samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Those losses could far outweigh the small gains they might enjoy from protecting their balance sheets in the short run.8 So lend they have. Businesses have now raised – net of repayments – more than £ from banks since February. More than £ of new lending has occurred through the 100% government guaranteed Bounce Back Loan Scheme. These 1 million loans are vital for many of the smallest businesses to bridge the disruption. But they do not help to finance the cash-flow deficit of medium and large sized companies that I described earlier. Banks have lent £ has been lent to these companies, net of repayments. Within that, there has been £ of lending approved through 55,000 loans under the CBILS scheme; a further £ through 428 loans under the CLBILS scheme. Add to that at least £ of new bond issuance and £ lent through the CCFF and these companies have raised at least £ of new debt. 6  See May 2020 interim Financial Stability Report On 11 March, the FPC reduced the UK countercyclical capital buffer rate to 0% with immediate effect, and set out its expectation that it would maintain this rate for at least 12 months.

By purchasing commercial paper, it offers to provide short-term loans – loans that will need to be paid back – to companies of investment grade standing before the virus disruption. It provides an alternative – backstop – source of finance for larger companies in the event that markets are disrupted. The Scheme has lent £ to 68 companies. More importantly, it has also authorised borrowing limits amounting to £ to 199 companies accounting for nearly 2.3 million jobs. The knowledge that this backstop to funding markets is there removes the need for larger companies to run to the banks to insure themselves against market disruption. By standing ready to lend to larger companies, we have protected the space banks have to lend to the wider population of companies. Financial Response II: Support for bank lending  The package of measures to support bank lending has gone much further than just protecting their capacity to lend. [See slide 4 of accompanying deck]  Banks have been given the funding for new lending. The Term Funding Scheme with additional incentives for SMEs (TFSME), provides 4 year funding for banks, at rates very close to Bank Rate, to match any increase in lending. The scheme provides additional incentives for lending to small and medium sized businesses, with £ of cheap funding for every £ increase in such lending. Crucially, the Government has provided banks with guarantees on new lending. The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Schemes guarantee 80% of new lending by banks.
Other obstacles to investment  The picture is, however, more complex than simply one of firms that underinvest having difficulty in raising external funds for investment. Of the firms in the survey that said they had invested too little, most cited other financial and non-financial obstacles as well. The most important of these was constraints on using internal rather than external funds – ie using profits – for investment rather than for distribution to shareholders or purchasing financial assets (including M&A). Nearly 70% of the firms who said they had underinvested, cited lack of internal funds for investment as an obstacle. Over 60% judged distribution to shareholders and purchasing financial assets as the most important use of internally generated funds. In fact, only a quarter of all firms prioritised using their internally generated funds for investment purposes (Chart 3). Three-quarters of firms put investment behind distribution to shareholders and investment in financial assets when assessing the most important use of internally generated funds. 8  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  8  Chart 3: Most important uses of internal funds % of businesses 35  Firms with too little investment Firms with appropriate levels of investment All firms  30  25  20  15  10  5  0 Funding investment  Purchasing financial assets (including M&A)  Distributing to shareholders / owners  Keeping as cash balances  Notes: Question 17: ‘When you think about using internal funds what do you generally prioritise?’.

Ardian Fullani: Opening, extension and modernisation of the primary and secondary treasury bill market Address by Mr Ardian Fullani, Governor of the Bank of Albania, at a meeting with the Minister of Finance and representatives of all banks in Albania, Tirana, 8 April 2005. *  *  *  Honored ladies and gentlemen! First of all I have the pleasure to thank you for your willingness in finding the time to take part in this work meeting. I would also thank your technical staff for the devotion shown in dealing with this issue, which constitutes one of our priorities at the Bank of Albania. At the Bank of Albania conference on “Central banking in the time of integration” I launched, interalia, the idea of the need for qualitative developments in the banking and financial system and this as closely connected with the need for further increasing the intermediation role of this system in the economy. It is understandable that the implementation of this idea would simultaneously require the giving of more possibilities to the banking system, so that this system carries out its role better and more actively. The topic we are discussing today is in this line. I am strongly convinced that the treatment of this issue did not appear as something unexpected, but it is a logical result of the positive developments taking place so far and the banking system awareness to be more active in its role for raising public confidence in the system.
We know from experience that the inflation outlook can change rapidly. During the late spring and summer of last year we were concerned over inflation being too high, even though this was mainly due to rising oil and food prices. Rising unit labour costs were also taken into consideration. Fears that high inflation expectations would become entrenched also formed part of the picture. We then raised the interest rate despite beginning to see signs of weaker economic activity in the future. The assessment was that this was necessary to attain the inflation target a couple of years ahead. When developments turned out differently, we had to quickly change our course. We are of course always prepared for situations like that. We are ready to act as quickly and as forcefully as is necessary, both to attain the inflation target and to carry out our financial stability responsibilities. Unconventional measures There have been many discussions on what the Riksbank could be expected to do if developments turn out weaker than we are now assuming. And our toolbox is not empty because the repo rate is so close to its lower limit. Put simply, the way the repo rate tool works is that the banks either borrow or buy Riksbank Certificates with a maturity of one week from the Riksbank at the price of the repo rate. In addition, there are what is known as daily fine-tuning operations between the Riksbank and the banks at an interest rate very close to the repo rate.

