samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
But today, the many international conventions and the resultant resolutions that have taken place, post 9/11 to which we have all become signatories, consolidates our international obligations in the fight against terrorism. That indicates to us, that we are not alone in this struggle. In fact, today, we witness a closing of ranks amongst all the countries of the world to fight terrorism. While these efforts are commendable, all of us would also have to grudgingly admit that, notwithstanding the enhanced global counter-measures, terrorism worldwide is still on the increase. According to a US report released recently, an increase of 29% has been recorded last year in  2  BIS Review 48/2007  worldwide terror attacks, which have become even deadlier. As a result, global terrorism deaths have recorded a 40% increase last year. In Afghanistan alone which is represented here at this Forum, the number of terror attacks have almost doubled. The self destruction in the form of suicide bombers that Sri Lanka’s Tamil terrorists launched in recent times, have now become commonplace in many parts of the world. Such incidents are almost a daily occurrence, making human life a cheap commodity as a means to an end in the armoury of terrorists. In the meantime, the economic effects of terrorism in almost all our countries, is also becoming very challenging. In this regard, the recent air attacks by Tiger Terrorists may have opened a new chapter in the book of international terrorism.

In the years 2005 and 2006 three key laws were enacted, namely, The Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Financing Act, The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and the Financial Transactions Reporting Act. The FTR Act created the institutional body of the FIU within the Central Bank, with regulatory powers and a mandate, inter alia, to formulate policies and guidelines to meet the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 40 + 9 recommendations. The enactment of the necessary AML/CFT legislation in Sri Lanka, early last year and the establishment of the Financial Intelligence Unit soon after, demonstrates Sri Lanka’s strong commitment to the global efforts to fight financial crime and terrorism. Naturally, therefore, in this effort, the areas of vulnerability have been identified and adequate measures taken to deal effectively with the weaknesses. The stakeholders also need to be adequately equipped to discharge their responsibilities effectively. We therefore, see today’s effort at building capacity and processes, as one of the most important pre-requisites for the implementation of an effective AML/CFT regime, and we commend the World Bank and all others who are involved in this endeavour. My dear friends, Sri Lanka has been ever mindful of its obligations in this regard and has been a pioneer in this field. Long before the advent of the AML and CFT legislation, certain safeguards to insulate our financial system from money launderers and terrorists were in fact put in place by us. This was done through legislation such as the Exchange Control Act, the Banking Act and the Customs Ordinance.
Spencer Dale: Inflation targeting – learning the lessons from the financial crisis Speech by Mr Spencer Dale, Executive Director and Chief Economist of the Bank of England, at the Society of Business Economists’ Annual Conference, London, 23 June 2009. I would like to thank Rohan Churm, Jens Larsen and Rob Wood for their considerable help in preparing these remarks. The views expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of other members of the Monetary Policy Committee. *  *  *  We are in the midst of a deep recession. Unlike recessions of the late twentieth century, this twenty-first century version is not the result of deliberate, but belated, attempts to slow the expansion of money spending in order to bring down inflation from very high levels. Inflation is close to the Government’s 2% target. This recession has at its heart a crisis in the banking system; a crisis that has strangled the supply of credit and undermined public confidence. For the first time in fifty years, the total amount of money spent in our economy during the first quarter of this year was lower than a year earlier. The era of “Great Stability” is over. The Great Stability followed hot on the heels of the introduction of the inflation targeting framework for monetary policy. Some attributed part of the improvement in economic performance to better policymaking. The abrupt end to that stability has, in turn, led the inflation targeting framework to be questioned.

