samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
And deposit protection schemes ensure that transactional balances up to £ remain interchangeable with cash even if that happens. This model is relatively recent. It was not ever thus. And as we think about new forms of digital payments, it is important that we do not take this for granted. A large number of financial crises of the last century have featured a loss of confidence in the reliability and safety of the money people rely on for transactions. Money that is usually considered safe. Money that people normally do not think about very much. In the emerging market financial crises of the 1990s and early 2000s, people and businesses lost faith in the state’s ability to maintain the value of their local currency against the dollar4. Other crises have had at their heart a loss of confidence in the ability of private issuers – commercial banks – to fulfil their IOUs with depositors and lenders and maintain the interchangeability and reliability of the money they issued. Think of the Great Depression-era bank run depicted in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’. Think of the Northern Rock example – where worries about the Northern Rock’s funding led to a crisis of confidence; first from wholesale lenders and then from retail depositors – who suddenly worried that their deposits would no longer be interchangeable with cash or other bank deposits. Remember the queues outside of branches in 2007, as depositors rushed to exchange their deposits before – they believed – it might be too late5.

Financial market infrastructure firms are also regulated to ensure that the assets they use for settlement – the underpinnings of our financial transactions, whether we’re buying milk or clearing a derivative – are public money issued by a central bank wherever possible. Where that’s not possible they are permitted to settle in money deemed to be a close substitute – 3/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  commercial bank money. If stablecoins seek to be acceptable widespread substitutes for commercial bank deposits as a means of payment, it stands to reason that stablecoins will need to meet the core elements of our existing regulatory framework for private money which underpins confidence that it is interchangeable with cash8. These are: A legal claim – to allow for prompt redemption at all times, for the amount initially deposited, and at no cost to the depositor; In other words – the little boy’s right in ‘Mary Poppins’ to demand that the bank ‘give him back his money. Capital requirements – to lower the risk of insolvency, these are calculated based on the nature of the risks issuers undertake (credit, operational, market risks); they act as a cushion to absorb losses, reducing the chances that a firm fails. Liquidity requirements – to ensure redemptions can be met in most circumstances – supported by eligibility for central bank facilities where relevant, to meet firms’ liquidity needs in extremis.
I do accept, however, that the BES case has served as a reminder that there are risks beneath the surface in the European banking sector, and I am convinced that  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  the Single Supervisory Mechanism will be able to examine the financial health of the institutions in depth. Q: Could something similar to the BES case happen in other countries? A: This is always a possibility. Risks are inherent in banking activities. The only solution is a robust management framework within each bank and on a European level, coupled with instruments such as the Single Supervisory Mechanism or the Single Resolution Mechanism, which will be available in case of crisis. Q: Some analysts are comparing the situation in the euro area to that in Japan. A: I would imagine that they are referring to the situation in Japan in the 1990s, rather than to present-day Japan. At that time, Japan did not have anywhere near as expansive a policy as ours and it did not have the definition of price stability that we have to anchor inflation. Its approach to the financial sector was also different, as we have banking union, resolution rules, stress tests, etc. To put it plainly, European supervisors, in particular the ECB, are not going to allow European banks to turn into zombie banks lending to zombie businesses, as was said in the case of Japan in the 1990s. Q: I understand that you met with Syriza, an aspirant party for government in Greece.

