samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
While the gaps in operational efficiency and productivity have improved, there remains great scope for further improvement particularly in areas where the domestic banks are evidently behind the foreign banks. For instance, productivity standards of the counter personnel as measured by the number of counter transactions per counter employee for the domestic banks averaged approximately 5,000 compared with 11,000 for the foreign banks. Meanwhile, the number of domestic banks that did not experience any disruption in their retail deposit and loan initiation systems is significantly lower than that of the foreign banks. In terms of the time taken to approve new credit card applications it averaged 8 days for the domestic banks compared with 6 days for the foreign banks. As can be seen from the scorecard, the consolidation programme for the domestic banking sector was a necessary pre-requisite to enhance the sector’s capacity to compete. Size alone however, is not a sufficient condition that will result in producing efficient and competitive banks and it does not offer guarantee of success. Being a large bank is however, an important enabler to achieving enough scale to be able to invest in cutting-edge technology and management systems and to attracting the talent required to compete with the best players in the market. Domestic institutions need to be able to meet the range of products offered by foreign competitors. But the larger scale and wider range of activities will demand stronger management teams.

This Summit indeed provides an opportunity for bankers and the private sector to discuss the issues facing the banking industry. It is now just over a year since the release of the Financial Sector Masterplan. It is therefore also a good time to undertake stock taking. Today, I would like to take the opportunity to discuss the progress that has been achieved over the recent year. I would also like to discuss some of the critical issues in the strategies that are being adopted by the banking institutions in charting their strategic course to enhance capacity and capability to achieve improved effectiveness and competitiveness. During the period of slower economic growth in 2001, following the global downturn in the technology sector, the banking sector clearly demonstrated its resilience and underlying strength. During this period, domestic sources of growth was important in sustaining the economy. Access to financing in this environment was therefore particularly important. The strengthened position of the banking sector in terms of quality of portfolio, capitalisation and profitability enabled them to continue to perform their intermediation function without disruption. The banking sector generally remained profitable and financially sound during this period. At the end of this first quarter, the risk weighted capital ratio was sustained at 12.5%. Profitability of the banking industry had also continued for the third consecutive year since the Asian crisis.
First, a bank would assign each of its loans or exposures to an internal grade, which reflects the risk associated to lending to each borrower. A bank would do so by using the expert judgment of senior lenders and its own well-defined internal rating scale and criteria. The bank would then assess the likelihood of default of borrowers in each internal grade, based on its own analysis. Many larger banks are doing this now. It is this assessment of the probability of default that is the core of the internal ratings-based approach. The second step is for the bank to assess the severity of loss should a loan default – most often referred to as the Loss Given Default. The Committee currently envisions two internal ratings-based approaches, a foundation approach and an advanced approach with even higher minimum standards. A key distinction is that under the foundation approach, banks would use supervisory estimates of lossgiven-default based on loan characteristics, while under the advanced approach, they could make use of their own analysis. The third step is to derive the bank’s capital requirement. The Committee will set out the risk weights that correspond to different estimated probabilities of default and loss-given-default. These risk weights are being developed by the Committee as a measure of unexpected loss, reflecting the amount of potential credit loss for each loan. A key aspect of the internal ratings-based approach is the development of rigorous supervisory standards for the assignment and quantification of internal ratings.

