samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
This has important effects on inflation dynamics and, as long as we do not succeed in completing the adjustment of the economy, inflation will not come down. Does this mean that the Central Bank is not worried about low growth or rising unemployment and is only concerned about inflation? Quite the contrary. Monetary policy is always aimed at achieving low and stable inflation, which is achieved by smoothing the business cycle so that the economy can sustain growth without generating price pressures in either direction. The problem we must solve is that, for several quarters, our economy grew beyond its possibilities. This led to enormous imbalances, which caused high inflation. Therefore, the correction of these imbalances is a necessary condition to return to the 3 percent target. In our projections, the cumulative growth over the next two years does not differ greatly from what we foresaw in the Report we presented to this Commission last December. However, there is a change in our forecasts for 2023 and 2024, which are raised for this year and lowered for next year. This still considers that the economy will undergo an adjustment, meaning that there are still some quarters ahead where activity will contract. In order to achieve sustained higher growth with stable inflation in the long term, as a country we must implement policies that expand the economy's growth capacity.

Putting on a new lens: Exploiting mainstream innovations with a financial inclusion focus Today, financial innovations have penetrated, and continue to permeate almost every aspect of financial activity. This has been driven by faster computing speed, lower cost of storage and faster problem-solving capabilities. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Technology is being used by financial institutions to improve operations – from improving customer experience to constructing better models to manage risks more efficiently and effectively. In many cases, strategic partnerships with fintech companies have been established to achieve similar outcomes. The advent of robo-advisers and algorithmic underwriting are some of the examples. These developments have largely evolved within the mainstream customer segments and have proven to be effective. Clearly, opportunities exist to leverage on capabilities that are already in place to create specific applications for financial inclusion. With proven application, the prospects for achieving greater scalability, faster time to market and increased take-up are correspondingly greater. For years, financial institutions have invested heavily in technology that has helped improve the collection and mining of financial and non-financial data to gain richer insights into customer preferences and behaviours. These same capabilities create immediate opportunities to identify specific barriers to financial inclusion for different target groups whose needs are shaped by very different priorities, experiences, values and norms. For example, cultural biases can be an important factor that is not fully appreciated and understood as a factor that limits higher levels of financial inclusion among women.
From time to time, we meet with stakeholders across the value-chain to gather practitioners’ views as to what the market needs in order to develop further. We will continue our work in this regard. Private banking One area we know we can improve is private banking. This is a business area that is growing exponentially in the region. According to industry research, Asia-Pacific has accounted for half the growth in global wealth from 2010 onwards. It also has a fifth of the world’s millionaires. And these numbers will get bigger, with global wealth expected to rise 50% by 2016. So, the opportunities for our region are enormous. We must ensure we have a regulatory framework that recognises this, one that is user friendly to private banking clients, yet sufficiently robust to provide appropriate investor protection, as well as being on par with international standards. To achieve this, we’ve recently introduced some refinements to our regulatory arrangements, following consultation with the industry. These measures were announced in June, so I’d just like to very briefly recapitulate four of the key points as follows. First, while we want to ensure appropriate protection to all investors, it is reasonable to treat private banking and retail banking clients differently in the investment process. So the first change is that we have provided an expanded definition for “private banking customers” that caters much better for the operational needs of private banks.

