samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Stories of destitution among retirees is one but many of the sad stories, I would like you to avoid. Guard the assets that you have acquired in your working life jealously, because retirement does not give you multiple chances to make amends when you make unsound business decisions. It is for this reason that the Bank, through Human Resources Department, has engaged Future Search a Consultancy firm to give you tips on how to live in retirement, I urge you to attend the upcoming workshop. I therefore wish you God’s blessings as your pursue the challenges of life in retirement. Thank you. BIS Review 1/2007  1

2 The Covid crisis has seen a further acceleration in the pace of digitalisation. Online sales have surged – coupled with a decline in the use of cash and less reliance on cards – and use of digital banking has increased. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee has been focusing on the macroeconomic impacts of the changes the pandemic has caused to what we buy, what we make and how we work, as I outlined in a speech I gave last November. 3 It’s a complex picture, and it’s still far too early to say what the long term economic effects of these developments will be. But what certainly has changed for good are our expectations of what services all of us should be able to access from our homes; which will see more work done such as my speech to you today .Digital finance, in all its forms, will be crucial to the recovery and to the post-Covid form of the economy. Into this changed landscape Ron Kalifa published his Independent Fintech Strategic Review earlier this year.4 The Bank welcomes this report, which provides a timely opportunity for us to reflect on our role and how Ron’s recommendations fit with our work to support safe innovation. So how do we see our role in the fintech landscape? At its most basic, I would say that private-sector innovation relies on public-sector foundations.
First: intensifying competition between financial institutions Whereas financial institutions formerly operated in separate segments of closed economies, they must now compete in financial markets with other financial institutions, both domestic and foreign, regulated and unregulated, as in the case of pension or hedge funds. Financial innovation puts incessant competitive pressure on the providers of financial services which were formerly clearly distinguishable. Credit institutions, investment firms and insurance corporations increasingly offer products that have some similarities in terms of yield or hedging and thus find themselves competing for overlapping customer bases. Competition between financial sectors has also increased in step with technological advances, which have enabled the emergence of new players in the financial sector. E-traders and e-brokers are challenging the dominant positions of banks and brokerage firms. The service providers for outsourced activities peripheral to financial business, such as back-office or custodian services, are also becoming increasingly important. In the future, Internet access providers or telephony companies may well become fully-fledged financial players in their own right. 1  BIS Review 85/2000  Second: stiffer competition between markets The development of information technology and telecommunications has allowed economic agents to move their capital at will. As a result, their investment and borrowing decisions are based on the opportunities available on all markets. •  Domestic exchanges have become mere compartments of the global market and find themselves competing with each other. •  Exchanges must also compete with the extraordinary expansion of over-the-counter markets.

We cannot justify having a banking system that depends on the use of public money to douse the fire when the crisis comes. And we also cannot allow conditions to exist where risks are taken on the basis that this backstop exists. “Too big” or “Too important to fail” are shorthand for institutions that exist in their chosen form as a result of underwriting with public money. I don’t believe that there is anything controversial about a statement that no industry can take on a form which is a consequence of such a massive potential, and of course recently actual, call on public money. The big issue is therefore what to do to correct the situation. There are three elements to the debate: regulation, structure and resolution. We can re-design and re-build the fire prevention systems in the existing landscape. This is the regulation element. At the heart of this is action on capital requirements, including a role for contingent capital and larger liquidity buffers. But we may also conclude that we want to prevent fires by having a different landscape of buildings – a town planning solution in which the structure of the industry is re-drawn. And in the past, cities were rebuilt with that objective in mind. This is the structure element. But, whichever combination of these courses we choose to take, we cannot guarantee that there will be no fires in the future, and we would be extremely foolish if we made that promise.
When credit was no longer available, many business models collapsed. Heavy losses were passed on to owners and investors. The situation for savings in the Fund is different. We have had to record losses on equity investments and active credit investments. However, the Fund has no traditional liability side and liquidity risk is low. The growing risks in the market did not force us to make changes that would have resulted in huge realised losses for our owners. The final results of our strategies through the troubled waters of the financial crisis cannot be deduced from the quarterly results at the peak of the crisis. Actually, the Fund has spent the last few quarters increasing its ownership in companies worldwide. As for credit, values are not lost as long as borrowers fulfil their obligations. The Fund is prepared to retain ownership of its illiquid investments until they mature in a few years time. Moreover, unless the economic outlook goes from bad to considerably worse, the Fund will record a substantial excess return in years ahead from holding on to assets that the market has priced down due to a collapse in liquidity and fear. In fact, as the global economy seems to be stabilising, this effect is already evident. Let me conclude by underlining the topic of this conference: “Investing for the long run”. The Fund is a long-term savings plan and capable of riding out large swings in the markets. This is the very foundation of the investment strategy.

