samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
The need to address such gaps prompted important decisions in the EU with the objective of establishing a new framework for macro-prudential oversight at EU level. Following last week’s approval by the European Parliament of the relevant legislative proposals, this institutional lacuna will be filled at the beginning of 2011 with the establishment of the European Systemic Risk Board as a new EU body responsible for conducting macro-prudential oversight at the European level, with the conferral of specific supporting tasks on the ECB. This is part of a broad comprehensive review of the EU institutional framework for supervision, which includes also the enhancement of micro-prudential supervision through the establishment of three European Supervisory Authorities – ESAs for the banking, securities and insurance sector respectively. The ESRB will be chaired by the ECB President. The membership with voting rights (37) will include all the Governors of the EU central banks (27). This will ensure that the financial stability analysis of the ESRB will benefit from the macro-economic, financial and monetary expertise of the EU central banks. The ESRB will be responsible for the macroprudential oversight of the EU financial system and will have the following main tasks: (i) the identification and prioritisation of systemic risk: (ii) the issuance of risk warning and where appropriate recommendations for remedial action; (iii) the issuance of a warning to the Council of Ministers on the existence of an emergency situation, to trigger further action from national and EU authorities.

Caleb M Fundanga: Setting new standards for cellphone banking Opening remarks by Mr Caleb M Fundanga, Governor of the Bank of Zambia, at the Celpay 2010 Mobile Payments Conference, Lusaka, 27 October 2010. *  *  *  The Chief Executive Officer Celpay International BV The Managing Director – Zain Zambia Limited Managing Director, Celpay Zambia Ltd, Mr Miyanda Mulambo The Conference Chairperson, Mr Maxwell Banda Representatives of Commercial Banks and Financial Institutions present Representatives of International Organizations present Representatives of Zambian business associations Distinguished invited participants Members of the Press Ladies and Gentlemen, It is an honour and privilege for me to officiate at the 2010 Mobile Payments Conference. This year’s conference follows the success of the inaugural 2009 conference and it is therefore my earnest anticipation that as in 2009, you will find the 2010 conference productive and beneficial. The conference provides an excellent opportunity for the exchange of views and sharing of ideas on how to continuously improve the functioning of our financial systems against the backdrop of the global financial turmoil. Mr Chairman, Allow me to begin by commending Celpay Zambia Limited, for making the mobile banking conference an annual event. I hope that the Conference will provide a forum for long-term collaboration in the area of Mobile banking to provide sustainable banking solutions to our people. The Bank of Zambia applauds this initiative which is collaborative and consultative.
At the same time, some measures recently introduced at the national level have also supported the availability of bank financing to SMEs. Specifically, the regulatory definition of an SME has been significantly widened, bringing it in line with that predominating at the European level and so extending the benefits of the lower capital requirements associated with loans to such firms. As a result of the conjunction of the previous developments, most quantitative and qualitative indicators point to a higher dynamism in credit flows in Spain which is linked both to supply and demand factors. For instance, data from the Central Credit Register show an upward trend in the number of credit transactions with non-financial corporations which has been driven by an increase in both loan applications and their approval rates. This evidence is moreover consistent with the results of the survey on the access to finance of firms conducted by the ECB on the basis of a sample of European companies. In particular, since the end of 2013, Spanish SMEs have reported an improvement in their perception of access to credit, a signal which is consistent with that from the Bank Lending Survey. 4. Policy considerations on SME’s financing  Allow me to say now a few words on policy considerations regarding the specific case of small firms’ financing. Undoubtedly, the crisis has been a painful reminder for us that the access of SMEs to finance may deteriorate suddenly and sharply in periods of high uncertainty.

