samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
On the face of it, these add up to a substantial change to the Bank’s responsibilities; and to our operations and staffing needs. But in fact our underlying objectives as a central bank - what we term our three core purposes - have remained remarkably unchanged. These are, first, maintaining the integrity and value of the currency; secondly, maintaining the stability of the financial system; and, thirdly, seeking to ensure the effectiveness of the UK’s financial services. I would like to say something about each of the three core purposes in turn. Core purpose: monetary policy As regards monetary stability, as you all know, the Bank was given monetary independence in May 1997 when the Monetary Policy Committee was established to set interest rates. The structure of the Committee was later set out in the Bank of England Act 1998 and the Bank’s independence in pursuit of monetary policy is enshrined there. To quote directly, our objective is “to maintain price stability and, subject to that, to support the economic policy of HM Government including its objectives for growth and employment”. The balance implied in this objective is important. First,although the Bank has operational independence, the inflation target - RPIX (that is, retail prices excluding mortgage interest payments) of 2.5% - is set by the Government and confirmed in the Budget each year. And this target is symmetrical. We on the MPC are as concerned about inflation being below 2.5% as we are about it being above 2.5%.

Among the measures that have been introduced are: •  first, liberalising the Islamic banking, and takaful and retakaful markets with the issuance of new licences to allow for increased foreign participation;  •  second, allowing foreign equity of up to 49 percent in existing Islamic banks and takaful companies;  •  third, issuance of International Islamic Bank and International Takaful Operator licences under the Islamic Banking Act and the Takaful Act respectively to qualified foreign and Malaysian financial institutions to conduct the full range of Islamic banking business or takaful and retakaful business in international currencies and enjoy tax holiday for 10 years under the Income Tax Act starting from the year of assessment 2007;  •  fourth, granting approval to Malaysian Islamic banks and takaful operators to set up International Currency Business Unit (ICBU) to offer Islamic financial services in international currencies and enjoy similar tax holiday;  •  fifth, provide greater flexibility to the Labuan offshore entities offering Islamic financial services to open operation offices anywhere in Malaysia. The Labuan tax law will continue to be applied to these players. Players, therefore have the option in participating in the MIFC either by being licensed under Bank Negara Malaysia to benefit from the tax holiday for 10 years under the Income Tax Act and fully benefit from the Double Tax Agreement, or alternatively to be licensed under LOFSA and be taxed accordingly under the Labuan Offshore Business Activity Tax Act.
The prices of oil and copper combined, plus those of other Chilean exports, determine a less favorable trajectory of the terms of trade in the policy horizon. Thus, between 2018 and 2020, the terms of trade will accumulate a decrease of the order of 3% compared to a fall of 2% estimated in March (Figure 10). On the side of inflation in Chile, the annual variation of the CPI and the CPI excluding food and energy (CPIEFE) levels remains around or slightly below 2%, without showing significant differences than expected in March. As has been the trend of recent quarters, CPIEFE inflation has been dominated by the evolution of the exchange rate, the persistent capacity gaps in the economy and the indexation of some prices to lower inflation rates (Figure 11). In the baseline scenario, we continue to expect CPIEFE inflation to have a slow convergence to 3%–not very different from what we expected in March–, while for headline inflation we foresee it reaching 3% sooner than we thought then. In the former case, this is consistent with an economy that, beyond recent data, will close its capacity gaps over the next two years, and with a real exchange rate that, as I said, will return to near its historical average during the policy horizon. For headline inflation, its faster achieveent of 3% is explained by the increase in fuel prices measured in pesos (Figure 12).