Finance will complement - and potentially amplify these initiatives– but it will never substitute for climate policy action. The policy frameworks with the greatest impact will be: time consistent; transparent; target-based; and committed, through treaties, nationally determined contributions (NDCs), domestic legislation and consensus. The 20 countries – including the UK – that have plans to legislate for net zero show what can be done. 9  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  9  If countries build their track records, their credibility will grow, and the market will allocate capital to deliver the necessary innovation and growth and pull forward the adjustment to a low carbon future. The more prolific the reporting, the more robust the risk management and the more widespread the return optimisation, the more rapidly the insurance sector can build resilience while promoting the transition that our citizens demand. 10  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  10
It will also have to pay for the retooling of information management and delivery systems, as well as face increased uncertainties in its core deposits. At the same time, however, the larger single market will create new opportunities for banks, particularly in the areas of investment banking and the cross-border sale of deposits, mutual funds, and other savings products. On balance, it seems fair to conclude that the commercial position and earnings of many European banks are likely to come under pressure. This may accelerate the ongoing restructuring of Europe’s banking industry, a process that has been confined, to date, primarily to developments within each country. More broadly, there can be no doubt that the implications of the growth of a more efficient and cost-effective market for euro-denominated capital would extend well beyond Europe. The availability of a new, low-cost channel for portfolio investment, for example, could help reverse the traditional reluctance of households and many institutional investors worldwide to invest internationally -- a reluctance that has long puzzled academics and policymakers. Moreover, a well-developed market for euro-denominated capital would encourage institutional investors from the United States and elsewhere to acquire diversified European portfolios offered in a single currency. In fact, this development could be accelerated if member governments chose to deepen the euro market by increasing the available range of bond maturities, which in some countries is somewhat limited at the short and long ends.

While less flexible labor markets and the absence of a federal fiscal system will certainly pose constant challenges for the management of a common European currency, a fluctuating exchange rate need not be the optimal way to respond to these shortcomings. The argument that Europe -- even a core component of Europe -- can ill afford to renounce exchange rate flexibility rests crucially on the view that Europe is significantly more BIS Review 109/1997  -6-  heterogeneous than the United States and, therefore, more vulnerable to country-specific shocks that can best be corrected by exchange rate changes. I do not support this view. Rather, I believe that in many respects differences among the European economies have been over-emphasized in the public debate. It is possible to suggest, for example, that the economies of some European countries have more in common today than do those of some individual states in the United States, such as New York and Michigan or California and Idaho. Moreover, as a result of the convergence of economic policy objectives, the economic cycles among many European countries have become more synchronized over the last ten years, a trend that is likely to be reinforced by monetary unification. Furthermore, when shocks are mainly at the industry level -- for instance, when a recession hits the automobile or steel industry in Germany and France -- the German and French economies would hardly benefit from an exchange rate change. Such a change, in this case, simply would not affect the appropriate relative prices.
This dimension includes both e-trading platforms that allow consumers to invest directly through its computer on all sort of assets, and FinTech innovations that offer automated advice on financial services (robo-advisors), including investment and portfolio management. 3  IAIS (2016), “FinTech Developments in the Insurance Industry”, February 2017. 9  Central Bank of Chile 29 June, 2017  Slide 13  Opportunities ▪ Blockchain/Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT): efficiency of financial payments ▪ Real time order-settlement-payment—operational and counterparty risk ▪ The benefits for financial stability may include: i. ii. iii. iv. Increased market efficiency Enhanced risk measurement Lower trade costs, robustness against cyber-attacks, and less need for collateral Stronger wealth-channel for monetary policy  ▪ Crowdfunding and P2P may reduce systemic risk—an affordable alternative ▪ FinTech market support tools can also contribute to financial stability  Opportunities [SLIDE 13] Blockchain/Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) can enhance the efficiency of financial payments systems as all operations are jointly kept by all members of the network and all the processes of order-settlement-payment are implemented in real time. This compares with a current situation where most settlement processes take 2 or 3 days to execute, creating operational and counterparty risk.