Benoît Cœuré: Interview with Cinco Días Interview by Mr Benoît Cœuré, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, with Cinco Días, conducted by Mr Bernardo de Miguel, published on 10 September 2014. *  *  *  Q: The ECB’s projections envisage less growth and lower inflation. Is there anything else in the pipeline if the measures adopted so far fail? A: New measures were adopted on Thursday and I cannot speculate on what can be done in the future. The ECB staff projections for 2014 and 2015 have been revised downwards, both in respect of growth and inflation, and the Governing Council is also seeing risks to growth being on the downside. Growth lost momentum in the second quarter and we want to prevent this weakness feeding into a fall in investment and creating a vicious circle. Furthermore, we have recently seen a change in inflation expectations, which have moved further away from 2%. Q: Isn’t it a little late to realise that, after a year of inflation below 1%? A: We have to decide on the basis of the data. And until the summer, growth in the euro area was expected to accelerate. Then came other, more worrying data showing that it was at risk of losing momentum. Q: However, the measures were not adopted unanimously by the 24 members of the Council. Who voted against? A: We don’t comment on that. You know that from January onwards we will begin to publish accounts of our meetings.
Corporate bond yields also fell, with investment-grade bonds declining 70 basis points and non-investment grade bonds declining 150 basis points, while the sterling exchange rate depreciated by about 4 per cent. For the United States, Gagnon et al. (2010) adopt a similar approach. They find that, across the relevant set of eight announcements, the Federal Reserve’s purchases of Treasuries and Agency debt/MBS resulted in total falls of 90 basis points in the 10-year Treasury yield, 160 points in the 10-year agency debt yield and 110 basis points in the agency MBS yield. Baa corporate bond yields also fell, by a total of 70 basis points. The size of these effects is broadly comparable to those found for the United Kingdom by Joyce et al. Neely (2010) provides some further evidence, this time relating to the international impact of the Federal Reserve’s large scale asset purchases. He finds that yields on Australian, Canadian, German, Japanese and UK 10-year bonds fell by an average of 45 basis points over the same set of announcements, while the dollar depreciated by 5 per cent. That points to considerable international spillovers from such asset purchases. The bottom line from these studies is the clear indication that asset purchases can be an effective monetary instrument. But should such unconventional policies also be part of the regular central bank toolkit in normal times? At first blush, there seems no reason why they should not.

Thus the technological advances of the last 25 years – especially the internet – have not significantly diminished the demand for cash. People still appreciate cash as a store of value and a means of payment. It is visible and tangible, which makes it especially valuable when there is uncertainty about the stability of banks. In addition, interest rates have been very low for some time now, and therefore the opportunity costs of holding cash are also low. However, the significance of cash as a payment instrument, too, remains unimpaired. In this regard, two essential characteristics stand out: As legal tender, cash is widely accepted and extremely reliable to use. Nevertheless, technology is constantly moving forward in terms of new forms of electronic payment as well as in the area of digital forms of money. What is more, the share of the population which grew up without bank cards, the internet and mobile telephones is continually shrinking. Is Switzerland therefore becoming a cashless society? Even if the importance of cash does decline over time, it is unlikely that it will be completely replaced. Its specific advantages suggest, rather, that it will continue to be used as a store of value and a means of payment. With well-established, flexible processes in banknote production and handling, the SNB contributes to ensuring that cash continues to meet the public’s requirements at all times. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1
It will be women and men working together leveraging on each others comparative strengths, experience and knowledge that will allow us to make the difference that best suits our circumstances and that is able to bring us to the best level of performance and progress. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches

The initiative will, as a start, place focus on four broad areas, namely: (a) legal, regulatory and supervisory framework, (b) risk management, (c) liquidity enhancement, and (d) market infrastructure for trading, clearing and settlement. The Asian Bond Market Initiative also encourages technical cooperation amongst ASEAN and the plus 3 countries of China, Japan and Korea. Profiling Asia Secondly, profiling Asia. More than 6 years have passed since the Asian financial crisis. Most Asian economies have fully recovered. Confidence has returned and growth momentum restored. Asian countries can continue to engage international investors at an individual country level. There are, however, merits to working together to profile Asia in a more concerted manner. A collective effort will have greater pulling power and generate far greater interest from investors. The region has taken large strides in stepping up the pace of reforms since the Asian crisis. It is perhaps timely for regional governments to join hands and raise the profile of the region. As a start, the ASEAN countries have agreed at the recent ASEAN Finance Ministers’ Meeting to organise efforts to profile ASEAN better. International investors can then have the opportunity to appreciate more fully the progress and reforms ASEAN economies have made since the Asian crisis. 2  BIS Review 22/2004  Exchange alliances Thirdly, extending regional collaboration to the exchanges. The region can derive greater benefits by working together. The successful launch of Asian Bond Fund I and the impending launch of Asian Bond Fund II clearly demonstrate this.
Also, in today’s environment, the fear of an event often is the event itself, because of the inherent tendency of markets to anticipate developments and overreact. BIS Review 61/2002  3  G  But on the positive side, financial recoveries can proceed more rapidly in today’s environment, particularly with the right policy responses from borrowers. In part, this reflects the fact that today’s market participants generally have the capacity - and many have little choice, under mark-to-market accounting - - to digest losses and move on. The broader sourcing of capital today also gives more scope to the possibility that, while some investors may withdraw, others may take their place. The caveat here is that the well not be poisoned through unnecessarily broad or heavy-handed approaches, a point I will return to later. •  What is the right way to deal with this changed and changing environment? In my view, the solution is neither a single piece of financial engineering nor a compact between the official lenders and private creditors. Rather, it is a process incorporating a number of elements. Essentially, I would suggest that our current case-by-case approach to crisis management needs to evolve in ways that are market-based and adaptive, yet strategic, creative, and principled. •  Being successful in today’s environment requires adapting to the particularities of the case at hand, as well as the global financial and economic context, and requires seeking, as far as possible, to work with the grain of a given situation.

