of International Finance in Washington DC, the Bank’s Governor confirmed that the emergency intervention is coming to an end on Friday. He also issued a blunt warning to pension funds about the timeline.

‘My message to the funds involved and all the firms involved managing those funds: You’ve got three days left now,’ he said. ‘You’ve got to get this done.’

A fear that the pensions industry was bordering on collapse is what led the Bank to launch its initial £65 billion intervention into the gilt market, less than a week after the ‘mini-Budget’ was announced. It was a major U-turn in a short space of time: from the Bank’s plan just a week earlier to start selling off government debt, to a surprise announcement that it would start buying again. But despite calls from the industry to extend the gilt-buying programme, Bailey is (for now) drawing a line under the current timeline.

Given the Bank’s intervention yesterday – which creates more wriggle room for banks to access liquidity to protect pension funds – tonight’s announcement is slightly less hawkish than the headlines might appear. But this is no doubt one of the strongest interventions we’ve seen from the Bank’s Governor, not just during the past few weeks of market free-fall, but in his role as governor to date.

Bailey is clearly trying to indicate to markets that it can’t get used to this kind of intervention. He is saying that this is not a new kind of lever the Bank can pull, but something that was done as an emergency measure to maintain fiscal stability – what the Bank warned today was in ‘material risk’ if the government couldn’t calm market worries soon. While this could be an argument for extending the scheme, the decision not to keep buying government debt is a sign from the Bank that it is not (as some have accused) working to prop up the government’s fiscal strategy or fund its policies (or mistakes) like it’s 2020 (when government had a free pass to spend).

Bailey’s clear message to the markets tonight should, in theory, take some of the mystery out of what will happen on Friday. But if the markets start spiralling again, don’t rule out more interventions. This is uncharted territory.