Especially important in this regard is to moderate and possibly reverse the course of public indebtedness, adopt a framework to capitalize the banking system and ensure a sustainable evolution of household borrowing. The signals of the government regarding the orientation of its fiscal policy, its backing of the new General Banking Act and the reactivation of its search for mechanisms to consolidate borrowers’ financial information are very 6  positive in this regard. Equally valuable in dealing with future turbulences seems to be to strengthen fiscal institutions by enhancing the status and autonomy of the Fiscal Advisory Council, as well as acknowledging the role of institutional investors in the Chilean economy in the face of future reforms. Dear senators, the Chilean economy is progressing in the recovery of growth and the closing of gaps. Rather than a result, this is a good start for a more favorable stage of the business cycle. Many challenges lie ahead. It is important to deepen the recovery of investment, that the labor market be strengthened and that competitive advantages be exploited to make this recovery more self-sustained and shared. Greater long-term growth calls for more structural changes that will help raise productivity. The Central Bank will be there to ensure that imbalances or vulnerabilities do not incubate in the process, which later may require more costly adjustments. Together we also have the responsibility to strengthen those factors that allow us to better withstand external shocks that will sooner or later be felt.
Jessica Chew Cheng Lian: Malaysian banking industry challenges and developments Speech by Ms Jessica Chew Cheng Lian, Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the Malaysian Association of Money Services Business Annual Dinner 2017, Kuala Lumpur, 29 April 2017. * * * It is my great pleasure to be here with you this evening at the annual dinner of the Malaysian Association of Money Services Business. I remember a time six or seven years ago when the Bank gathered the industry together at the auditorium in the headquarters of Bank Negara Malaysia to explain the new legislation that was being introduced for the industry. The industry then, and the industry today, is almost unrecognisable. You would have heard this said a few times now, and I think it keeps getting mentioned because the change has been so striking. Tonight, the industry will recognise companies that are leading the way in terms of exemplary customer service to the public, as judged independently by a global consulting firm. This is yet another reminder of how far the industry has come. In the last six years, the industry has almost doubled the value of money services transactions conducted through licensed MSB companies. We estimate that this included about 43% of worker remittances previously conducted through informal or illegal channels, that are now captured within the formal system. On average, MSB companies have increased their turnovers by more than 16%.

José Manuel González-Páramo: How will historians judge our handling of this crisis? Speech by Mr José Manuel González-Páramo, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, in the occasion of the presentation of the book titled “Un Siglo de Historia del Sistema Financiero Español”, Bank of Spain, Madrid, 10 June 2011. *  *  *  Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to speak today at the Bank of Spain about the Spanish financial sector. The book being presented today consists of a distinguished collection of essays providing a wealth of information on Spain’s financial sector over the last century. Not only does it summarise the key data and the main developments, but it also provides deep analyses. It will definitely become the work of reference on the history of the financial sector in this country in the 20th century. Let me then congratulate the contributors and the editors, José Luis Malo de Molina and Pablo Martín Aceña for their excellent work. Reading the book, notably the chapter by Raimundo Poveda, we can draw some interesting parallels between the current crisis and the banking crisis in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In particular, given the current circumstances, the main message I would like to emphasise today is that certain changes in the banking sector that are implemented in response to crises are essential to guarantee a strong, robust banking sector in the future.
While there is no doubt that unconventional monetary policies (UMPs) have helped stabilise the financial system and supported economic recovery after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), many have argued that the economic or financial benefits created by UMPs have not been shared evenly. Some studies have highlighted that UMPs disproportionately enrich the “haves”, as they tend to hold more assets such as stocks and properties that benefited most from UMPs.3 Hong Kong has been experiencing this trend, especially in the housing market. With a prolonged period of close-to-zero nominal interest rates and negative real mortgage rates, Hong Kong’s housing prices have been rising for over 10 years. This has eroded housing affordability and widened significantly the wealth gap between home owners and those who have yet to buy a home. How should central bankers and policymakers think about this important issue and what can be done about it? We have lined up a couple of presentations focusing on housing today and tomorrow, which I hope will shed some light on 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  policymaking in this area. 6. Having looked at UMPs’ implications on asset prices, let’s now turn our attention for a moment to labour income. To the extent that UMPs have driven aggregate improvements in the labour market in terms of job creation, they have nonetheless failed to benefit some segments of the workforce that are the most in need. For example, many of the jobs created are low-paying and/or part-time in nature.

