samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
An FA representative could earn a basic commission of 50% of the policy’s annual premium in the first year, and another 40% of the annual premium during the following five years.   His supervisor would in turn earn overriding commissions throughout the first six years. There is typically a third tier comprising the agency managers who also get overrides.   Total overrides during the first six years can amount to 70% of the policy’s annual premium.   Together, the total commissions and overrides earned by the representative and his supervisors would be equivalent to about 160% of the policy’s annual premium. FAIR will examine whether this commission structure aligns the interest of representatives with the long term interest of consumers, whether these representatives have the adverse incentive to sell products that pay them higher commissions, and whether the tier structure provides value for the customer or merely adds cost. Most major jurisdictions have long moved away from the tiered structure. The United Kingdom and Australia are moving towards a fee-based model. They have, in fact, banned commission payments from product manufacturers to financial institutions except in the case of pure-protection products. Enhance transparency of distribution and other costs A third way in which we can lower distribution and related costs is to enhance the transparency of these costs. Presently, benefit illustrations show the total distribution costs but hide the direct payout to a representative. Customers should know what they are paying for.

Ravi Menon: Financial advisory services – putting the customer first Keynote address by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the Life Insurance Association 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner, Singapore, 26 March 2012. *  *  *  LIA President, Mr Tan Hak Leh Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Role of life insurance and financial advisory services Saving for the future, investing for returns, and protecting against risk – these are the fundamentals of managing our finances. Yet so few of us do it well. We are far better at earning an income than investing it and protecting against risk. To make matters worse, many life insurance and investment products are often not easy to understand. Many people are not financially savvy. And many of those who are, do not have the time to review the range of insurance and investment products available, and understand what is best suited for their needs. This is where financial advisory service comes in. Financial advisers can help people identify their insurance and financial planning needs and recommend suitable products. The roles of insurers and financial advisers are intimately intertwined. It must be so. Insurance protects dependants. Investments grow savings and wealth. How can we buy insurance without regard to our broader investment portfolio? Likewise, how can we invest without considering how well we are protected against death or disease? Life insurance and financial advisory services go hand in hand.
As historical evidence suggests, it is possible for financial imbalances to develop even in an environment of stable and low inflation. Therefore as the second implication, it is impossible to avoid crises without discipline in financial markets. Then it naturally follows that the risk management developed as a distinct banking discipline in the 1990s. New tools and methods to manage the market and credit risk were developed, and brought about a dramatic increase in the volume of capital movements in the financial sector and variety of instruments. Efficient supervision became the vital part of this internal discipline. I should also admit that, as financial engineering contributes to development of new and complex instruments, such instruments also create obstacles to supervisory authorities given their sophisticated structures. As a result, a long debate started among both academics and policy makers as to whether the objective of price stability or financial stability should take priority for a central bank. I do not want to take sides in this debate. We, central bankers, are responsible for providing a stable economic environment, in which the economy operates efficiently in the long run. And prerequisites for a stable economic environment are both price stability and financial stability. So, there is always a strong reason for keeping financial stability in the central banks’ reaction functions. Therefore, these two objectives are not in conflict in the long run, but are complementary to each other. Accordingly, financial stability has increasingly become an auxiliary objective of central banks to pursue.

Cards can be physically stolen or credit card numbers can be acquired by thieves over the phone, internet or website and then used illegally to rack up debts. Access Bank must therefore, develop adequate security measures that can protect it and its clients from the crimes which seem to pervade the electronic based payment platforms. To fight this crime, you will need to educate your customers on how to safely and securely conduct transaction using their cards. You will help prevent fraud by educating your customers on what to do when they lose their card or wallet, how to secure their card by, for instance, not giving out credit card information anyhow or on the website and the need to check statements closely. On their part, cardholders must also do their part as responsible  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  cardholders, including paying off balances on credit cards as required, not loaning credit cards to others or divulging credit card information to anyone not entitled to it. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me reiterate my words of commendation to Access Bank for introducing this product on the market. It is a great product which when used properly will benefit both the bank and its customers. This outcome is however, predicted on customers using the card wisely and responsibly and on the bank issuing cards to clients after a careful vetting and scrutiny and charging fair interest on the product. Failure to choose creditworthy customers will lead to defaults which may trigger excessive charges.
Also, we should strengthen regional coordination on crisis management, for example, in dealing with home regulator on the resolution of SIFIs, supplemented by a process of supervisory surveillance of SIFIs’ operating in the region that extends to highly interconnected markets such as OTC derivatives and interbank transactions. Third, is the need to strengthen the regional financial system through greater regional financial integration and development of a robust region-wide financial infrastructure. At this time, efforts to strengthen financial systems through reform and institutional building are being carried out visibly at the national level. In Thailand, the Bank of Thailand has embarked on its second Financial Sector Master Plan aimed at promoting greater efficiency through competition, expanding access to financial services, and strengthening local financial  2  BIS Review 105/2010  infrastructure. But at the regional level, large benefits to the region’s longer-term growth and welfare can be gained by promoting closer integration of financial systems in the region through the development of the region’s asset market, the banking sector, financial technology and financial infrastructure. All this will help ensure a continued translation into productive investment of the region’s high savings, intermediated by Asia’s own financial system. This is a feature that, in my view, is most critical for achieving and ensuring sustained economic growth and prosperity in Asia. I hope this brief remark is useful. Again, I would like to thank Bank Negara Malaysia and the ADBI for the invitation. Thank you. BIS Review 105/2010  3