News conference  Berne, 14 December 2017 Andréa M. Maechler  Introductory remarks by Andréa M. Maechler  I will begin my remarks with a review of the situation on the financial markets, before going on to discuss the progress made in reference interest rate reform. Situation on the financial markets  Let me start with developments on the financial markets. The monetary policy pursued by the large central banks was once again the focus of attention for the financial markets in the second half of the year. Given moderate inflation growth, financial market participants are expecting only a very gradual normalisation of monetary policy across the world. Against this backdrop, government bond yields have remained persistently low. Muted expectations regarding a move away from expansionary monetary policy, coupled with favourable economic data and good corporate results, have contributed to largely positive risk sentiment on the financial markets. This has been reflected, for instance, in a stock market rally, lower yield spreads on corporate bonds and reduced demand for safe-haven assets such as the Swiss franc. In this positive market environment, volatility has remained low and volatility for the US equity and bond markets, calculated using option prices, has dropped to record lows (cf. chart 1). Despite positive economic data in Europe, European stock indices have risen only moderately. The Stoxx Europe 600 has climbed some 3% since mid-year. One reason for the modest stock market performance in Europe is the strengthening of the euro, which impaired corporate earnings growth somewhat.
Financial institutions have been asked to review their customer accounts for tax-illicit funds. One of the practical difficulties faced by financial institutions is how to determine whether a given pool of funds is fully tax compliant, when even a tax lawyer may be hesitant to make a call, unless he has full visibility of the customer’s other transactions beyond the bank. International guidance on this area is still evolving, and the process to become more proficient in detecting tax-illicit monies will understandably be an iterative one. 18 Nonetheless, we have found the quality of the recent tax risk reviews to be satisfactory, and I like to commend you all for the efforts put in. More importantly, this exercise has raised general awareness among financial institutions, which are now better prepared to manage risks arising from the laundering of proceeds from tax crimes. Arising from the review, a handful of customers may have chosen to close their accounts or even have had their accounts terminated – if they chose not to be subject to the heightened scrutiny. Suspicious Transaction Reports have also been filed in a few cases. Overall, the message is clear and consistent – tax-illicit funds are not welcome here. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  Partnership with the industry 19 We need to work together to tackle financial crime. At the government level, law enforcement agencies meet regularly with the financial and non-financial sector supervisors to coordinate policy, so that we effectively deter illicit funds as a country.

Ong Chong Tee: Combating financial crime – international and national efforts Keynote address by Mr Ong Chong Tee, Deputy Managing Director (Financial Supervision) of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the ABS Financial Crime Seminar, Singapore, 2 July 2014. *  *  *  1 Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for inviting me here this morning. The annual ABS Financial Crime Seminar has become a key event on Singapore’s antimoney laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) calendar. It is a good opportunity for our banking industry at large to take stock of the current challenges and trends, as well as to discuss priorities. As the diverse programme of this conference shows, money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) is a complex global issue, and I am heartened to see the number of experienced professionals and experts gathered here today to share perspectives and insights. The international environment 2 Financial crime is a serious global threat. According to some UN estimates, the amount of money laundered globally is between 2% and 5% of global GDP annually, or to put this in US dollar terms, between $ billion and $ trillion a year. The challenge before us – as is often noted – is that the fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism is never done.
Issuing certificates of entitlement in this way will provide a mechanism for debtholders that do not want to, or due to their mandates, are not able to hold equity to trade out of their positions. And this will have an ancillary benefit for us of providing some sort of shadow market valuation of the firm. But what about other liability holders – depositors, market counterparties, trade creditors etc. – during this interval? Our aim with the announcement of the resolution is to send a strong signal to them that their claims are safe and that the operating companies they are transacting with will continue to perform. Full conversion of internal MREL in the key operating companies around the group and a strong sense that the firm will have access to liquidity will contribute to that. To this end, the Bank has established new arrangements to clarify, first, that a firm in resolution would continue to have access to the ordinary central bank facilities in the Sterling Monetary Framework, subject to meeting the necessary eligibility criteria. And second, those arrangements will be supplemented where necessary by a flexible Resolution Liquidity Framework, designed to provide liquidity, in sterling or foreign currency, in the necessary scale, for a sufficient period of time, and secured against a wide range of collateral to allow the firm to make the transition to market-based funding.

What remains is for financial institutions to internalise the impact of the transition for businesses, customers, and stakeholders, and drive transformation in pragmatic and meaningful ways. With that, I wish all of you an insightful and productive programme. Thank you. 3/3  BIS - Central bankers' speeches
The aim is to ensure the Spanish economy continues moving towards the income levels of the core European countries and that it is in a position to become successfully integrated into an increasingly competitive and globalised international environment. To do this, the potential for economic growth must be broadened, reinforcing the significant contribution made by the increase in employment in recent years with the attainment of real productivity gains. Under demand policies, monetary policy may be expected gradually to resume a more neutral stance and somewhat higher interest rates. The mild tightening of monetary conditions will contribute to some extent to containing consumer and residential-investment spending. But it is unlikely, in a setting in  BIS Review 60/2006  7  which cyclical divergences of some intensity persist between the countries comprising the euro area, that this will suffice to promote the necessary adjustment from the domestic standpoint. The contribution of fiscal policy is therefore crucial, and the room for manoeuvre available should be used to reduce the pressure of domestic demand, through the pursuit of more ambitious budgetary targets. In this respect, the sound fiscal figures obtained in 2005 – a surplus of 1.1% of GDP and a fresh cut in the public debt ratio, which has dipped to close to 40% of GDP – should be built on and improved in 2006. Indeed, the figures for the opening months of this year suggest the marked buoyancy of tax revenue will continue, raising the likelihood that public revenue will once again outpace budgetary projections.