Five of us are drawn from the executive of the Bank, increasing to six when microprudential supervision of banks and insurers moves across in  5  Hyun Shin has set this out with great clarity. 6  See Tucker, Comments at Clare College, discussion of Lord Turner’s Lecture, “Reforming finance: are we being radical enough?”, Cambridge, February 2011. BIS central bankers’ speeches  5  2012/13. The two senior officials of the UK’s existing regulator, the Financial Services Authority, are members during the interim period. And once the legislation has passed, the chief executive of the planned new securities/consumer regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, will be a member, reflecting, as I have outlined, the vital role of market regulation in preserving stability. There are four external members, including from the USA Don Kohn, the former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. The Government expects the legislative process to be complete towards the end of 2012. In the meantime, during the interim, non-statutory phase of our existence, the Financial Policy Committee has two broad functions: “paving” and “shadowing”. We will pave the way for the statutory incarnation of the Committee by advising the government on the instruments and powers we could be given by Parliament. And, secondly, we will as far as possible shadow the role of the statutory FPC, which essentially means advising the FSA on where and how it should use its regulatory tools for system-wide ends. So what are those ends? They are consistent with my earlier overview of financial stability.
Over the past twenty years, we have seen a secular shift away from defined-benefit towards defined-contribution pension schemes. That places the investment risk of pensions squarely on the shoulders of the individual, rather than companies. Whatever the merits of these shifts, they underscore the importance of simple, easilyunderstood financial products for the public if they are to manage these new risks. They also underscore the importance of adequate information on these products. In 2010, the Money Advice Service was set up to help provide this information. Following a review last year, this service is in the process of being replaced. A new body is also being established to provide a single point of contact for advice on pensions, replacing the existing Pensions Advisory Service and Pensions Wise. Just yesterday, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) proposed that a new price comparison website be set up, funded by the banks, to better enable bank customers to pick the best deal for them. 43 They also suggested greater transparency around bank charges. If implemented, these measures would be good news for retail customers. Alongside the move to a Faster Payments service in 2008 44, these are among the two biggest improvements to bank customer service in the past decade. But here’s the rub. Both of these improvements were the result of regulatory intervention by the competition authorities, not market-led initiatives by industry. They resulted from regulatory push, not customer pull.

As one example of that, the Open University has recently made available on-line a set of three modules for helping adults better understand  38  G30 Working Group (2015). 39  New City Agenda (2014). 40  See BIS (2012). BIS central bankers’ speeches  9  financial matters and, ultimately, make better financial choices. 41 Charities like Citizens Advice are also doing fantastic work in this area. Of course, part of the reason so many members of the public find finance difficult is because it is difficult – and, sometimes at least, it is made deliberately so. There is plenty of evidence, including from the financial crisis, of financial products being made more complex than was necessary and consumers being charged a premium for buying them. 42 This damaging cycle persists because of the difficulties consumers understandably face when trying to compare these products. To give a personal example, I consider myself moderately financially literate. Yet I confess to not being able to make the remotest sense of pensions. Conversations with countless experts and independent financial advisors have confirmed for me only one thing – that they have no clue either. That is a desperately poor basis for sound financial planning. This problem is one which, if anything, is becoming more acute over time. More of the risk associated with financial decisions is these days being shouldered, not by the state or companies, but by individuals. Take pensions.
2  BIS Review 49/2005  However, meeting this ambitious objective implies a significant evolution of the current retail infrastructures towards a pan European infrastructure, the so called PEACH, which will aim at reinforcing the global efficiency of payments in Europe. The main achievement with regards to infrastructures until now has been the launch of STEP2, since it is the first infrastructure compliant with the PEACH requirements, as defined by the EPC. But there is still a significant way to go since STEP2 handles low volumes, 170.000 payments in May 2005, and can still not offer the same level of service as national ACHs. In that context, it must be seen as a positive prospect that most national retail payment systems are now preparing themselves to the implementation of SEPA, through the spreading use of standardisation, which will allow the interoperability of infrastructures. In France for example, several banks have initiated the STET project in view of SEPA. However, one should note that the idea of consolidating the retail systems platforms is for the time being not really at the forefront of market initiatives, even though consolidation is a source of cost savings and efficiency. Why such a gap in the level of integration between large-value payment systems and retail payment systems? I see two main explanations. First, large value payment systems have benefited from the incentive of the adoption of the single monetary policy in the Euro area, which made the creation of TARGET mandatory.