The Fund serves as a buffer between current petroleum revenues and the spending of these revenues in the Norwegian economy. It is important to note that the entire petroleum revenues, as well as the return on the Fund, go into the Government Pension Fund. Then, an amount equal to the non-oil budget deficit is transferred into the fiscal budget. This mechanism ensures three objectives: First, the variability in petroleum revenues is isolated to the growth rate of the Fund. Second, any use of the Fund is integrated into the ordinary budget routine and does not undermine the fiscal budget as a single instrument for assigning priority to different needs. And third, the amount of spending of petroleum revenues, that is the size of the non-oil budget deficit, can be aligned with the needs of fiscal policy as well as with the targeted intergenerational distribution. Note that this setup for the Fund can work with different fiscal rules or guidelines for how large the non-oil budget deficit should be. In Norway, the Storting (Norwegian parliament) has approved a fiscal guideline that implies that the annual non-oil deficit should, on average over time, be limited to 4 per  BIS Review 45/2007  1  cent of the Pension Fund. This is equal to the long-term expected real return on the Fund. Such a guideline provides predictability in the level of spending. If the government disregards the guideline, enterprises will loose an important reference in gauging the expansiveness in fiscal policy.
We are now focusing our efforts on four major areas: first, building Hong Kong’s international profile and forging closer ties with market participants in the Middle East; secondly, promoting market infrastructure and establishing policies conducive to the development of Islamic finance; thirdly, promoting talent and knowledge of Islamic financial principles among market professionals in Hong Kong; and fourthly, encouraging the development and launch of Islamic finance products in Hong Kong. Concluding remarks Ladies and gentlemen, the potential for the growth of Islamic finance is clear. The foundations for its development here in Hong Kong have already been laid. It is essential for all of us to look beyond the current global financial turbulence and treat the development of Islamic finance as an investment in the future. With this in mind, I would like to encourage all of you, whether you are regulators, financial institutions or investors, to look critically at the opportunities that lie before us. Islamic finance is a new asset class that has the potential to bring new economic growth to Hong Kong and the region given our wealth of knowledge in financial intermediation, our experience, and our agility in adopting innovative products. So let us work together towards building a stronger and stronger link and increasing cooperation with other global players to identify and capitalise on new opportunities. Today’s holding of the Islamic Finance Forum in Hong Kong is a significant step on a journey that is just beginning. I look forward to travelling this road with all of you. Thank you.