Across all of the episodes of market distress in the emerging world over the past two decades, an essential element of heading off or minimizing damage from a crisis has been policymakers showing that they "get the message" about the need for reform, and are prepared to take appropriate measures. §  In this regard, the comparative advantage of the international public sector is in guiding economic and financial policy, and fostering the conditions that will facilitate the restoration or maintenance of voluntary credit and investment flows. IMF support should provide an unambiguous signal of the international community’s confidence in the capacity of crisis-affected countries to take the measures necessary to restore economic health. §  This role is particularly important in unfolding crisis situations, because borrowing country authorities too often are slow to recognize the full dimensions of the policy challenges confronting them, and the private sector is ill-equipped to deal with this. A case-by-case approach by definition is supremely tactical, but it also needs to be strategic in orientation if it is to be successful in the longer run. I would like to highlight several ways in which the case-by-case approach needs to be strategic. G  First off, strategy needs to be informed by a long-run view about the case at hand. The emphasis should not be merely on "working out" the problems at hand, but on "working through" them.
These weeks have also seen declines in stock markets and reductions in the prices of some commodities (figure 9). The degree of uncertainty regarding the evolution of the global financial situation is significant. The authorities of the countries involved quickly adopted decisions to contain the impact of these episodes. Of particular note are the coordinated actions taken by central banks to safeguard the provision of liquidity in the markets. Private banks have also made efforts, 4  particularly in the United States. However, there is still anxiety among market agents and volatility remains high. The Chilean banking system is subject to robust regulation and supervision, which prevent situations such as those that triggered the current episode of uncertainty in international banks. The dominant banking business model in Chile is a traditional one. It is focused on granting credit on a more diversified basis of financing and adequate management of maturity mismatches. The regulatory framework has been updated and considers Basel III capital and liquidity standards for all banks. All of them are subject to continuous risk management, capital adequacy, liquidity and transparency supervision processes. In addition, both the Central Bank and the Commission for the Financial Market, CMF, permanently monitor the banks' capacity to withstand adverse events through stress tests. In any case, the shift in the external scenario will have an impact on the local economy.

In particular, the Fed has pressed the two large clearing banks to make changes to their settlement processes that will diminish their own intraday exposure and enable the market to operate with much less reliance on intraday credit.9 These efforts are starting to bear fruit: the share of trading activity that requires intraday credit extensions by clearing banks has declined from 100 percent before November 2012 to approximately 80 percent currently, and is expected to fall to 10 percent by the end of next year.10 (Chart)  Reducing the market’s dependency on intraday credit will make the market more resilient to future stress events, by forcing all participants to consider the credit and liquidity risks they are exposed to. 8  The new global liquidity standards adopted by the Basel Committee provide a global minimum standard. 9  At the end of 2011, the New York Fed disbanded a private-sector taskforce that had generated some good ideas but was running into trouble on implementation, and adopted a supervisory approach to pushing forward further reform. 10  These estimates are based on data from the clearing banks with analysis by New York Fed Staff. See chart at http://www.newyorkfed.org/banking/riskreduction_020113.gif  BIS central bankers’ speeches  5  Meanwhile, in 2010, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) tightened the liquidity requirements and concentration limit rules for 2a-7 money market mutual funds and increased the fund manager disclosure requirements. These changes, which were intended as a first step, make money funds somewhat less risky.
The wage gap measures the difference between actual wage growth and the growth that over time is consistent with the inflation target, and is an indicator of labour market tightness. With estimated productivity growth at 2 per cent, wage growth of 4.5 per cent over time will be consistent with an inflation target of 2.5 per cent. In the chart, the wage gap up to 2000, i.e. before the introduction of the inflation target, is defined as the difference between wage growth in Norway and in other countries. This wage gap appears to be closely in line with the output gap as measured by Norges Bank. Normally, the interest rate is set with a view to achieving inflation of 2½% at the two-year horizon. Norges Bank operates a flexible inflation targeting regime, so that weight is given to variability in inflation as well as to variability in output and employment. Monetary policy affects the economy with a lag. The choice of a two-year horizon is thus based on striking a balance between variability in inflation and variability in output and employment, and a perception of how interest rates influence these variables. If extraordinary conditions prompt Norges Bank to apply a different time horizon than two years, the Bank will provide an assessment of this. The same applies if special emphasis is placed on developments in financial markets. External cyclical developments and events have had considerable implications for developments in the Norwegian economy. The international upturn came to a halt in 2000.