Spain has recently introduced various reforms to improve the effectiveness of bankruptcy procedures, though it is still too early to appreciate in full what additional reforms are needed to further improve those procedures. At the European level, I also welcome the Action Plan on Building a Capital Markets Union recently approved by the European Commission. This project envisages some measures to overcome information barriers that could inhibit SME lending. That includes, following the Spanish example, the strengthening of the feedback given by banks declining SME applications and the promotion of systems facilitating the availability for investors of comprehensive information on SMEs. Moreover, the Action Plan also foresees actions to reactivate securitisations markets. Let me stress the importance of this specific set of measures. For smaller firms, for which direct access to markets is not feasible due to problems of scale, bank credit will remain the predominant financing source. Therefore, an adequate availability of funds for SMEs requires banks to have sufficient means and capacity to properly conduct their intermediation activity. In that regard, the development of the securitisation markets seems a promising avenue to facilitate credit risk management by banks and, therefore, to support lending. Indeed, securitisation markets activity was seriously impaired after the subprime crisis due to the stigma attached to any kind of asset-backed securities, and the lack of recognition by investors and regulators of the specific quality of each product.
However, this is exactly what the proposed measures on convertible capital take into account. They create better conditions, so that capital structure will have less influence on a bank’s financing costs. Independently of this finding, it is argued that the reduction of the state subsidy – which is one aim of the new regulation – will lead to an increase in lending rates for clients. There are various arguments against this. On the one hand, structural factors within Switzerland’s banking sector limit the big banks’ scope for setting prices even today: There is a sufficient  5  Cf. Modigliani, F. and Miller, M. H., 1958. The Cost of Capital, Corporation Finance and the Theory of Investment. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  number of domestic lending providers in the market, which keeps margins relatively low. On the other hand, the reduction in the subsidy will tend to lead to even more competition. The current disadvantage suffered by other banks active in the domestic market is lessened – the package of measures thus levels the playing field in the Swiss customer business segment. In this environment, an increase in lending rates by the big banks would lead to a loss of market share. A reduction in the subsidy is therefore more likely to manifest itself in lower returns on equity or lower compensation for the bank management than in higher lending rates. Empirically, there is no connection between the capital ratio and the credit volume, either.

4  BIS Review 59/2004  Developments in recent years With hindsight, we can certainly see that the Riksbank has not always succeeded in predicting inflation correctly and that monetary policy therefore could have been conducted somewhat differently on a number of occasions in the past ten years. This applies, for example, to 1995 and perhaps also to 1999-2000, even though the latter period’s probably too low interest rates did not have any consequences since the upswing in the economy and inflation was broken when the equity price bubble burst. This has also been the case in the past few years. Since the second half of 2003 inflation has been below target, and it is likely that it will continue to be so for at least another half year or so. This suggests that interest rates could have been lower in primarily 2002 and 2003. One conclusion from this is that we must deepen our understanding of factors such as productivity and of the impact on international prices of tough global competition. In these respects we are essentially in the same boat as other forecasters. As far as we can see, no Swedish forecasters have presented forecasts that have differed markedly from our own. In discussions with colleagues abroad, moreover, I have noted that all have been surprised by the low international inflation in the past year.
In particular, there have been substantial declines in industrial goods prices over the past year, while services prices, traditionally prone to very high rates of increase, have eased substantially and have even been growing at a lower rate than in the euro area in recent months. Admittedly, this negative inflation differential is very closely linked to the weakness of demand in Spain. But it is a promising sign of the competitiveness on which the pick-up in activity should be based, so it is important that this price moderation should be preserved in the near future. As I said earlier, there are two adverse consequences of the way in which these imbalances are being corrected: the excessive toll imposed on employment by the crisis, owing to the poor functioning endemic in our labour market, and the deterioration of public finances. Job destruction began with great virulence in construction and subsequently spread to manufacturing industry and market services. It was centred above all on temporary contracts, given the prevailing duality in the labour market. In recent months employment has continued to fall, although the State Fund for Local Investment has slackened the effect. The unemployment rate skyrocketed from 8% in 2007 to almost 18% in the third quarter this year, when it stabilised due partly to the strong slowdown in the growth rate of the labour force. This slower labour force growth was the consequence of part of the population being discouraged by poor employment prospects and of the return of some immigrants to their countries of origin.