It is my hope, therefore, that you will include on your agenda issues to do with ICT solutions to address financial inclusion for sustainable development. Let me now turn my attention to another key issue that I expect delegates to discuss at this Conference. This relates to the crucial role that the SADC IT Forum plays in the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), which is the SADC long-term (15-Year) Strategy. It is envisaged that the Committee of Central Bank Governors (CCBG) in SADC will continue to work on the process of monetary and financial integration in the region. In order to meet this aspiration, there is a need to harmonise central banking practices and procedures across the SADC region and benchmark these against international best practices. I therefore trust that this Conference will seek to prepare a RISDP Action Plan which will steer ICTs within the SADC region to higher levels. Equally important, I also expect that this initiative will assist central banks to harmonise ICT functions and come up with shared regional communication infrastructures that promote economic development. Distinguished Delegates, at this juncture let me also thank representatives of the hardware and software suppliers for coming to this Conference. These are our partners and the technologies that have been implemented in our central banks would not have been possible without their technical advice, expertise and innovation.
Figure 2 Inflation indicators (*) (annual change, percent)  8  8 Core services  6  CPI  6  4  4  2  2 Core CPI  0  Core goods  0  -2  -2  -4  -4 13  14  15  16  17  (*) Starting from January 2014 the new indexes with base year 2013=100 are used, and are thus not strictly comparable with previous figures. Sources: Central Bank of Chile and National Statistics Institute. 2  5. Although in the baseline scenario headline inflation is expected to continue declining in the coming months towards the lower bound of our tolerance range, it is foreseen to return to 3% by the end of 2017 and fluctuate close to target towards the first quarter of 2019. Market expectations are very similar to our forecasts. Convergence of inflation rests on two main assumptions: first, that our RER will remain relatively stable at its current levels --a level we believe is consistent with fundamentals-- and, second, that the output gap will gradually close by the end of this year (Figure 3).

Today I will cover three key areas: •  Firstly, how we want to expand access to RTGS to enhance financial stability and promote competition;  1  Bank of England, A blueprint for a new RTGS service for the United Kingdom, https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/paper/2017/ablueprint-for-a-new-rtgs-service-for-the-uk  3  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  3  •  Secondly, how we are examining ways of supporting settlement across innovative payment technologies; and  •  Finally how ISO 20022 implementation will support innovation, harmonisation and resilience. Improving access  The Bank wants to see the next generation of RTGS support greater competition and innovation within the payments industry. Expanding access to the service also has the benefit of providing greater financial stability by reducing operational reliance on a small number of banks and lowering the credit exposures between direct and indirect participants. We have therefore changed the access criteria to enable non-bank Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to join. Earlier this year Transferwise was the first non-bank to gain direct access to RTGS, followed soon after by Ipagoo. Going forward we also want to make the onboarding process smoother and more efficient. For instance, we intend to introduce automated testing, which will reduce the burden and manual effort required by both new and existing participants when someone joins RTGS. And we will introduce simulators to help onboarders better familiarise themselves with RTGS and the full functionality it offers before going live. Innovative payment technologies  The UK is a world-leader in financial services technology and innovation.
In a broad sense a need for greater transparency was recognised in relation to public policy, to the relationship between the public and private sectors, to corporate governance and accounting and so on. In a narrower sense there was seen to be a need for greater and more timely disclosure of financial information generally, but especially in relation to countries’ true foreign exchange reserve positions and in relation to their short term external debt. The general point is that we cannot reasonably expect markets to make a proper assessment of the risks of their lending if they do not have adequate information in accessible form. The corollary is that where they do have adequate information they can be expected to accept the penalty if their judgements prove ill-founded. The second condition for more stable capital flows is stronger financial systems. That includes for example the broadening of capital markets so that the allocation of capital is less concentrated on local banking systems. It includes robust financial infrastructure - for example payments and settlements systems. And it includes more effective financial regulation and supervision. A key feature of future arrangements for me in this area is the encouragement of more active management of short-term foreign currency assets relative to liabilities, by both the public BIS Review 36/1998  -6-  sector and the local banks, taking account of the nature of the exchange rate regime. weaknesses in this area, above all, in my view that turned the Asian problem into a panic.

Durmuş Yılmaz: Global crises and economic governance Speech by Mr Durmuş Yılmaz, Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, at the conference on “Global crises and economic governance”, İnönü University, Malatya, 15 April 2010. *  *  *  Distinguished Rector, Distinguished Academicians and Esteemed Guests, First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the organization of this conference, primarily Prof. Cemil Çelik, the Rector of İnönü University and distinguished faculty members of the university. I take great pleasure in participating in such an event with you. I would like to start my speech with a brief evaluation of the global financial crisis. Later on, I will share with you my observations related to developments in the global economy and the Turkish economy. After presenting a brief overview of the monetary policy implemented and the measures taken by the Central Bank during the crisis, I would like to close my speech with the monetary policy exit strategy, which we announced to the public yesterday. As you know, problems that emerged in the US subprime mortgage market in the second half of 2007 spread the whole world to reach threatening levels for both financial and economic stability. We can say that the reaction of market players and the public has gone through four subsequent stages since the eruption of the crisis. These stages can be summarized as those of Denial, Disappointment, Panic and Hope.
This is to ensure that the adopted international standards are consistent with Asia’s long-term interest in sustaining economic growth and stability, while helping to promote higher standards for banking supervision and regulation globally. To this end, I think emerging markets Asia, as a group, must aim for a coordinated response on at least three fronts. First, is the coordinated approach with respect to implementing the new global regulatory standards. This means emerging market Asia needs to aim for a degree of flexibility whereby national or regional variation or discretion is warranted in pursuing the shared global standards. The aim of flexibility is to adapt the new standards for local settings, taking account of the vast diversity that exists in levels of development and structures of the region’s financial systems. The dimensions which such adaptive flexibility may apply include timing of implementation, as well as technical calibration of policy measures. Second, to ensure an effective adoption of the global standards, Asia needs to establish a regional approach or standards on the key regulatory and supervisory issues. For example, on the issue of cross-border supervision, we need more effective home-host relationships with more authority for host supervisors with regard to information sharing especially during a crisis, and national discretion on capital and liquidity requirements of local operations of SIFIs.