It may take some time before interest rates are increased substantially in the US. Growth in Asia is solid, but a global rise in interest rates is unlikely to start there. Inflation is higher in the euro area than in the US and approximately in line with the objective defined by the European Central Bank. In the euro area, however, capacity utilisation is very low, unemployment high and the outlook for growth is weaker. Recently, inflation has moderated slightly. Against this background, it will probably also take time before interest rates rise markedly in the euro area. Interest rates abroad have been unusually low for 2½ years, and it appears they will remain low for a period ahead. This poses a challenge to monetary policy in Norway. Growth in the Norwegian economy has picked up. Lower interest rates have contributed to sustaining growth in private consumption. Household demand will probably be the most important driving force in the Norwegian economy in the period ahead. Against the background of high real income growth, improved job security and expectations of continued low interest rates ahead, household consumption is expected to exhibit strong growth. Petroleum investment exhibited brisk growth in 2003. Growth in petroleum investment would appear to continue in 2004, but probably at a slower rate than in 2003. Low interest rates and house price inflation imply higher housing investment in the period ahead. Fiscal policy also contributes to stimulating activity.
Trade finance is another area of concern. It is often hard for banks to access the trade and customs records of importers or exporters. That can make it difficult for banks to conduct credit assessments – and difficult for companies to get trade finance loans. Although some banks are using their own big data initiatives to assess credit-worthiness, a more general and long-term framework is needed to solve this problem. 23. These examples highlight the need to improve the data landscape in Hong Kong. We want to make sure it doesn’t become a factor that limits our city’s potential for better banking. 24. So, today I’d like to introduce you to a new market development initiative for the next era: the Commercial Data Interchange or, as we call it, CDI. 25. CDI aims to establish a consent-based common standard for data owners to share their digital footprint with banks through data providers. Today, we rely on multiple one-to-one connections between banks and data providers. Under CDI, each bank and data provider will have a single connection to this interoperable platform. That should make data sharing more efficient and scalable. 26. Financial institutions and data providers will be able to easily connect their systems to this infrastructure. That will allow customers to authorise their own service providers – such as 2/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  utilities companies and payment gateways – to provide banks with relevant and authenticated data through this platform.

But you can’t have a meal without food — and you can’t have banking without service, trust, and capital. 6. Yes, technology is replacing some traditional banking channels and processes. But that actually enhances those core principles. So, I don’t think technology will replace banks. Rather, I’ll be making the case today that technology will make banks better — whether it is delivered by an established bank or a new market entrant. A new era established 7. In 2017, the HKMA launched seven initiatives to begin a new era of smart banking. Since then, the competitive landscape for banking in Hong Kong has changed quite a lot. We are proud to be one of the first markets in the region to have fully digital banks — or virtual banks. As we speak, our city has one of the highest numbers of virtual banks in Asia. 8. Today, customers can choose from a wider range of banking providers and platforms. They can choose digital or physical, niche or universal. 9. Not surprisingly, competition is bringing down costs and improving customer experience. For example, traditional banks have been phasing out fees for maintaining low account balances. Many are proactively improving their digital platforms to improve the user experience. 10. We owe this progress to the innovators, entrepreneurs, and bankers in today’s audience. It has been driven by your hard work and determination. 11. As a regulator, we help to facilitate this progress. We ensure a level playing field for all types of financial institutions.