11  Central Bank of Chile 29 June, 2017  Slide 15  Potential for financial development ▪ DLT may contribute for the development of emerging countries in several aspects: i. ii. iii. iv. v.  Universal access to financial services by consumers and small-medium enterprises Enhanced security of remittances and transactions among vulnerable sectors Higher competition and less concentration of the financial sector Reduced costs for participation in the formal economy Easier access to public services based on improved government databases  Potential for financial development [SLIDE 15] DLT may contribute for the development of emerging countries in several aspects: (i) universal access to financial services by consumers and small-medium enterprises; (ii) enhanced security of remittances and transactions among vulnerable sectors (the poor, migrants, rural areas); (iii) higher competition and less concentration of the financial sector, and (iv) reduced costs for participation in the formal economy and easier access to public services based on improved government databases. Recent experiences with M-Pesa in Africa and with Unique ID in India are good examples of such development trends. However, some obstacles and risks still deserve attention. An efficient use of financial services may require larger investments in education and financial literacy. Recent experience shows that even in developed countries people often misuse financial instruments. Consumers often suffer from large debt burdens and complex contracts that they do not understand. Also, some of the new financial instruments—such as digital currencies—may facilitate tax evasion, fraud and illegal transactions.
It will therefore be critical to ensure, in the context of the EMIR implementation, that information-sharing within the colleges will effectively address not only the micro-prudential concerns of authorities but also the need for appropriate macroprudential analysis. Second, another important concern regarding the institutional setting is the fact that global cooperative oversight arrangements for central counterparties are still lagging significantly behind what has been agreed in the CPSS-IOSCO Principles for financial market infrastructures. Indeed, the respective gap between the EU level and the global level is striking in this regard. In the European Union, given the introduction of legally binding requirements for central counterparty supervisors to cooperate and consult with all relevant authorities – including central banks, supervisors of major clearing banks and supervisors/overseers of interoperable infrastructures – cooperative oversight arrangements for all EU central counterparties, in the form of EMIR colleges are currently being set up. At a global level, however, virtually no progress in cooperative oversight or even in terms of pure informationsharing has been achieved for several major global central counterparties outside the European Union. This is a key concern especially in the field of OTC derivatives, given the global nature and interconnectedness of these markets. Indeed, if we want to ensure that the introduction of mandatory clearing is implemented in a way that ensures that central counterparties manage systemic risk effectively, it is not enough that they are supervised and overseen in their home jurisdiction.

Of course, access to data should always be in line with the authorities’ mandate and with the CPSS-IOSCO guidance, issued last month, on authorities’ access to trade repository data. However, even if this is warranted, privacy laws, blocking statutes and indemnification clauses which are in place in several jurisdictions restrict effective access to the detail of OTC derivatives transactions. Another important issue is whether authorities will be able to aggregate data across trade repositories and jurisdictions. Where there is more than one authorised repository in a single jurisdiction, it will be necessary to aggregate data across repositories. This in itself will be challenging. If no central entity is responsible for such aggregation, it could well mean that a plethora of public authorities with an interest in accessing data will need to conduct this task. This would hardly be efficient. It gets even more complicated if data, for example for all entities of a large financial group which is present in several markets, have to be aggregated across jurisdictions, as the level of information reported to repositories is different. A lot of work has already been done to address these issues. The January 2012 CPSSIOSCO report on OTC derivatives data and reporting and aggregation requirements identified the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) as an essential tool for aggregation. Good progress has been made in the development and implementation of the Global LEI System.
Andrew G Haldane: Labour’s share Speech by Mr Andrew G Haldane, Executive Director and Chief Economist of the Bank of England, at the Trades Union Congress, London, 12 November 2015. *  *  *  The views are not necessarily those of the Bank of England or the Monetary Policy Committee. I would like to thank William Abel, Simon Caunt, Jeremy Franklin, Edward Hall, Philip King, Priya Gupta, Alex Mitchell, Rachana Shanbhogue, Bradley Speigner and Tom Smith for their help in preparing the text. I would also like to thank James Bell, Oliver Burrows, Melissa Davey, Gareth Ramsay, Stephen Seawright and Sebastian Walsh for their comments and contributions. General Secretary. It is a great privilege for me to be invited to speak to you. In the early nineteenth century, the unions were struggling to cope with the on-going impact of the Industrial Revolution on jobs and wages. They came together in the 1860s to present a united front and face down the threat of legislation to curtail workers’ rights. The TUC was born. The first meeting of Congress, in 1868, debated wage inequalities, workers’ hours, technical education and threats to jobs and workers’ rights (London Metropolitan University (2015)). Almost 150 years on, Congress today represents more than 5.8 million workers across all sectors and regions of the UK. The 147th Congress was recently held in Brighton. The topics it debated may have a familiar ring: wage inequalities, workers’ hours, technical education and threats to jobs and workers’ rights.

