samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
The region in itself provides a lot of important advantages:   labour markets amongst the Asiatic countries and of the EU member countries;    the possibilities of high return profit investments against capital, in real estate and infrastructure are huge and attractive for the developed markets;    the region has a population of higher than 20 million inhabitants sharing pleasant demographic characteristics;    the regional tourism is potentiality indispensable as a product of different climacteric combination to geographical features and various ethnical and cultural traditions. Preliminary results of empiric researches in the Bank of Albania show that the economic possibilities to exploit from regional countries are huge. Our analysis of external trade, based on gravity models, reveal that external trade of Albania with EU partners stays at optimum levels, while trade with the region is under its potentiality.   What does hamper our regional trade to achieve the potentiality?   What do we need to undertake coordinated structural reforms at regional level?   Are we encountering a weakening in coordinating the policies, information sharing, the establishment of institutions, the current legal infrastructure, or lobbing in European structures?   How much possible is the synchronisation of the efforts for more effective and efficient convergence and the integration process?   Which are the main economic and political fields where we may find larger space for the achievement of common regional polices?

The one thing I strongly desire is the involvement of as many domestic and regional researchers. I would like to guarantee all the interested persons that we are open in this direction. On the other hand, I am confident that the collaboration we made official today, shall provide a sensitive contribution towards the education and establishment of professional capacities at national level. Please allow me to close my speech returning once more to the argument of professional technicians. I still think that   We need to educate our technicians;    Furthermore, we should make them independent financially and politically;    And afterwards, we should educate them again. On the other hand, the building of capacities is not an “individual” issue; it is an institutions’ issue; in fact it is a process independent from human resources. This because capacities should be based on “processes” and not on people, for long-living. The good anchors are not used only from institutions which relate policies with them. They are instruments in the hand of public, as strong arguments to encourage government’s agencies towards the compilation and implementation of long term sustainable polices. I believe that the European values may play decisive role in this direction, by strengthening and supporting the establishment of respected institutions, where the criticism occurs  4  BIS Review 117/2010  independently from the political processes and targets. That is the reason we have chosen the collaboration with the Oxford University. BIS Review 117/2010  5
And default itself amplifies losses in the network, most obviously through direct bankruptcy costs, but also through fire sales of the sort already discussed. Moreover, when entities are highly leveraged, they will have only limited capacity to absorb losses, making such a cascade of defaults more prone to occur. A similar network dynamic can occur when institutions are hit by a payment shock, such as the drying up of wholesale funding that occurred at the start of the crisis and again around the time of the collapse of Lehman’s. The analysis of the behaviour of such financial networks is still very much in its infancy 9 . But a key point material to regulatory design is that some types of network will be inherently more stable than others, depending on both the nature of the network and the obligations on its members. For instance, a network where all institutions are of similar importance and exposures are evenly spread is likely to be relatively stable, as the consequences of an adverse shock to any one institution will be spread widely and thinly. In contrast, as we saw with the collapse of Lehman’s, networks in which there are a relatively small number of key players are potentially very susceptible to the failure of a key player. By the same token, a network in which exposures are collateralised or can be netted across the system will be  9  For more discussion of this issue, see Haldane (2009).

Even as banks continue to upgrade their systems and processes to strengthen their risk resilience, it is equally important that banks regularly test the robustness of their contingency plans and capability to manage tail risk events. I am glad that the industry continues to demonstrate its commitment to sound risk management with your investments in systems, technology and in your people. MAS appreciates your close co-operation to develop and update our risk management guidance, and your active participation in IWST exercises. Thank you. BIS central bankers’ speeches  5
Some might say that the PRA acts as though “all policyholders are equal, but some are more equal than others”. But in my view there is no need to obfuscate in this manner and we should be quite clear that while the regulatory standard set in Solvency II is uniform, we do not in supervision attempt to cover all policyholders equally. It is in my view entirely appropriate that we should direct more of our resources towards policyholders who will suffer greater financial hardship if their policies do not pay out as promised, or those for whom there is the greatest asymmetry of information between company and customer, or who face the highest possibility of being unable to replace cover if it is lost. For example, five million households have life insurance and two million have personal pensions. Some of the oldest and most vulnerable people in our society are reliant upon income provided by insurers under very long-term annuity contracts, into which they have invested their life savings. While the FSCS plays a vital role, the financial harm caused by the failure of an insurer in this space would be considerable and it is quite right that the PRA devotes significant resources to supervision of this sector, and that we have a very low appetite for any firm being unable to honour its promises.

In addition, the monetary situation of a small and open economy - like the Swiss economy - depends heavily on the development of the exchange rate. The crisis of 1978 and the overheating at the end of the 1980s showed clearly that a pragmatic monetary policy approach that takes exchange rate developments into account is better suited to Switzerland. As in the monetarist phase, the National Bank today also considers price stability as the primary goal of monetary policy. To achieve this goal, the current concept provides a systematic scheme of analysis. The advantage of this concept (as compared with the monetarist strategy) is that it considers all factors which can influence the development of prices in the medium term and that it allows greater flexibility in the implementation. BIS Review 71/2004  1
Equally important are the risks associated with the circulation of banknotes and coins and the lesser value means of payment that are part of the day to day lives of every Chilean. The autonomy of the Central Bank also means that the quality of its institutional management is a special responsibility. Although it is not part of the State’s administration, it is equally owned by every Chilean, who rightfully demand an efficient use of their resources. To undertake all these tasks, it is important to recognize that trust in a central bank also rests on its prudence. An institution responsible for price stability and financial stability cannot afford to improvise or experiment. In this regard, it is important to acknowledge the potential, but also the limits of monetary policy. In particular, we must reaffirm that it does not have the capacity to affect the mediumterm trends of the economy and not even completely eliminate the cyclical variations that affect it. Our main contribution to the country’s development is, in line with the mandate of our Organic Law, to keep inflation low and stable, reducing economic volatility and financial risks, with the expectation that by reducing uncertainty we will facilitate investment, employment and consumption decisions that shorten the cycle. The right mix of prudence and determination is not easy to calibrate. Prudence is necessary to correctly assess the implications of changes in the economic environment, resisting the temptation to look for the easy way out, which can prove very costly in the medium term.

