samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
SPEECH DATE:  16 November 2016  SPEAKER:  Cecilia Skingsley  VENUE:  FinTech Stockholm 2016, Berns  SVERIGES RIKSBANK SE-103 37 Stockholm (Brunkebergst org 11) Tel. +46 8 787 00 00 Fax +46 8 21 05 31 registratorn @ riks ban k.se www.riksb ank.s e  Should the Riksbank issue e-krona?1 Should the Riksbank issue electronic means of payment in the same way as we now issue cash? This is a natural question for a central bank, as technological advances create new opportunities, as the printing press once upon a time made it possible to print banknotes. Banknotes were a complement to the minted coins, and are so today too. Similarly, an electronic means of payment, say an e-krona, could be a complement to physical cash. This is the question I intend to discuss today. The question is particularly relevant for us in Sweden, as cash is being used to a declining extent and is sometimes difficult to get hold of. The fact that cash is no longer as easily accessible as before means that the general public finds it more difficult to get hold of money issued by the Riksbank and instead often has to use money in bank accounts with the commercial banks. This is a development steered by market forces and not by the authorities. Market forces has worked well for a long time, but developments move fast for some consumers and companies.

There was scope to manufacture standardised banknotes of sufficiently good quality. Modern banknotes are of course also a high-tech product with all their security features, but as increasing number of electronic payment forms are developed, physical cash appears increasingly outdated. Today we can say the same thing about modern communication technology as about the printing presses in the 17th century. Access to the internet is widespread, and computers, smartphones and tablets are household items. Thus, the conditions are ripe for launching more electronic payment forms. 7 8 . My point is simple, if the market can make use of the new technology to launch new and popular payment services, why shouldn't the Riksbank be able to do the same? I would claim that there is currently a need among the general public and companies to have access to central bank money and that this need will still be there in the future. Perhaps not everyone has this need and perhaps not all of the time, but as the need exists, I think the Riksbank should be able to meet it. I consider that the Riksbank should carefully consider meeting the general public’s need for central bank money by supplying this in some electronic form. Let me call them e-krona, which you can put in an e-wallet. Let me also be clear about the reason. If the Riksbank chooses to issue e-krona, it would not be to replace cash, but so that the e-krona can act as a complement to cash.
For example, the document noted that market participants are expected to have systems and controls in place to: •  develop and promote a strong culture of ethical behavior and standards of conduct;  •  promote awareness and use of general dealing practices, procedures, and conventions;  •  ensure accurate and timely pre‐trade preparation and trade capture;  •  support robust and efficient back office operations including confirmation, netting, payment, and settlement; and  •  mitigate risk in FX transactions from the point of initial discussion regarding a potential transaction to settlement. The revised and expanded Global Preamble, published this past March, features even more substantive and detailed guidance on topics such as personal conduct, confidentiality and market conduct, and policies for execution practices. 13 The Global Preamble provided an important opportunity to integrate the recommendations from the FSB FXBG report into best practices at a global level. For example, it includes language related to protection of information and confidentiality, as well as the enforcement of internal systems and controls involving both certain types of transactions and information. The publication of the Global Preamble was a very important step in helping to provide a more globally harmonized and consistent framework for national codes of conduct and in integrating the FXBG recommendations, but it is not the final step. It is clear that further work is required both to strengthen best practices at a global level and to promote greater adherence to those practices.