Source: Frey and Osborne (2013); Bank calculations. Notes: The UK probability of automation figures are based on estimates in Frey and Osborne (2013) matched against UK occupations.
As a result of these crises, and in collaboration with other international agencies and with national authorities, the Fund conducted a far-reaching review of the so-called “international financial architecture”. Numerous initiatives were adopted over recent years with the aim of lessening the frequency and cost of crises and of improving the stability of the international monetary system. Accordingly, there has been a notable effort to increase the transparency of member countries’ economic policies and to improve the information at the disposal of economic agents and, in particular, international financial markets so that the latter may exert market discipline more effectively. Specific measures have been adopted to reinforce financial systems. And it has also been sought to improve the crisis prevention and crisis resolution mechanisms available to the international financial community, including those particularly difficult cases in which sovereign debt restructuring proves inevitable. Moreover, instead of relying on exhaustive international regulations which, as experience has shown, are difficult to approve and even harder to implement, all these reforms have relied on voluntarily mechanisms, based frequently on the adoption of codes of best practices, international standards and systems that offer incentives for their application.

The spread of the Delta variant has so far not required lockdown measures to be reimposed. But it could slow the recovery in global trade and the full reopening of the economy. Consumer spending is increasing, although consumers remain somewhat cautious in the light of the pandemic developments. The labour market is also improving rapidly, which holds out the prospect of higher incomes and greater spending. Unemployment is declining and the number of people in job retention schemes has fallen by about 28 million from the peak last year. The 1/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  recovery in domestic and global demand is further boosting optimism among firms, which is supporting business investment. At the same time, there remains some way to go before the damage to the economy caused by the pandemic is overcome. There are still more than two million fewer people employed than before the pandemic, especially among the younger and lower skilled. The number of workers in job retention schemes also remains substantial. To support the recovery, ambitious, targeted and coordinated fiscal policy should continue to complement monetary policy. In particular, the Next Generation EU programme will help ensure a stronger and uniform recovery across euro area countries. It will also accelerate the green and digital transitions, support structural reforms and lift long-term growth. We expect the economy to rebound firmly over the medium term. Our new staff projections foresee annual real GDP growth at 5.0 per cent in 2021, 4.6 per cent in 2022 and 2.1 per cent in 2023.
This exception allows an independent institution outside the normal process of democratic and political accountability to be entrusted with authority for monetary policy only under the condition that it has a clearly defined mandate allowing the public to hold it accountable for the performance of the technical tasks assigned to it by the legislator. The clearer and narrower the mandate of a central bank is, the easier it is for the citizens to monitor its performance. [16] In the case of the ECB’s monetary policy, the Treaty sets out, in very clear terms, that the primary objective of the ECB is to maintain price stability. Also, the permissible rate of inflation is quantified by the ECB through the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), which is easy to understand and is updated at frequent intervals. [17] On the other hand, with the conferral of new functions and tasks on the ECB, multiple objectives may arise, which may obstruct the accountability process and, ultimately, compromise the democratic legitimacy of central bank independence. Since the independence granted to a central bank is an exception to the general rule that public administration should be subject to scrutiny and oversight by democratically elected institutions, the scope of a central bank’s independence should be interpreted narrowly and may not be automatically extended to other policy areas.

In particular, in its supervisory activities, the ECB must apply all relevant Union law and, where the Union law is in the form of directives, the national legislation transposing those directives. [25] The ECB is also subject to binding regulatory and implementing technical standards developed by the European Banking Authority (EBA) and adopted by the Commission[26] and to the EBA’s powers to resolve disputes between competent authorities in a legally binding manner. [27] While the ECB is consulted on draft legislation within its fields of competence, the ECB is not a supervisory policymaker and its supervisory tasks, although entailing discretionary judgement, focus on the implementation and enforcement of supervisory policies and rules established by democratically accountable institutions. Even though operational independence is of importance to the http://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2017/html/sp170330.en.html[03.04.2017 15:53:14]  Central bank independence revisited  manner in which these tasks are carried out, the fact that a supervisor is required to act in response to decisions made by, or in cooperation with, policymakers and other supervisors means that the high level of protection from external influence that is guaranteed under Article 130 of the Treaty is not appropriate for these tasks. The provisions on independence in the SSM Regulation are similar to Article 130 of the Treaty, but serve a different purpose. The personal and instrument independence are also different.