There were manifest conflicts of interest, originators and brokers had limited interest in ensuring continued monitoring of products and credit ratings were inflated, conveying a false sense of security. A euphoric bubble thus developed, based, in Alan Greenspan’s words, on “the complexity of the interactions of asset markets and the economy”, and which concealed a massive global under-pricing of risk. Market participants seem to have been aware of the growing risks but were unwilling to retrench. You might recall Citibank’s Chuck Prince’s memorable words during the onset of the crisis that “as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing”. Market players failed to appreciate the speed at which demand could evaporate and risk aversion could increase. This soon resulted in record-high risk premia, seized-up interbank markets, acute liquidity and credit shortages, bank failures and a widespread loss of confidence. Meanwhile the high degree of financial market integration had created the premise for a simultaneous build-up of systemic risk. Financial institutions did not internalise the costs arising from the too-big-to-fail and too-interconnected syndrome. Central banks had been monitoring these trends, but it turned out that the regulatory tools were not designed to address systemic risk. Neither was the strength of the feedback loop between the financial  BIS Review 67/2010  1  system and the economy fully anticipated. Unfortunately, these all proved to be critical weaknesses.
It is for these reasons that changes in the exchange rate level are only a last resort option for an economy like ours. It should be clear, therefore, that isolationist policies and expansionary fiscal, monetary and exchange rate measures cannot be relied upon to generate sustainable economic growth. There are indeed no easy fixes. The only viable option is to compete successfully in the global market-place. I believe that this objective should be approached by pursuing a virtuous triangle of mutually-reinforcing policies: i)  increasing the amount of resources available in the economy and the efficiency with which they are employed, by cutting costs and raising productivity;  ii)  focusing on the market niches in which we can excel;  iii)  ensuring the best international market access for our products and services. On the last of these points, there is at present a lively debate on the pros and cons of different arrangements with our main trading partner, the EU. While not wishing to enter the debate at this point, I cannot fail to observe that the uncertainty surrounding this issue is causing considerable harm to Malta’s economic prospects. It is in our common interest that the direction the country is to take be clarified as soon as possible. And this within a realisation that with Malta’s main competitors themselves seeking closer trade ties with the EU, we cannot afford to fall behind.

I would like to present a briefing on accomplishments achieved during the last year, the most important of which were: The Kingdom achieved tangible progress in its AML procedures, in the framework of the follow-up process that followed the Mutual Assessment Process. The Kingdom submitted the First Follow-up Report to the MENAFATF in February 2012. The report includes the new and updated legislations issued and the actions taken to cope with the implementation of all international standards and practices issued recently. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  The Kingdom amended the Anti-Money Laundering Law issued by Royal Decree No. (M/31) dated 11/5/1433H to cover many domestic and international requirements and developments. Its Implementing Regulation was updated as well. Here, I would like to highlight that the national AML legislation was finalized in line with international developments and standards. The Kingdom hosted a number of conferences, symposiums and training courses on combating money laundering. The most important of which was the Fifteenth MENA-FATF General Meeting held in April 2012 in Jeddah. In September 2012, the Investigation and Public Prosecution Authority, in cooperation with MENA-FATF, also hosted a symposium on “the Role and Responsibility of Public Prosecution Agencies and Judicial Organs in Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing”. In September 2012, SAMA, in collaboration with the Secretariat General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, organized a workshop on Updating FATF Recommendations to Combat Money Laundering, Terrorism Financing and Weapons Proliferation.
Unemployment appears to have peaked at just below 8% of the labour force whereas  1  2  Total employment grew by 1.4% in the year to Dec-Feb 2011, according to the latest Labour Force Survey, while private sector employment is estimated to have risen by 1.9% over the course of 2010. This compares with average employment growth of around 1% per annum between 1997 and 2007. BIS central bankers’ speeches  it rose to over 10% following the early 1980s and early 1990s recessions. And I am pleased to note that despite the recession, the number of people employed in the UK is now back above the level recorded when I joined the MPC in October 2006.2 For me, it is not the growth or employment performance of the UK which has been disappointing over the period of economic recovery, but the persistence of relatively high inflation. The primary responsibility of the Monetary Policy Committee within our current policy framework is to maintain price stability – defined in terms of a 2% target for CPI inflation. Yet the current level of inflation is 4% and the most likely scenario is that it will rise further as we move through this year. And this is not just a one-off episode. Over the 55 months I have spent so far as a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, inflation has been above target more than five times as often as it has been below – 46 months compared to 9 months.