In general, we will always listen to arguments when people disagree with us, and we will always take into account new evidence. This includes tailoring rules that are already in place in response to our own evaluations or to evidence from industry, broader civil society and other stakeholders. Page 6  This is what we did when we implemented an earlier Basel regulatory package known as CRR2. In that case, we implemented a new standard for banks’ long term funding after tailoring it to be more risk sensitive for activities that are important for the UK. That was a change we made in response to evidence-based arguments we received during the consultation. We are now taking the same approach to work on Solvency II rules for insurers. Debates between us and the Government have got a lot of public attention. But there are many areas where we fully agree about the benefits from simplifying the regime to better reflect the needs of the UK. And with the high-level policy decisions now clear, we are focused on implementation and on delivering detailed proposals for consultation. My colleague Sam Woods recently set out what we are committed to doing. [18] All of this will be on top of what we are already doing to remove unnecessary rules we inherited from our time in the EU. We have so far deleted 13 guidelines issued by EU regulators, five superseded Supervisory Statements and 26 technical standards onshored from the EU. This work will continue.
The Bank set out some ideas on the design of such an open platform for SMEs last year.9  Data collection is also integral to the work that the Bank itself does in pursuit of its wider mission. Without the data we collect, we cannot identify risks, design good policy, and take action in a timely and targeted fashion. That’s why delivering ‘common data standards’, rules and methods that consistently label and describe financial data, are a priority long term reform for us. Reflecting that priority the Bank are setting up a joint transformation programme with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and industry. And Sam Woods, the Deputy Governor for Prudential Regulation, and Nikhil Rathi, CEO of the FCA, recently published a letter to firms providing an update on this work, and asking firms to work with us in partnership to deliver common data standards and other crucial reforms. 10  AI and AIPPF  Yet another rapidly-developing area is the adoption of AI in finance. We know that finance is one of the sectors that has seen widespread adoption of AI in recent years.11 COVID-19 has accelerated this trend. Half of the banks we surveyed reported an increase in the importance of AI as a result of the pandemic. 12 The adoption of AI is already bearing fruit in a number of areas within the financial sector with a very wide range of use cases.

The people of this country are actually willing to put aside some of their earnings into safe and viable investments. However, safety and viability is only assured with professional investment management which can be offered by people like yourselves. Ladies and Gentlemen, in March 2008, the Lusaka Stock Exchange in partnership with the Bank of Zambia and the Bond Exchange of South Africa conducted a training and consultative workshop to enhance the Zambian bond market. Among the outcomes of this workshop was that one of the modes of collecting funds from the so called “small investors” in the economy is through Collective Investment Schemes. Collective investment schemes can be beneficial to small investors who may not have enough money to carry out a diversification and proper allocation of their assets. Small investor can benefit from diversification techniques usually available only to wealthy investors. With these few benefits in mind, I wish to earnestly appeal to you and other collective investment scheme providers that as you go about doing your business think innovatively about ways you can capture Zambia’s many small investors. Think about how you can provide them with an opportunity to invest in a broad range of assets at affordable cost. I have little doubt in my mind that as you take up this challenge, you will be able to create financial stability by being a good investment manager to this segment of investors.
When the oil price reaches record high levels it creates a further incentive to increase the production of biofuels at the cost of food. The IMF observes in its most recent report that biofuels account for only 1.5 per cent of the supply of liquid energy. But the use of these fuels led to demand for crops used in their production doubling between 2006 and 2007. 5 In the slightly longer term the high food prices lead to the supply of food increasing and this dampens prices. But there are also factors that could hold back supply and mean that it does not increase as much as would be necessary to meet the increased world demand. Some supply shocks are of a temporary nature, such as the drought in Australia last year and poor harvests in some regions. One cannot rule out the possibility that climate effects have played a role, and in this case such shocks may be a recurring problem. 6 Another factor that has had a restraining effect on supply and has thereby contributed to boosting the increase in world food prices is the export restrictions introduced by some countries that are major producers of food, in an attempt to protect their domestic consumption from the price increases. The effect on the price of wheat when export restrictions were reduced in the Ukraine is, as I mentioned earlier, a good example of how this can have tangible effect on prices. Another factor that has certainly been significant is the depreciation of the dollar.