Yet the considerable slack in productive capacity and the sluggish recovery in demand and activity across Europe suggest that inflation rates, while positive, will hold at moderate levels in the near future, with no risk of deflation discernible for the moment. Given the incipient pick-up in activity and the continuation of very modest levels of both actual and expected inflation, the official interest rate for the euro area, at 1% since last May, is at the appropriate level. Switching our focus to the Spanish economy, the decline in output in 2009 is not going to be sharper than in other countries, but the contrast with the growth rates of the ten previous years is more patent. The fact is, as I have explained on other occasions, the Spanish recession shares features with other countries, but has its own hallmarks, such as the real estate adjustment and the behaviour of the labour market. The powerful external contractionary forces generated by the international crisis compounded the internal adjustment on which the Spanish economy had embarked, exacerbating the decline in domestic spending and employment. The latest figures indicate that, as in the euro area and the rest of the world, the sharpest phase of contraction in the Spanish economy is now behind us. According to the data released some days back by the INE, activity slipped once more in the third quarter, unlike in other developed countries, although it did so at a quarter-on-quarter rate of 0.3%.
In fact, we can have world-class policies, but if we don’t have a culture where people feel comfortable bringing their whole selves to work, rules alone won’t get us to where we need to be. This is true of every element of diversity and inclusion. In a culture where taking extended leave damages your career prospects, a generous parental leave policy won’t make up for that. In a culture where people don’t feel that their voices are welcome, few will speak up. In a culture that fails to embrace differences, we won’t reap the benefits of diversity. 1/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  The data are clear. Nearly half of LGBT people are closeted at work, and the top reason LGBT workers don’t report negative comments they hear about LGBT employees is they don’t believe that anything will be done about it.3 This gets to the heart of why the “inclusion” piece of diversity and inclusion is essential, and a personal priority. Obviously, there’s a moral imperative for diversity, and numerous studies have shown the benefits to both productivity and the bottom line.4 But for me, it’s my experiences as both an academic and a policymaker that have made inclusion so important. Economics is a profession that has a glaring diversity issue. As economists, we have not done enough to create a diverse profession or an inclusive culture. When I’m sitting in a room and see a bunch of people who look and sound the same, I know it’s a problem.

The wider use of commodity murabahah transactions will also add breadth and depth to the Islamic money market as it facilitates a more efficient distribution of money-market liquidity and expands the range of instruments that market participants can actively transact in. We are pleased to announce that Bank Negara Malaysia will soon be adding murabahah-based transactions to our already diverse range of policy instruments to manage short-term liquidity in the Malaysian Islamic inter-bank money market. The Bank Negara Malaysia's murabahah basedtransactions may either utilise global or Malaysian commodities as the underlying transaction, and in the future, other Shariah-approved assets similar to the Ijarah sukuk notes. The widespread usage of this globally practised financing instrument would allow market participation by a more extensive investor base, including those from the Middle-East. Product innovation must be a continuous and deliberate part of the process of market development. We are therefore firmly committed to developing the capabilities in Islamic finance and strengthening the global pool of talent and expertise in Islamic finance to increase the potential for this to happen. As part of the initiative to meet this objective, we have established the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance, INCEIF, in March this year to offer professional certification programs in Islamic finance, in addition to, Masters and Doctorate programs. Bank Negara Malaysia has also recently  2  BIS Review 74/2006  made available a Shariah Scholarship Award and Shariah Research Grant, available to Malaysian and non-Malaysians seeking to pursue research studies in Islamic finance.
The experience of recent years suggests that each of these exceptions to the assumptions on which the theory of international trade is based is plausible. This would perhaps explain why the past decade was characterised, at least until the outbreak of the crisis, by a sustained rate of growth among emerging economies but a decreasing rate for advanced economies. It also explains the increase in income dispersion among the latter. If economic policies ignore such developments and continue to aim for unchanged income and consumption dynamics, they will create internal and external imbalances in the economy which will build up over time. Such imbalances may also exist for a prolonged period of time, owing to the financial system and the ability to issue debt securities in the national currency. But, by definition, what is not sustainable will sooner or later generate instability, with negative repercussions for the whole economy. The way out of this crisis depends on the ability, in advanced economies, to align the expectations and behaviour of agents with the new global context. This does not mean passively accepting the consequences, but avoiding side-stepping them through policies which put off the problem until later, in an attempt to win time. Which means, in other words, shifting the emphasis from macroeconomic to structural policies. These problems will be tackled not just by individual countries but also at the international level.