The combination of a lot of money to be invested and low risk-free interest rates contributed to an increase in the demand for assets that were profitable to invest in and led to an intensified hunt for high yield. This type of environment often inspires great inventiveness in the financial markets and many new financial instruments were also created. These were often complex and difficult to valuate correctly. But in the optimistic climate prevailing then – everything had gone so well for so long – it was nevertheless easy to sell them. Those who invested in the new instruments disregarded, or failed to sufficiently understand, the risks that were “inbuilt” in them. The financial supervisory authorities and regulations also lagged behind this development. The problems in the international financial markets began to become more apparent as early as summer 2007. But the Swedish economy and the Swedish financial markets long appeared able to manage fairly well, despite the fact that the turbulence was having more and more effects on the world around us. Of course, economic activity in Sweden began to weaken as international economic activity declined, but this did not initially seem to entail any very serious downturn. However, when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September  BIS Review 73/2009  1  2008 the situation worsened dramatically. The confidence that had existed between financial institutions was shaken to its foundations when no one was certain who might be next in line to default on their payments.
As before, the Riksbank will be publishing an inflation report four times a year, with a more comprehensive survey of inflationary pressure in the Swedish economy in the coming 24 months. 1  BIS Review 18/1999  The Executive Board held its first monetary policy meeting last Thursday and discussed inflation prospects. The Board then decided to lower the repo rate 0.25 percentage point and also lowered the corridor in which the repo rate lies by 0.5 percentage point. The Board’s decisions and the arguments behind them were published in a communiqué on Friday. Another feature of the new Riksbank organisation is that each member of the Executive Board has an individual mandate and one vote. All the members are in a position to make speeches and give interviews on monetary policy in which they express their own view of the situation. It follows that the members can hold different opinions and may also express themselves somewhat differently about joint positions. Today I shall base my remarks on the picture that was used for last week’s Executive Board discussion and summarised in the communiqué. When I elaborate on the communiqué it is my personal opinion I am expressing, though that does not mean that other Board members were not of broadly the same mind. Poorer international prospects In the course of last year, international economic prospects became a good deal worse.

It also enables the regulator to focus supervisory attention on the areas and institutions that pose the greatest risk to financial system stability. BIS Review 159/2008  1  Thus, the supervisory authorities are in a position to identify systemic risk factors and devise intervention measures aimed at forestalling systemic failures. The added advantage of this approach is that it brings about optimal utilisation of supervisory resources. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am happy to inform you that following our initial efforts dating back to 1999 to introduce risk based supervision, the Bank of Zambia has this year fully adopted RBS. As a result it is expected that there will be enhanced supervision of banks and other financial institutions. Let me also state that the BoZ is committed to implementing the Basel II Capital Accord but stands ready to review this stance in the face of the ongoing global financial crisis. As you know Basel II is intended to make banks operate at capital levels which are commensurate with their risk profiles. To this end, the BoZ just issued risk management guidelines. Distinguished Workshop Participants As I conclude, I wish to urge the workshop participants to participate actively in the deliberations and use this opportunity to tap knowledge and skills from the vast experience of the resource persons. This workshop provides us with a unique opportunity to share our respective country experiences and challenges.
William C Dudley: Transcript of Fireside Chat at York College in Queens Transcript of a discussion between Mr William C Dudley, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Dr Olajide Oladipo, Professor and Chair of the Business and Economics Department, during the Fireside Chat at York College in Queens, New York City, 24 March 2017. * * * Dr. Olajide Oladipo: President Dudley, can you please share with us the purpose of your trip here today to Queens? President Dudley: So, there are 12 Federal Reserve Banks around the United States, and one of them is the Federal Reserve Bank in New York that sits downtown in Manhattan, and near Wall Street. Our Second District consists of New York, Northern New Jersey, Fairfield County, Connecticut, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Haven’t gotten to the Virgin Islands yet. As part of our Mission, we want to represent the communities in our District, and so four times a year, I get on the road, and I go out to visit people, to find out what’s really happening on the ground. It’s meeting with businesses, meeting with people from educational institutions, going to visit manufacturing facilities, community development organizations. It’s really designed to do two things. One, explain sort of a little bit of what we do – like for example there, in the introduction, talking about this BIS. What the heck is the BIS? Well, BIS is a bank for central banks that sits in Basel, Switzerland.