If we do not tighten monetary policy enough, there is a risk that inflation will gain a foothold at a high level, and that it will be necessary to raise the policy rate even higher at a later stage to reduce inflation. On the other hand, if we raise the policy rate too much, we might dampen the economy more than necessary, which is something we want to avoid. We believe that we can achieve an appropriate balance of these risks by raising the policy rate by 0.25 percentage point now. Let me a say a little more about the background for the policy rate decision. New forecasts have not been prepared for this monetary policy meeting, but we have assessed new information against the projections we presented in September. Chart 2: Gas and electricity prices have declined  1/3  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  Prices are rising rapidly among our trading partners, and inflation has been higher than projected in the previous Monetary Policy Report. But both gas and electricity prices have recently fallen from high levels. Global freight prices are still high but have fallen recently and more than we had anticipated. Many central banks have responded to the surge in inflation by raising policy rates further in recent weeks, and policy rate expectations have increased. Higher interest rates could lead to slower growth ahead than we projected earlier. Chart 3: Unemployment is low Domestic activity was higher through the summer months than assumed earlier. Household consumption has been higher than expected.
In other words, whether we like it or not, we are being priced globally by the market. 15. Many of us have not fully appreciated the full logic of this. The financial turmoil suggests that while the real sector causes of the stress is global competition, the financial effect is stress on domestic banking systems, as the banks intermediate the global portfolio adjustments. In an open economy, capital inflows will increase the deposit base of domestic banks which may be channelled through credit mistakes into fuelling domestic asset price bubbles. There are two implications. First, asset price inflation eventually feeds into domestic inflation and erodes external competitiveness. Second, excessive lending concentration into less productive assets, either real estate or over-investment in infrastructure and production capacity, exposes the financial institutions to huge risks. 16. From the viewpoint of financial intermediation, there are three major risks in Asia that underlie the shocks there:  •  First, maturity mismatch -- Asian markets made the mistake of borrowing short-term capital flows to finance illiquid non-tradables, such as property, thus exposing themselves to huge liquidity needs when capital flows reversed. •  Second, currency mismatch -- corporations who borrowed foreign currency funds to finance investments that do not generate sufficient foreign exchange to repay the debt run a currency mismatch. •  Third, credit risk -- lending or investments ultimately must be against sound profits that generate long-term returns higher than the borrowing rate or prospective dividends.

Ardian Fullani: Economic developments during the second semester of 2004 and expectations for year 2005 Statement by Mr Ardian Fullani, Governor of the Bank of Albania, Tirana, 28 January 2005. *  *  *  The second part of 2004 has generated a larger economic activity, marking a certain general impulse, especially after a relatively quiet start of the year. The acceleration of production growth is reflected almost in all the economy sectors, while the major objectives of the economy have been achieved in conformity with the overall programme of the country's economic and financial development. At international level, this semester coincided with an acceleration of the confirmed tendencies in the first part of the year, especially with regard to US dollar performance and oil price rise. The Fed monetary policy has changed the monetary policy tendency, during this period, through some successive increases of the core interest rate, in attempting to prevent the inflationary pressures in the economy. On the other side, the European Central Bank, considering the inflation performance and the strong pressure against the Euro has deemed unreasonable to change the core interest rate, keeping it at the level of 2 percent for almost a year and half. Annual inflation in December resulted 2.2 percent, while the average annual inflation was only 2.9 percent. The maintenance of inflation within the targeted range was mainly attributed to the stable macroeconomic situation, the control of domestic demand of the economy and monetary indicators stability.
Mark Carney: Closing remarks to the Open Forum Closing remarks by Mr Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England and Chairman of the Financial Stability Board, to the Bank of England Open Forum, London, 11 November 2015. *  *  *  Let me begin by thanking the Lord Mayor and his team for their gracious hospitality once again. The Guildhall really is a fantastic venue, and I want to take this opportunity, as we approach the end of your term as Lord Mayor, to salute you for the emphasis that you have put on the broader role of finance in society, the broader role of the City of London in the UK economy and in the global economy, and your broader contributions to society. City Giving Day is but one example of that, and we are all very much in your debt for your enormous contribution. On behalf of my colleagues, I want to thank the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the President of the European Central Bank for their insightful comments. Let me also thank all of the panellists for their well-chosen, provocative, and effective contributions. I am also grateful to the moderators here today, in person or online from across the country, for helping drive our Open Forum. Most of all, let me thank our steering committee, those 20 people from all walks of life, who put a tremendous amount of time and thought into the sessions.