It is senior management’s hope that the facilitation that will be given in these workshops will go a long way in addressing the identified teething problems. It is extremely important that you all realize from the very outset that you will be the anchors for the success of this process for your respective departments. For this reason, it is imperative that you understand in full the processes that will be discussed in this workshop. Senior management’s expectation is that you will acquire the necessary tools to enable you facilitate the proper completion of the Context Establishment and Risk Identification exercises within your respective departments. Ladies and Gentlemen: Allow me to give you a brief background on the implementation of the Risk Management Framework at the Bank of Zambia. You will recall that starting in October 2006 through April 2007, the Risk Management Department embarked on a programme of sensitizing all the members of staff and the Board of Directors on the establishment of the risk management framework at the Bank. Given that these workshops had coverage of 99% of all Bank of Zambia staff, I am more than confident that most of you were participants in those workshops. The end of this series of workshops, marked the end of Phase I of the implementation programme of the Risk Management Framework at the Bank. Following the end of the risk sensitization workshops the next stage required the implementation of the framework in the business areas.
In addition, low lending rates would improve the investment climate in the country. 4. Outlook  The March 2004, inflation pressures were anticipated to slow down. Factors for this anticipation include the following: •  Given that the supply of fresh foodstuffs from the 2003/2004 agricultural season had started, inflationary pressures were likely to ease. Coupled with the lifting of the fishing ban in March 2004 and expected increase in the supply of fish on the market, these factors were expected to dampen food inflationary pressures;  •  The slow growth in broad money in January 2004 and the decline in average reserve money at end-February 2004 were expected to have a dampening effect on non-food inflation in March 2004;  •  The exchange rate of the Kwacha against other currencies was expected to remain relatively stable on account of improved foreign exchange supply on the market arising from favourable export receipts due to higher metal prices and increased non-traditional earnings especially of sugar, cotton lint, burley tobacco and cement; and  •  Government expenditure was expected to be within the targeted levels and this was expected to contribute to ensuring that net domestic financing of Government from the banking system would remain within the projected ceiling and thereby contribute to the anticipated drop in inflation. In view of these expectations, the Bank of Zambia will continue to implement appropriate monetary policy aimed at containing the growth in reserve money and broad money within the projections.

•  The asset quality in the month under review was satisfactory, with the level of interest earning assets accounting for 77% of total assets compared to 76% for the preceding month. •  The sector’s income before tax amounted to K48,206 million compared to K23,897 million recorded in January. The 100% increase in profit before tax was mainly on account of the following: interest income, which increased by K58,497 million or 93% compared to K11,813 million or 82% increase in interest expenses. Additionally, foreign exchange income in gains and commissions increased by 100% from K30,291 million to K60,857 million. Non-interest expenses increased to K 104,869 million compared to K52,916 million in January 2004. However, the ratio of non-interest expenses to total net income remained at 69%. •  The banking sector’s liquidity position was satisfactory with the liquidity ratio (liquid assets to total deposits and short-term liabilities) remaining constant at 75%. All banks met the prudential minimum ratio of 50%. The deposit concentration at 28% from 31% in January was also well spread. Total deposits to total assets dropped to 71% from 73% in January. Money laundering draft directives •  On 18 March 2004, the BoZ held a consultative workshop with financial institutions, to discuss the draft Money Laundering Directives. Valuable contributions to clarify or strengthen the draft Directives at this well attended workshop were received. The BoZ is now in the process of finalising the said directives.
And it should be recognised that the direct exposure of the UK economy to China is relatively modest and that the recent tightening of financial conditions comes on the heels of a prolonged period of sustained improvement. Moreover, realisation of some of a downside risk previously identified by the MPC, if it persists, has to be weighed against ongoing domestic strength, underpinned by credible policy regimes and an increasingly robust financial system. In this regard, developments in China are unlikely to change the process of rate increases from limited and gradual to infinitesimal and inert. Indeed, as I said recently, the prospect of sustained momentum in the UK economy and the gradual firming of underling inflationary pressures will likely put the decision as to when to start the process of gradual monetary policy normalisation into sharper relief around the turn of this year. To be clear, that opinion doesn’t prejudge any particular decision. But it does indicate that recent events do not yet, to my mind, merit changing the MPC’s strategy for returning inflation to target – a strategy that already reflects the balance of two large gross effects: namely domestic strength on the one hand and disinflationary forces from the combination of the exchange rate and global weakness on the other.