Audience Member: Greetings, good morning to – or good afternoon to you and your guest. Now while it would be interesting to speak of why the New York Fed and the Atlanta Fed are differing on their economic forecasts, that might be interesting, but I want to speak to something far more local. Far more local. This community, and communities like this, were devastated, were ravaged – and I could use a stronger word – during the financial crisis of 2008. We’ve never recovered from this. The black community lost approximately 50% of its wealth in four years. 50% of the wealth accumulated from slavery till today lost in four years. No one, of course, was ever jailed for these things, no one was ever – very little punishment, if anything, was done. I understand that while you may want to do or feel strongly it’s not the purview of the Federal Reserve – I understand that. Using your researchers at Liberty and other parts of your organization, I need to know what laws that I can put on the books to protect communities like this. We’re about to go back into another phase of exotic mortgage-lending, and I will humbly differ with you on Glass-Steagall, of course. We’re about to go into another phase of exotic lending. They call it exotic lending. We call it predatory lending, and we pay for it. We can expect that again.
I cannot see why there would be a desire to provide equity funding for banks on such terms rather than invest in other companies either directly or through a collective asset  2  2  To be clear, this is 20–30% of the total balance sheet not 20–30% of risk weighted assets, the latter being a considerably smaller number. BIS central bankers’ speeches  scheme. I recognise that it has been proposed that the equity funding should be built up by retaining dividends, but to accumulate say 20% of a bank’s balance sheet by this means requires I think an implausibly long transition period. In fact, based on the current position of the major UK banks, including the average dividend payment rate, the transition period to 20% equity would be around 90 years. That’s a little bit longer than the 17 year transition period for Solvency II. I do not therefore see “big equity” as a sustainable solution because this sort of proposal is just not practical. A more logical alternative to today’s approach is the narrow banking model 3. Again, to be clear, I don’t support the approach, but it has the greater logic over the “big” equity approach of creating deposit funded banks which can only hold highly liquid and low risk government bonds. Loans would be made by other financial intermediaries.

TABLE 1 THE BANK AND PRIVATE SECTOR ACCELERATORS COMPARED  Purpose  Duration of firm engagement Business model  8  Private sector  Bank of England (BoE)  accelerators  accelerator  To help ventures define and  To work with innovative firms,  build initial products and  helping them to understand  identify consumers and  the BoE’s needs, and the BoE  investors  to understand the technology  3-6 months  1-3 months  Investment in successful firms (can also be non-profit)  Non-profit, no equity taken  Selection  Competitive, in cohorts  Competitive, in cohorts  Venture Stage  Early  Generally later stages  Structured programme  PoCs structured according to  similar for all firms in the  central bank use cases and  cohort, culminating in a  success criteria. No  demo day  comparison between firms  Programme  Resourcing and Mentorship Venture location  Primary resourcing from start-up staff but with support from mentors  Start-up staff work with BoE subject matter experts  On-site  Mostly off-site  In other respects, the Bank’s Accelerator operates in a similar way to traditional accelerators (Table 1). We undertake structured Proofs of Concept (‘PoCs’), organised in cohorts to ensure appropriate resource allocation and focus. Firms are chosen through an open, competitive selection process on the basis of a well-defined central banking use case. They work closely with the Bank’s subject matter experts for a time-limited period.
To conclude on the economy, in its monetary policy statement issued on the occasion of the latest policy rate decision on April 10, the Board of Governors once again stated that the Bank’s most critical task was to reach the inflation target as soon as possible. The demand shocks of the past few years and unusual conditions in the global financial markets had delayed that process. There was no reason to surrender any ground in the battle against inflation. Thus the Central Bank continues to be fully committed to the inflation target. Financial sector You are familiar with the expansion of Icelandic banks to other countries, including Norway. This development followed the banks’ full privatization a few years ago. The three major banks all expanded their activities to other countries but followed different strategies. The record shows that their investment in financial services companies abroad was generally very sound. They have good and solid operations in other countries. Because of this development, the banks have become less Icelandic and more Northern-European, as demonstrated among other things by the fact that in 2007 the three biggest commercial banks derived more than half of their overall income from activities outside Iceland and the biggest bank derived about two thirds of its income from operations outside Iceland. They are therefore much less sensitive to cyclical developments in Iceland than before, or in any one country for that matter. The risks are much better spread than before. 2  4  Central Bank of Iceland: Monetary Bulletin 2008/1.