However, when it comes to the size of financial markets, there are a couple of caveats that I wish to add. First, a larger and deeper financial system may attract increased capital flows, and consequently, lead to increased volatility of the exchange rate. Such volatility can be mitigated if the foreign exchange markets are also deep enough to absorb the variations in the demand and supply of foreign exchange. Exchange rate flexibility is necessary and having a healthy level of foreign exchange rate reserves is also helpful in times when there is significant volatility of capital flows. During the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997–98, net portfolio outflows were RM31 billion. During the 2008–09 financial crisis in the AEs, we experienced almost three times that much outflows without any significant disruption of domestic financial intermediation. The second caveat has to do with the question of whether a financial system can become too big whereby it becomes a drag on the economy. Based on research at the BIS and the IMF, this may indeed be the case. In July 2012, Stephen Cecchetti and Enisse Kharroubi of the BIS published a paper, where based on a study of 50 advanced and emerging countries from 1980–2009, they found that beyond a certain point, further growth of the financial system can actually reduce real growth by reducing productivity growth. Furthermore, a fast growing financial sector can also drag down productivity growth by pulling away scarce resources from the rest of the economy.
Confidence in the Swedish financial system could have been seriously damaged if a failure like the one at Lehman Brothers had been allowed to occur. The Riksbank’s assessment was that the two banks were experiencing temporary liquidity problems, but that their solvency was not threatened. Finansinspektionen later revoked Carnegie’s licence to conduct banking activities owing to serious deficiencies in the company’s risk management and violation of the law concerning asset management. The decision to revoke the licence thus had nothing to do with Carnegie’s liquidity problems or with the Riksbank’s loan. Carnegie is now owned by the Swedish National Debt Office and the Riksbank’s liquidity assistance has been repaid. The Riksdag (the Swedish parliament) has also introduced a new act concerning support to credit institutions, which will give the government the opportunity to take the necessary measures to strengthen stability in the financial system. For instance, a government guarantee programme has been presented to support the banks’ and mortgage institutions’ medium-term funding, and a stability fund has been established to manage potential future solvency problems in Swedish institutions. The current situation Despite the crisis in the global financial markets and the increasingly gloomy economic prospects, the assessment is that the Swedish banks still have good resilience to facing the situation that has arisen and future developments. 1 The losses arising from the international crisis have so far been limited, not least in an international perspective, and the Swedish banks have good financial strength.

The reason for the repo rate cuts was to alleviate the effects of the financial crisis on the real economy, while ensuring that inflation stabilised around the target of two per cent. Although monetary policy cannot be used to resolve the financial problems, it can help to dampen the negative effects on the real economy, without jeopardising the inflation target. The Riksbank’s assessment is that the financial crisis aggravates the ongoing economic downturn resulting in weaker growth, a deterioration in the labour market and lower inflation. The repo rate therefore needs to be cut by a relatively large amount during a short period of time. In addition to the cuts already made, the assessment at the most recent meeting was that the repo rate needs to be cut by a further 0.50 percentage points, to 3.25 per cent, over the coming six months. The repo rate is currently less effective than normal as a tool for influencing the economy. The repo rate cuts in October did not lead to an immediate fall in interbank rates. The confidence crisis in the financial system has meant that the normal link between market rates and the repo rate has been broken. Although market rates also declined, there remains an unusually large gap between the repo rate and mortgage rates in particular. The gap between the 3-month lending rate to households and the repo rate has been around 100 basis points in less turbulent periods than that we are experiencing now. At present the gap is around 200 basis points.
These objectives of macro-economic policy – monetary and overall fiscal policy – will certainly be familiar to you in this country; they are at the heart of the policies being pursued right across Europe;  BIS Review 36/2001  1  and they are the policies endorsed, too, by all the members of the IMF in the Madrid Declaration adopted at the IMF Annual Meeting in 1994 and expanded and updated two years later. Of course on occasion the flesh proves to be weaker than the spirit – and achieving these macro-economic objectives is not easy in practice even as a technical matter. But the intention – the international commitment to macro-economic stability – is clear. Acceptance of the aim of macro-economic stability served to bring into sharper focus the structural, supply side, of the economy – that is the whole raft of influences that can affect the underlying growth rate of capacity and thus the growth rate of aggregate demand that can be sustained. And here, too, there has been a strengthening international presumption in favour of open markets and free competition – both domestically and internationally – with a continuing strong presumption against predatory trade or exchange rate manipulation. The justification is that undistorted competition contributes to potential global economic growth through increased efficiency and the more effective allocation of productive resources. Faster growth in turn provides a more favourable context for addressing social concerns, including the issue of poverty.