The focus on a macro-perspective of systemic risk is definitely important and the use of macroprudential measures is not new in Asia, especially in the context of limiting credit and asset price excesses that can have broader financial stability implications. Recently, however, macroprudential measures have been used, in combination with monetary policy, to manage the macro-implications of large capital inflows. To this end, while the short-term benefits of macroprudential policies for financial stability purposes are clear, they are no substitute for a proper alignment of macroeconomic policy. The challenge, therefore, is how to appropriately utilise macroprudential policies in the context of managing both economic and financial stability. Going forward, therefore, emerging markets Asia will have to address these important policy challenges, and the way they go about meeting the challenge will have important implications not only for Asia’s own growth and stability, but also for the continued resilience of Asian financial systems, as well as the future of international banking. Against this background, I want to leave you with a few thoughts on the way forward. My overriding message is simple: given the complexity of the proposed reforms, the recent experience of implementation and coordination gaps, and the implications that the new global standards can have for Asia’s growth prospects and the stability of the financial system, it is important that Asia plays a stronger role in shaping global policies.
I also intend to briefly comment on how I viewed the current situation in the labour market in connection with the monetary policy meeting in May and what significance this had for my stance at the meeting. However, I will not give any new monetary policy signals. But first I shall begin by providing some historical perspective on this issue by giving an account of the background to the economic policy change of regime at the beginning of the 1990s. From fine-tuning stabilisation policy to "stable game rules” Unemployment is currently high in comparison with the levels that prevailed during the 1970s and 1980s. Open unemployment at that time varied between 1.5 and 3.5 per cent. In the mid-1990s open unemployment went up to just over 8 per cent, while during recent years it has varied between 4 and 6 per cent. However, the factors that contributed to holding down unemployment during earlier decades at the same time contributed to the economic crisis at the beginning of the 1990s and also to the need for an economic policy change of regime. From the 1950s up to the mid-1970s the authorities in Sweden attempted to conduct what is usually known as fine-tuning stabilisation policy. This involved trying to parry fluctuations in economic activity with an active fiscal policy. This policy was relatively successful up to around the mid-1960s. With the target of full employment in their line of vision, politicians were then tempted to conduct an economic policy that was on average too expansionary.

Chart: The 50-krone banknote (The Lighthouse) As Norwegians, we carry with us a long and rich history of living from and with the sea – from the seafarers of the medieval Saga Age to today’s international shipping companies. For centuries, the shipping route along our coast was our lifeline. Goods from all over the country were ferried via inland waterways out to the coast and from there to other parts of Norway and to other countries. From near and far, other goods came in return. But the coastline of Norway is also dangerous. Without seamarks and lighthouses, safe travel along the coast or through narrow coastal channels would be impossible. A total of 21 000 lighthouses and seamarks safeguard navigation along our coast. Chart: The 100-krone banknote (The Gokstad Ship) Seamarks have a long history in Norway. As early as the year 869, Vikings on their way home were able to steer their ships towards the mouth of the Hardangerfjord guided by a bonfire built on a clifftop cairn. The Vikings were not only plunderers and pillagers, but boatbuilders and, not least, skilled seamen. They built Norway’s reputation as Europe’s leading sea power, while the sea took them out into the world and into contact with other cultures. The Vikings were also traders, and they knew that the sea was a versatile resource. Ever since the end of the Ice Age, when the glaciers retreated and the very first Norwegians made their homes near the seashore, we have harvested food from the sea.