In addition, the conducive tax regime which accords neutrality in treatment between Islamic and conventional financial products sets the stage for greater innovation to take place to support the progressive development of the Islamic financial services industry going forward. With this strengthened Islamic financial infrastructure now being firmly achieved in the first phase of the Financial Sector Masterplan, the Islamic financial services industry is poised to tap new growth opportunities and maximize the full potential of Islamic banking and finance. The entry of Commerce Tijari Bank Berhad into the Islamic financial services industry at this juncture is indeed timely. The challenge that lies ahead calls for strategic positioning to maximise the potential that a universal Islamic banking licence accords in tapping new growth areas. While Islamic retail, corporate and investment banking product offerings have grown in sophistication, financial activities such as private equity investments, real estate investments, private wealth and fund management are now rapidly gaining prominence. There is therefore a need to allocate adequate resources to build distinct capabilities in these newly emerging areas. The move into these strategic niche markets would also increase the diversity of new asset classes for Islamic investment. This would not only contribute to further enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the financial intermediation process in the Islamic  BIS Review 26/2004  1  financial system but also enhance Malaysia’s potential as an attractive international hub for Islamic finance.
Lars Nyberg: The Riksbank and the inflation target Speech by Mr Lars Nyberg, Deputy Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank, at Nordea, Copenhagen, 19 May 2005. *  *  *  Thank you for the invitation to come and speak at Nordea about Swedish monetary policy! Today I shall mainly concentrate on the content and interpretation of our inflation target. One special aspect of the inflation target and monetary policy that I shall discuss towards the end of my speech is the household sector’s growing debt burden and house price increases. A clear framework for monetary policy Sweden is currently enjoying what is usually described as an economic boom. Growth last year was almost 3.5 per cent, one of the highest figures in 30 years, and households’ real disposable incomes are expected to rise by around 3 per cent this year. Inflation is at its lowest point in living memory, as are interest rates. However, there is a problem. Employment has not risen at all as most forecasters, including the Riksbank, expected. We therefore find ourselves in a discussion of whether interest rates should possibly be even lower. Given the intensive debate on this subject, I consider there is good reason to describe and discuss our monetary policy framework and its significance for the way we work. It is well known that one of the Riksbank’s fundamental objectives since the beginning of 1993 has been to maintain price stability. This is inscribed in the Sveriges Riksbank Act of 1999 and is thus a parliamentary decision.

Investment has begun to rise, albeit at a slightly later stage than we had assumed. However, it is unlikely that the problem of a low investment rate now is connected to interest rates being too high. Given the low interest rates we see now and the good access to credit in the financial system, financing costs can hardly be regarded as a factor holding back investment. With regard to households, it is possible that even lower interest rates could make them increase their debt burden and borrow in order to increase consumption, but to me this is not an obvious conclusion. In addition, there are risks here. This brings me onto the question of how households have reacted to the low inflation and low interest rates, and this issue deserves more detailed discussion. Households’ growing debt burden and rising house prices In recent years, households’ debt burden has increased gradually and now amounts on average to 125 per cent of their annual disposable income, which is almost as high as immediately prior to the property crisis in 1992. However, interest payments are now less than half what they were then, approximately 4 per cent of disposable income. The fact that households are loaning at an increasing rate, both in Sweden and many other countries, can be regarded partly as an adjustment to lower inflation, which is also expected to be permanent.
From ‘ethical drift’ to ‘ethical lift’: Reversing the tide of misconduct in global financial markets Remarks given by Minouche Shafik, Deputy Governor, Markets and Banking  Panel Discussion at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Conference on ‘Reforming Culture and Behaviour in the Financial Services Industry’ 20 October 2016  1  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  Introduction  Misconduct in financial markets has existed for as long as commerce has existed. Thousands of years ago, 1  Chinese merchants found ways to hide trading profits through a variety of financial techniques . From the great South Sea bubble in the 1720’s to the mis-selling of railway stocks in the mid-1800’s through to more recent events such as the collapse of Bank of Credit and Commerce International and the failure of Barings in the mid-90’s – we have had a long and inglorious record of rogues, fraudsters and embezzlers in the financial services sector. But the wave of misconduct which has emerged in the aftermath of the financial crisis suggests that “this time is different.” The magnitude of the misconduct fines is indicative of the scale of the problem: since 2  2009, UK banks have paid almost £ billion in fines and redress costs, roughly equivalent to the private capital they have raised in the same period.

At this juncture, the transparency of the process is fundamental through the detailed explanations of the actions and of the context in which the decisions were taken. Following the purposes of the inflation-targeting regime, the timely release of the Monetary Policy Committee minutes provides the public with the Committee’s view on the economy and its prospects, providing the rationale for the policy adopted by the Copom. (At the same time, contact with analysts from several segments of the public was enhanced by the creation, especially for this purpose, of an Institutional Communications Group, which allows a more efficient two-way communication through the use of surveys of expectations and other specific research.) The production of reports and the release of studies and research is also fundamental aiming at increasing the transparency of the Bank's activities to the public. In addition to the monthly bulletins and annual reports, other key reports are the Inflation Report, which deals with the inflation-targeting framework, the Financial Stability Report, which deals with the stability of the Brazilian Financial System, the Banking Economics and Credit Report, development of the Interest Rates and Banking Spread Project, the Working Papers Series and the Technical Notes Series of the Central Bank. Thus, the Central Bank will emphasize not only the improvement of statistics and models, but also its transparency and communication. For instance, the increase of information and data available to the public on the Central Bank website has been outstanding. More than eight thousand statistical series are already available, with increasingly easy access.