The international presumption in favour of free markets in itself is somewhat remarkable, given that, at the micro-economic level, increased competition invariably constitutes a threat to established producers – and their employees – who might well be tempted to urge protection in one form or another on their national governments. Consumers, who benefit from such competition, tend to be less vocal or well organised. The threat of protectionism is never, therefore, far away. But in fact the presumption in favour of competition has proved encouragingly robust. And that is not just in relation to international trade. There is a parallel presumption in favour of freedom of capital movements, and much greater openness around the world to foreign investment. Among other things on the supply-side, there is a shared emphasis on the need to direct public spending to developing human resources through education and training, to effective health care, and affordable social safety nets. There has been a global trend to privatisation through which governments have increasingly returned essentially commercial activities, in which they have no necessary comparative advantage, to market disciplines. And there is a common recognition of the need for reforms in labour and product markets designed to reduce distortions which impede the efficient allocation of resources. Now I do not pretend to you, Mr Chairman, that the international policy consensus in favour of macroeconomic stability and supply-side reform is fully articulated, particularly on the supply side; nor do I claim that it is subscribed to in its detail equally in every IMF member country.
Indeed, banks’ additional mobilisation of government bonds as Eurosystem collateral currently appears to be relatively small when compared to other asset classes, especially non-marketable additional credit claims. [27] Quarter-end effects have diminished in recent years, owing in part to improvements in euro area banks’ leverage ratios. For a discussion of the effects of regulation on money market volumes, rates and dispersion, including the analysis of quarter-end effects, see Corradin et al (2020), op. cit. [28] Correa, R., Du, W. and Liao, G. (2020), “U.S. Banks and Global Liquidity,” Working Paper. [29] By effectively lowering the cost of holding central bank reserves, the temporary exclusion of central bank reserve holdings from the leverage ratio contributes on the regulatory front to the mitigation of the impact of negative rates on bank profitability, complementing the effect of the two-tier system and the more favourable TLTRO borrowing rate on the monetary policy front. The press release announcing the temporary relief is available here. 23 November 2020  Slides Related topics  Coronavirus  Financial crisis  Monetary policy Banking sector  Policies  Collateral  Liquidity  Disclaimer Please note that related topic tags are currently available for selected content only. European Central Bank Directorate General Communications Sonnemannstrasse 20, 60314 Frankfurt am Main, Germany Tel. : +49 69 1344 7455, email: media@ecb.europa.eu Website: www.ecb.europa.eu Reproduction is permitted provided that the source is acknowledged.  Media contacts  Copyright 2020, European Central Bank  https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2020/html/ecb.sp201123~8d9573b1b1.en.html  7/7

At the end of 2019, just before the pandemic started, the HKMA held an AML/CFT RegTech Forum to explore the role that technology could play in preventing and detecting financial crime. One of the key lessons that transpired from that event was the importance of bringing different parts of the eco-system together to discuss common challenges and pain points with Fintech firms who may be able to offer solutions. And we have followed up across the three breakout groups of banks, what we called accelerators, enablers and collaborators1, over the past year on concrete plans of individual banks. 22. In January this year, we released a report titled “AML/CFT Regtech: Case studies and Insights”. Through that, we shared comprehensive, hands-on experience from banks at different stages of AML/CFT Regtech adoption, and emphasised a number of key insights on the potential for technologies to assist in detecting and preventing money laundering and financial crime. 23. In that guidance, we have also deliberately and explicitly identified specific technologies and data applications, such as data analytics and the use of non-traditional data like IP addresses as well as robotic process automation in handling transaction monitoring alerts. Actually, some of those technologies featured prominently in the successes we saw in identifying and disrupting networks of mule accounts linked to COVID-19 scams and also the rising number of investment scams. 24.
Chile) External prices (in $  -4.2 3.2 3.2 2.6 2.6 6.9 2.0 -0.4 -9.8  0.4 2.9 3.1 2.3 1.6 6.7 1.6 -1.2 -2.5  LME copper price $ WTI oil price $ Brent oil price $ Gasoline parity price $ Libor $ (nominal, 90 days)  249 49 52 467 0.3  220 43 44 389 0.8  2017 (f) 2018 (f) Dec.16 Mar.17 Dec.16 Mar.17 Report Report Report Report (annual change, percent) 1.9 1.1 4.6 -0.5 -0.5 2.8 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.0 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.5 2.3 2.6 2.8 2.8 2.9 1.6 2.3 2.3 2.3 2.3 6.7 6.2 6.4 6.0 6.2 1.7 1.5 1.7 1.6 1.7 -1.8 1.4 1.3 2.3 2.5 -2.7 1.1 2.1 1.7 1.3 (levels) 221 235 255 240 250 43 54 50 55 50 44 56 52 57 52 389 461 457 464 444 0.7 1.5 1.5 2.5 2.5  (e) Estimate. (f) Forecast. Source: Central Bank of Chile.