Financial union is essential in a single currency area where cross-border capital flows can lead to credit booms and other imbalances – and where the negative effects of a bust can spread rapidly to other members. One essential part of financial union is a single banking supervisor. As you know, the European Commission has recently proposed that the new supervisor should be based at the ECB. This is important to ensure consistency across the euro area and to prevent regulatory capture. Day-to-day tasks, however, would remain with national supervisors who have the competence and resources to implement them. But financial union does not have to imply the pooling of deposit guarantee schemes, an issue that I know is of concern in this country. Organising and funding deposit guarantee schemes can remain a national responsibility, with comparable effectiveness. In the longer term, all four pillars are equally important. They are the bedrock for the enormous potential of the single currency for Europe’s citizens. Completing economic and monetary union would give citizens greater security against any future crisis. It would create the foundations for sustainable growth and employment. For all citizens of the euro area, it is therefore essential that Europe’s leaders stay on course. Thank you for your attention. BIS central bankers’ speeches  5
If the slightest exchange rate movement will prompt an intervention persistently, the market’s perception of this greater stability of the exchange rate may limit the power of monetary policy. For example, fighting an asset price bubble, by raising the interest rate while intervening at the same time to prevent a larger appreciation, may be counterproductive, because the incentives for carry trade positions may exacerbate the bubble and the exchange rate appreciation itself. 3  3  This may explain the results about exchange rate instability presented in Batini and Nelson (2000), when the exchange rate is subject to bubbles which are dealt with via the interest rate. BIS Review 68/2009  5  Final remarks Financial stability must be preserved with an adequate regulatory system. Agencies must analyze the strength of institutions, while central banks must evaluate the system’s overall stability. Regulators and central banks must closely cooperate and work in the effort of maintaining the integrity of the financial system. Regulating specific institutions is not enough, because interconnections exist that could derive in a systemic crisis. The current crisis proves that the regulatory scope must encompass every agent with a systemic importance. So a proper macro-prudential regulatory system is needed. This is a system still in debate, particularly regarding the instruments that must be applied to achieve this function. A first set of instruments has to do with capital adequacy. However, this is not enough, and it is no trivial to judge the soundness of the financial system by its capital and leverage levels.

Such developments can create difficulties for emerging markets through spillover effects, large and persistent capital inflows, and the risk of sudden stop and capital reversals. So, it is in this context that IMF surveillance on emerging markets, in addition to the new directions that we have discussed, should pay attention to the sources of the externally-induced risk and vulnerabilities, and to assist members, through Fund policy advice, on how best to prepare. To help emerging market members become better prepared for these risks, I have a few suggestions to make on the Fund’s current efforts. First, for the new direction on financial sector surveillance to be relevant for crisis prevention, it is important that the key systemically important economies participate. As with FSAP, this is an area that is likely to be a challenge. Ideally, most systemically important economies and those with potential financial vulnerabilities should participate if the new direction were to have a strong relevance to the global surveillance objectives. The second suggestion is in financial markets surveillance. Again, if surveillance is to have a strong relevance for emerging markets, we will need to have a more policy-oriented surveillance of the global financial markets, focusing on the key financial flows, and on keeping members informed of what the Fund sees as the current trends and risks in the global financial markets.
And parallel migration by both the Bank and the NPSO will encourage widespread adoption of ISO 20022, a precondition for unlocking these benefits. We encourage stakeholders to take this opportunity to feed into the process and help shape the future of payments in the UK. So, what has been achieved? The consolidation and transition of Bacs and the Faster Payments Service (FPS) to the NPSO has been st  delivered. On the 1 of May of this year, the NPSO formally took over responsibility for the operation of these 1  See: The Bank of England’s supervision of financial market infrastructures – Annual Report 2018. Which manages the paper processing system for cheques and the recently launched Image Clearing System. 3 See: public statement on the commencement of the Bank’s direct delivery of CHAPS. 4 See: ISO 20022 consultation paper: a global standard to modernise UK payments. 2  3  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  3  two systemically important payment systems and was brought within the supervisory remit of the Bank. It has been operational for almost two months now, and, with the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company to be integrated shortly, another key milestone on this journey will soon be achieved. Between these retail payment systems, the NPSO will be responsible for the processing of £ trillion payments each year, almost two and half times the UK’s GDP. I think we would all agree that its continued resilience and smooth functioning is a matter of primary concern.

In line with this, today I would like to share how we at the Bank of England are looking to the future to ensure our systemically important payment systems are robust and resilient, their underlying infrastructure is best in class, and our regulatory toolkit remains fit for purpose and future-proof. NPSO: A mandate to be greater than the sum of its parts Payment systems, by their very nature, bring together participants that would otherwise transact bilaterally. Crucially, by doing so, they promote increased efficiency and resiliency that is enjoyed by all. They manage  2  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  2  risks, eliminate intermediate arrangements and related costs at the back-end of the payments value chain, and provide functionality that enables innovation to proliferate at the front-end. As described in our Annual 1  Report this year , financial market infrastructure, including payment systems, exist to reduce the risks and costs involved when participants make payments. And this leads me to the NPSO and its creation. The PSF, established by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) in March 2015, proposed the consolidation of the UK retail interbank payment system operators: Bacs 2  and Faster Payments, as well as the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company . The Bank was engaged closely with the work of the Forum and was supportive of this change as we could see the potential for the consolidated scheme to be greater than the sum of its constituent parts.
Although the provision of foreign currency liquidity through reserves was clearly important during the crisis, most studies seem to support the conclusion that dollar swap lines made the pivotal difference, especially when they were uncapped vis-à-vis some key central banks. To a significant degree, this was the domestic LOLR process replicated at the international level. Does this mean that we have the solution? At the conceptual level, yes, but at the practical level, maybe not. At present, such swap lines are not a permanent and reliable feature of the international monetary system, and there are important unresolved governance issues, such as who should decide which countries get a swap line and which do not. Let us now move back to the EU/EEA level, where we have the contradiction between the European Passport, on the one hand, and national supervision, a national safety net of deposit insurance and LOLR, and national crisis management and resolution regimes, on the other. The crisis revealed that this framework is deeply flawed. First, it ignores the FX liquidity risk that I discussed earlier. Banks from small countries with independent currencies are more exposed to this risk than, for instance, banks within the euro area. Second, country size and bank size relative to countries are important factors in the viability of bailout options. The Icelandic banks are a good example of this. Keeping in mind what I have said about the fault lines in cross-border banking, let us go back to the collapse of the Icelandic banks.