After adjusting for unconventional policy there’s greater monetary policy divergence than implied by a simple eyeballing of the currently highly synchronised global rates cycle. And there remains the prospect of a further widening. In other words, domestic economic conditions – conditions affected by domestic monetary policy – still very much matter. None of this diminishes the considerable challenges of returning inflation to target in the face of global developments. There are profound secular and cyclical disinflationary forces at work in the global economy, and for economies like the UK their impact is being reinforced by exchange rate movements which will drag inflation down further at the policy horizon. Moreover, as events of the past few weeks have reminded us, a variety of global factors can affect global financial conditions and influence the neutral rate of interest. Central banks must take these Disparate Confounding Dynamics (DCDs) into account when setting policy. 2 Even for those economies with the strongest recoveries and the best functioning financial systems, they mean that the policy rates consistent with returning inflation to target will likely need to rise in a gradual fashion and to a limited extent despite robust domestic demand and firming domestic costs. For the UK at least, global DCDs influence but do not dictate policy. 1  Subramanian, A and Kessler, M (2013), “The hyperglobalization of trade and its future”, Global Citizen Foundation working paper 3, June.
However, the existence of a mechanism to provide financial assistance to countries facing temporary distress should not be seen as a source of moral hazard. Such risks are prevented both by the strict conditions under which any assistance would be provided and by the fact that the mechanism will be activated only if deemed indispensable in order to counter threats to the financial stability of the euro area as a whole. In addition, the establishment of this permanent stabilisation mechanism will be accompanied by the strengthening of the framework for economic governance in the euro area, particularly as regards the framework for the multilateral vigilance of national policies in the areas of public finances and competitiveness. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  III. (d)  Improving economic governance  It is fair to say that the experience of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) over its first twelve years has been a historic success. At the same time, it is also fair to say that the credit should go, to a very large extent, to the achievements of the monetary pillar of Monetary Union (the “M” in EMU) rather than of its economic pillar (EMU’s “E”). Yet, monetary policy alone cannot deliver all the benefits of EMU. The economic pillar must also play its part. Unfortunately, this has not always been the case so far. Indeed, national governments have not been sufficiently committed to fulfilling their obligation to guarantee macroeconomic stability and fiscal sustainability in the long term.

the young workers), that, as a result, carry extremely large economic and social costs. This is socially unfair and economically inefficient. European countries must made more efforts to resolutely pursue – and with far greater urgency than in the past – the necessary structural reforms in product markets, labour markets, pension systems and so on. In this respect, a key contribution to the strengthening of the euro area’s long-term economic prospects will come from the thorough implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy, with its focus on key areas such as: (i) education, research and innovation; (ii) resource efficiency; and (iii) high levels of employment and social cohesion. III. (c)  Enhancing the crisis management framework  In response to the sovereign debt crisis, the euro area has recently armed itself with an important tool to safeguard area-wide financial stability. At the European Council meeting of 24 and 25 March 2011 the Heads of State or Government of the EU agreed to establish a permanent European Stability Mechanism (ESM) based on the existing temporary European Financial Stability Facility (which will remain in place until June 2013). The ESM will grant financial assistance to countries in distress in the form of credit, with the assistance provided under strict conditionality and on the basis of a strict analysis – conducted by the European Commission and the IMF, in liaison with the ECB – of the sustainability of the relevant country’s debts. The establishment of the ESM represents an important addition to the institutional fabric of EMU.