It could thus acquire very significant external debt before reaching debt levels of many other developed countries with strong credit ratings. These CDS spreads have also come down significantly from their peak. Despite the very high CDS spreads on the Icelandic banks, they have funds at levels that are below their CDS spreads. Nevertheless, the access of the banks to external financing has been limited. Their liquidity cushion means that they can stay out of the market for quite some time. The prevailing circumstances in international capital markets and the limited prospects of improvement in the foreseeable future have, however, led the banks to embark upon a process of reducing costs and streamlining their operations, including liquidating assets, and on attracting deposits. This is a process that evidently will have to continue. It does not detract from the fact that the banks had solid capital and liquidity positions at the end of last year as reflected in their 2007 accounts. They had a solid performance in 2007. They all returned a profit in the last quarter of the year despite the significantly more hostile operating environment. It was also notable that the profitability of their core operations was strong in that quarter. Taken together, the banks had insignificant exposure in sub-prime related instruments and where they existed, they have been significantly reduced. Thus, there have been small write-downs of sub-prime related debt as there has been little to write down.
The farmers maintained contact with the outside world by sending and receiving letters placed under a stone at the entrance to the valley. This past year, the letter stone has been replaced by the internet. 2  A HISTORICALLY DEEP DECLINE  NORGES BANK  Eleven months after the first lockdown, daily life has yet to return to normal. Norway has been quite successful in keeping down infection rates, although we have seen regular flare-ups. The country’s borders are now closed. ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 18 FEBRUARY 2021  The measures to contain infection are necessary, but they do have side effects, both economic and social. People in risk groups have been isolating. Young people have been following courses online – many alone in a bedsit. Socialising with friends has been put on hold Chart 1 Historically deep decline GDP for mainland Norway. Annual growth. Percent 0  1921  1931  1940  1944  1989  0  2009  2020  Sources: Statistics Norway and Norges Bank  For Norway, the economic downturn will stand as one of the deepest in history (Chart 1). Not since the Second World War has activity in the Norwegian economy shown such a steep decline. The crisis has had uneven effects. Containment measures and fear of infection have resulted in a sharp decline in spending on services. During the lockdown last year, unemployment increased fourfold over a few weeks, reaching 400 000 persons, or close to 15 percent of the labour force.

This does not mean that we should revise up expected future returns – perhaps the opposite. 13  NORGES BANK  Chart 12 Low long-term interest rates Ten-year US Treasury yield. Percent 16  16  14  14  12  12  10  10  8  8  6  6  4  4  2  2  0 1960  ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 18 FEBRUARY 2021  0 1970  1980  1990  2000  2010  2020  Source: Bloomberg  The expected annual real return is estimated at 3 percent. The estimate was most recently updated in connection with the decision to increase the allocation to equities. Two key variables were used in the calculation. One was the expected return on the fixed income portfolio, and the other the size of the equity risk premium, which is the extra compensation we expect when taking risk in the equity market. The bulk of the fixed income portfolio is invested in long-dated sovereign bonds. When interest rates fall, bond prices rise. The return on the fixed income portfolio therefore held steady through the period of falling interest rates. But this is a one-off gain (Chart 12). Interest rates have now fallen to historic lows, and the expected return on the fixed income portfolio going forward has fallen. Equity prices have risen sharply in recent years. Taking risk in the equity market has paid handsomely. But we cannot assume that the gains will be as high in the future.