While the existing arrangement has worked well, experience in other developed markets has also demonstrated that such a facility is particularly useful in times of unusual market volatility, as this enhances confidence that liquidity needs in the banking system will be met. 18. Hence, to enhance the robustness of the system, MAS will widen participation in the Standing Facility to MEPS+ participating banks, subject to necessary documentation. The PSA/ISMA Global Master Repurchase Agreement continues to be a requirement for banks to access the borrowing facility which will remain collateralised against Singapore Government Securities. We will provide more details on this to the banks over the next few weeks. Corporate governance, market conduct 19. Apart from dealing with issues relating to the safety and soundness of banks, and the stability of financial system, MAS has also been working on improving the responsiveness of our rules, as well as on improving corporate governance and market conduct. 20. MAS is proposing amendments to the Securities and Futures Act and the Financial Advisers Act. The amendments aim to facilitate new business activities and products in response to market needs, to enhance the market misconduct enforcement framework and to fine-tune the legislation to achieve greater clarity, consistency and operational efficiency. Policy and legislative consultation on the proposed amendments to the Acts have already been conducted. We will table the Amendment Bills within the next few months. 21.
Over the past few years the NBR has used all its available instruments to fulfil its tasks in the area of achieving price stability, seeking to ensure a low volatility of the exchange rate – an exchange rate which is set by the market. In short, all our steps have focused on maintaining stability and rebuilding confidence. In conclusion, over the past 10–15 years most economists have discovered good governance – with its four pillars: transparency, accountability, predictability and participation – as a major determinant of economic growth. Thus, economic governance implies the need to ensure stable, transparent and predictable rules that encourage competition and fair access to public services. It is achieved through a country’s public and private sector institutions and the civil society. Moreover, the recent crisis, which today wreaks havoc given the structural interdependencies worldwide, has underscored the need for an in-depth reform of economic governance at global levels. As Mr. Jean-Claude Trichet, the former ECB President, said, in light of the global crisis, “International interdependencies are too large for purely national or regional rules to be optimal and there is a clear need to strengthen global governance, in particular in the financial field.” I would also like to share with you a few thoughts about corporate governance. I’m sure the debates on this topic will be comprehensive during all these days and you, as specialists, will be able to unveil its very generous facets.

But in view of persistently low external interest rates, such a policy would likely have resulted in a sharp appreciation of the Norwegian krone, and inflation and activity in the Norwegian economy would have fallen to too low a level. The weak external environment is thereby also contributing to keeping Norwegian interest rates low. With firmly anchored inflation expectations, Norges Bank can today give weight to stabilising economic developments when setting the interest rate. Inflation targeting has become more flexible. We have chosen to take a long-term approach to bringing inflation back up. But we will not lose sight of the inflation target. Should the outlook for inflation or growth weaken considerably, there will still be room for manoeuvre to counteract such developments through monetary policy. Monetary policy in the light of new banking sector regulation The financial crisis taught us some important lessons. First, the crisis illustrated that low and stable inflation is not sufficient to ensure financial stability. Second, the crisis clearly revealed shortcomings in the regulatory framework for banks. As a result, banking and financial regulation is now undergoing change worldwide. Regulation and supervision are the authorities’ most important instruments to prevent financial instability. In March, the Government presented a legislative proposal on new capital adequacy requirements for banks. The proposal is in line with the EU’s new regulatory framework. A key element in the new framework is capital buffers that banks will be required to hold in addition to the minimum requirement. This will increase banks’ loss-absorbing capacity.