Further innovations are needed if the sector is to come to terms with the new business models that Andrew Bailey and others have mentioned today. For example, innovations in the way banks are organised that are consistent with orderly resolutions. Separately, and as noted in a number of panels today, asset managers also need to innovate to adapt to the new realities of market liquidity. The increase in the scale of the asset management sector since the crisis has been notable, as has been the emergence of investment funds that offer daily liquidity while investing in securities that only appear liquid. The Bank, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Financial Stability Board are keenly aware of these risks, and we are working to resolve them in an orderly manner. The area of market liquidity is one place where there may be duplicative regulations and scope for adjustment. Market participants should rest assured we have made adjustments in the past where we have gotten things wrong. We adjusted the liquidity coverage ratio. President Draghi noted the joint work between the Bank and the European Central Bank to change securitisation – an example of fixing something we had not gotten exactly right. We will continue to adjust our market operations. Let me move towards the conclusion of my conclusion. The point about reform and review being a continual effort came through in spades. David Kynaston noted that there have been four big bursts of reform in the last 150 years.
Little to say because the government-approved Stability Programme, which envisages quickly attaining a significant deficit cut, has been favourably assessed by the EU and strictly met in its first year. The now-difficult task is for all levels of government to rigorously meet their adjustment commitments this year and to enable the 6% overall general government deficit target to be attained. Henceforth, we should expect local and regional authorities not to put off any longer the vigorous expenditure-cutting decisions that are needed to meet this overall target. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  Finally, concerning the restructuring of savings banks, the final part of what was legislated by Parliament in the recapitalisation Decree-Law approved in February remains to be done, but so far the Decree-Law has been implemented under the conditions and within the timeframe set. On 11 March the Banco de España published the core capital requirements of all Spanish credit institutions. Among them, 12 (4 banks and 8 savings banks) were identified as having a core capital deficit for a maximum amount of € billion. Later, when one of the integration projects came unstuck, the number of institutions needing additional capital rose to 13. On 14 April, the Banco de España approved the strategies and timetables submitted by these 13 institutions or groups.

But this task has also become a pressing one since, as euro area membership precludes using the devaluation tool, reform of the employment institutional framework is vital for increasing productivity, and thus for restoring competitiveness and raising our growth rate. Lately, those convinced of the importance of this reform have grown in number. But among those showing reluctance, a new argument has now arisen which seeks to play down the need for reform because, they say, it will take time to bear fruit. I have two counter-arguments here. First, Spain has moved so far away from the various employment institutional framework models in the developed countries that a rapid approximation to them could have more immediate effects than in other countries. Admittedly, a reform of this type would not swiftly lower our unemployment rate to the average European level, which is below 10%; but a reduction in the unemployment rate, no matter how modest at first, would have most favourable consequences for domestic and external confidence in the Spanish economy. What’s more, even if it is thought that results will only emerge gradually, slowness in taking effect is no argument for delaying this reform a minute longer; rather, it is an excellent reason to adopt it immediately so as to be able to enjoy its effects as soon as possible. Regarding fiscal consolidation, there is little to say and much to do.
Of course, determined efforts are required on the part of EU governments to reach a consensus on improvements in governance – particularly on the rules governing budgetary policy in the monetary union – and on the provision of bail-out funds. While the discussion and decision process surrounding these matters are often regarded as a weakness in the governance structure, it must also be recognised that the changes involved represent significant levels of assistance to programme countries and also touch directly on issues related to sovereignty. It is perhaps ironic that current problems are in part a side effect of the success of the monetary union, and the benefits it brought about. More precisely the crisis has also been triggered by the misuse of the benefits of monetary integration. The new currency reduced the cost of borrowing in several countries, as credit spreads narrowed and exchange rate risk on intra-euro area borrowing was eliminated.1 The reduced cost of financing public as well as private debt was reflected in higher government debt and private sector leverage. In the wake of risk repricing by the financial markets, there is now the strong tendency for market operators to unwind their holdings of public and private sector debt. This can be seen in Chart 1, which shows as an example the ensuing reduction in the leverage of monetary and financial institutions. The deleveraging process could set the stage for a deterioration in economic conditions. However it also serves to correct past excesses.

We are fortunate in having been able to grab him for a couple of hours today while he is briefly passing through Hong Kong. It is my pleasure to welcome him and to join with you all in the launch of this seminar, which will, I hope, be the first of many organised by the MPC over the coming months and years. 8. Finally, let me record my gratitude and congratulations to all the Committee members of the MPC for the excellent work they have put into the reconstruction of the Committee, and my thanks to everyone here for supporting this event today. 2  BIS Review 3/2001