We also see wages continuing to increase in the future. Now, you really asked me specifically the question of whether corporations and labour – and I'm using that term in a generic, comprehensive way – will find the terms under which they don't contribute to fuelling even more inflation that would call on us to take harder monetary policy measures. This is the assumption that we make. I think economically it is justifiable, it is rational, but of course humans are humans. It's going to be for the parties around the table to actually determine what they do going forward in terms of allocating profits and organising these social relationships. What they can be certain of in their discussion is that the European Central Bank will take all  8/10  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  necessary measures to return inflation to 2%. That, they can count on, and we are confident that we will get there so I hope it helps in their deliberation going forward. The persistency of inflation, as I said, has a lot to do with this unit labour cost that I have mentioned earlier on. This is really the strong – I don't want to use sticky component, because it is going to be persistent, and we know it. Numbers will continue to be high in the months to come, by the way, because we believe that services are going to continue to grow strongly. Labour-intensive services will. Contact-intensive services will continue to grow strongly.
If a particular security is scarce in the market, we will presumably not be shown offers at attractive terms, and hence we will not end up removing additional supply of that security. 9  The Desk tends to avoid conducting operations on days that coincide with FOMC announcements and on days that are known to have lighter liquidity conditions. 10  The Desk has begun publishing additional information from its operations, including information about the prices paid for each security, on a monthly basis. In addition, under the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Federal Reserve will publish additional information about its open market operations, including the individual securities purchased, the transaction prices and the counterparty, with a two-year lag for all transactions subsequent to the legislation. 11  Implementing the program over an eight-month period would not be expected to significantly reduce the speed or magnitude of its effects on financial conditions and, ultimately, on the real economy under the view that the program’s effects arise from the expected stock of our holdings rather than the flow of our purchases. Under this view, financial conditions react immediately to the announcement of the program, bringing forward its effects on financial conditions. This view provides policymakers with some flexibility regarding the amount of time to implement the total amount of purchases. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  The flexibility of this procedure can be seen in the patterns of our purchases over time.

The Bank’s supervisory body - the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)– surveyed banks in the UK last year and found that almost three quarters are starting to treat the risks from climate change like other financial risks – rather than viewing them simply as a corporate social responsibility issue.7 Banks have begun considering the most immediate physical risks to their business models – from the exposure of mortgage books to flood risk and the impact of extreme weather events on sovereign risk. And banks have started to assess exposures to transition risks in anticipation of climate action. This includes exposures to carbon-intensive sectors, consumer loans secured on diesel vehicles, and buy-to-let lending given new energy efficiency requirements. To embed essential climate risk management skills recommended by the TCFD in financial decision making, the Bank of England has set out its supervisory expectations for institutions in the world’s leading international financial centre with respect to:8   Governance, where firms will be expected to embed fully the consideration of climate risks into governance frameworks, including at board level, and assign responsibility for oversight of these risks to specific senior role holders;    Risk management, where firms will need to consider climate change in line with their boardapproved risk appetite;    The regular use of scenario analysis to test strategic resilience; and    Developing and maintain an appropriate disclosure of climate risks.
And when, in the choice between two repo-rate paths, the majority of the members of the Executive Board choose a path that provides poorer target attainment for both inflation and resource utilisation, this may undeniably give the impression that monetary policy has more targets than inflation and resource utilisation. 1 If, in addition, repo-rate increases are justified with reference to factors such as high growth, house prices, household indebtedness, the low level of interest rates, possible financial imbalances in the future and so on, there is a risk that this impression will be strengthened. If so, monetary policy will become unclear. 1  At the monetary policy meeting in June 2010, the repo rate was increased despite the fact that the CPIF forecast was below 2 per cent and the forecasts for all the measures of resource utilisation were below a normal level. An unchanged repo rate would have entailed a CPIF forecast closer to the target and forecasts for resource utilisation closer to a normal level. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Third, I would like to explain in more detail why I entered a reservation at the latest monetary policy meeting and how I arrived at a significantly lower repo-rate path than the path in the main scenario. The Riksbank conducts flexible inflation targeting – but what does this mean in practice?

22 In addition to making asset purchases, these central banks also developed programs targeting bank lending  channels, given that their capital markets are smaller relative to the banking system compared to the United States. 23 For example, 5-year Fannie Mae debt securities, which had traded, on average, 42 basis points above similar-  maturity Treasury securities in 2007, traded as high as 159 basis points above Treasury securities in November 2008. Similarly, current coupon agency MBS spreads averaged 137 basis points above similar-maturity Treasury securities in 2007; that spread was as high as 288 basis points in November 2008. Both of these spread levels in November 2008 were at or near the highest spread levels in many decades of available data. 24 On November 25, 2008, the FOMC announced purchases of $ billion in agency debt and $ billion in  agency MBS. On March 18, 2009, this program was modified to include a total of $ billion in agency debt and $ billion in agency MBS, as well as $ billion in longer-term Treasury securities. 25 Federal Reserve Board of Governors press release, November 25, 2008. 26 See Hancock and Passmore (2011) 27 See Gagnon, Raskin, Remache and Sack (2010). 28 Note that at that time the Federal Reserve was already in the middle of the maturity extension program (MEP)  which was selling shorter-maturity Treasury securities and purchasing longer-maturity Treasury securities. When the MEP expired in December, purchases of $ billion per month in Treasury securities were added to the LSAP.