5  A couple of years ago the connected cars platform Next became the first company to be authorised to undertake such a round of financing in Spain. 6  W. Mougayar (2016), “The Business Blockchain: Promise, Practice, and Application of the Next Internet Technology”, Ed. Wiley. 2  fractions which, in turn, can bear ownership rights and ultimately render such properties more liquid. An alternative taxonomy distinguishes between traditional crypto-assets and “stablecoins”. In an attempt to reduce their volatility, the latter are usually backed by other real or virtual assets as a means of collateral. For example, some stablecoins are pegged to legal tender, while others are anchored to commodities, bonds or even other digital assets. In some cases, even the overall wealth of the issuer can serve as collateral.7 Algorithmic stablecoins are another, albeit less common, category; here, formal collateralisation is replaced by a series of automatic supply adjustment mechanisms. In comparison to other stablecoins, the latter are subject to greater price fluctuations and arise more doubts as to their potential use as a means of payment. A prime example of this just happened a few weeks ago with Terra: a stablecoin which, despite remaining relatively firm around the US dollar for a long time, suddenly lost that nexus and caused significant losses to investors. The functionalities or operating characteristics of crypto-assets also vary notably. Perhaps the most visible example of this is the consensus mechanism that is used to approve crypto-asset transactions.
The introduction of the Financial Markets Committee (FMC) measures has put in place the foundation for a healthier and more vibrant financial and foreign exchange market. As a result of the strong economic performance in 2017 and the improved sentiments following these measures, the ringgit has strengthened by 14.6% in 2017 and 2018 thus far. The ringgit has also been of the most stable currency in the region. As our economic outlook remains strong, the ringgit will continue to reflect this strength. For Bank Negara, we have always indicated that market forces will determine the value of the ringgit. There has never been a target level for the ringgit exchange rate. With the economy and financial markets constantly evolving, fixation on a particular level of ringgit exchange rate is counterproductive, if not detrimental to the economy. What matters for Bank Negara and all of us here is to ensure that any adjustments taking place is done in a gradual and orderly manner, without causing undue disruptions to businesses and households. The foreign exchange market can sometimes be very fickle. Therefore, we should always remain on our guard, as the global economic and financial conditions may change rapidly following many developments such as normalisation of interest rates, geopolitical risks and the tendency to adopt policies that might curtail open trade. The ringgit’s recent appreciation and stability is not something that we should take for granted. What we have learnt in recent years is to never downplay the unexpected.

In 2017, insurers and takaful operators issued 1.5 million cheques while 5.7 million were collected from customers. This is a huge number. Cheques are very costly, inefficient and obsolete. If the industry does not respond to these challenges, then others will. Over the past year, the Bank has allowed financial product aggregators to offer insurance and takaful products on a nonadvisory basis under the Regulatory Sandbox. These platforms allow consumers to easily compare and assess product offerings, thus increasing the visibility of insurance and takaful products and supporting our objective of digitalising insurance and takaful distribution. The Bank is close to finalising changes to the regulatory framework that will enable online product aggregators to operate with broad access to the insurance and takaful market by the end of this year. This is a game-changing initiative that will pave the way for a more contestable insurance and takaful market going forward, ultimately improving access and choice for consumers. For the industry, it offers the potential to open up new market segments that were previously untapped, particularly younger millennials, and lower the cost of bringing new products to the market. Third, the takaful industry has to have the right people with the right competence. Strong leadership and quality talent are needed to steer the industry forward to reach greater heights. Let us start from the top with each company’s leadership – shareholders, the board and senior management. For the industry to really break new ground, we need to consider a total reimagination of the takaful model.