I wish you continued success as we build together on our strong foundations. With this, I wish all participants at this conference a fruitful exchange of ideas and discussion. BIS Review 38/2007  3
Rather, the average level for production and employment is determined by the workings of the economy, not by monetary policy. When it comes to the stability around these levels, there is an objective for both, namely that of stabilising both as much as possible, and of trying to achieve a reasonable balance between stability in inflation and resource utilisation when it is not possible to stabilise both completely. As far as I am aware, this interpretation of the Sveriges Riksbank Act and its preparatory work is now generally accepted. A lower repo rate path achieves a better outcome for inflation and resource utilisation At the most recent monetary policy meeting, I shared the view in the monetary policy report regarding economic developments in Sweden and abroad, but I expressed a reservation in favour of a lower repo rate path than that presented in the main scenario. I argued that a lower interest rate path will lead to a much better outcome for inflation and resource utilisation without causing any problems to the functioning of the financial markets or to financial stability. How did I arrive at this stance? If a conflict should arise between stabilising inflation and stabilising resource utilisation, then a well-balanced monetary policy involves a reasonable compromise between the stability of inflation and the stability of resource utilisation. If there is no such conflict, things are much simpler. Then it is merely a question of finding the repo rate path that will stabilise both inflation and resource utilisation.

As you will have so many other matters to discuss, apart from the economy and the euro, you must forgive me for dedicating so much time to my own specific subjects. To conclude, I am sure these present Tertulias will, as in all the previous meetings, be successful, that the participants will enjoy themselves, and that our British friends will have very good memories of this visit to Madrid. Thank you. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches
This is important, not just because of the growing influence of these economies – nor even because the leading international forums are currently dominated by the very economies that are now in the deepest trouble – but because the ordinary people of developing economies are usually the ones who suffer most in a global financial crisis. International co-operation will also, I hope, act as a countervailing influence against any repeat of the disastrous mistakes that were made in the 1930s. There has so far been a resistance to trade protectionism, although the idea has begun to gain some ground as a  BIS Review 12/2009  3  spurious answer to economic distress. There is a risk that the idea will spread to the financial sector, particularly if there is political pressure to include protectionist measures in rescue packages for troubled banking systems in the developed economies. I need hardly point out that – no less than trade protectionism – such a trend would deepen the hardship of the developing economies, many of which rely heavily on international finance. It would also be a matter for serious concern in financial markets across the world. One of the central aims in building a more robust international financial architecture must be to ensure that there can be no excuse for resorting to financial protectionism as a solution to global or national crisis. This will be a year of hardship and anxiety throughout the world. Much effort will be spent in fire-fighting and managing expectations.

Sources: Central Bank of Chile and US Federal Reserve  BIS Review 41/2009  9  Figure 2 Housing prices (nominal index, first quarter 2001=100) 250  250  250  250  200  200  200  200  150  150  150  150  100  100  100  100  50  50  50  50  0  0  0  90  93  96  99  02  05  08  U.S. Case & Shiller index  01  02  03  04  05  Australia Chile  06  07  0  08  U.S. Spain  Sources: Central Bank of Chile and Bloomberg. Figure 3 Accumulated CPI variation by country  (percent)  Japan  0  Colombia Hungary Peru Brazil Czech Rep. Malaysia Mexico S. Korea Israel Norway Poland U.S. Thailand U.K. Sweden Eurozone Canada Switzerland Hong Kong  5  10  15  (a) Between January 2007 and October 2008. South Africa Turkey Chile Indonesia  20  Mexico Colombia Hong Kong Brazil Indonesia Poland Peru S. Korea Czech Rep. Turkey South Africa Sweden  Hungary Norway Israel Eurozone U.K. Canada Switzerland Japan Thailand U.S. Malaysia Chile -3  -2  -1  0  1  2  3  (b) Between October 2008 and January/February 2009 (*). (*) For Canada, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Malaysia and U.K., data up to January 2009. For the rest, February 2009.
This was a resource that truly helped maintain lending volumes. A survey by OPORA RUSSIA — we are closely monitoring your survey findings — shows that businesses generally record a higher accessibility of loans in recent months. We appreciate this view. Nonetheless, we can see that currently loans are mostly concentrated with large banks, but we are confident that both banks with a basic licence and regional banks will be capable to significantly contribute to the small business development and become more flexible since they better understand clients’ interests and regional specifics. We are going to advance this segment of the banking system. Not only large banks have had access to our special-purpose instrument: 55 banks have used it, including regional banks and those banks that received corporate sureties. As regards loan restructuring, as you know, an important aspect is that we have been improving the financial system through resolution measures for many years, in order to make it resilient and capable to support its clients in challenging periods. We can see that the banking sector has really demonstrated its readiness to provide support to a considerable portion of its borrowers during this hard period. More than 80% of the restructured loans were under banks’ in-house programmes, and not because this was required by law. Since the beginning of the year, the amount of restructured SME loans has reached 819 billion rubles, which is over 15% of the SME portfolio.

Therefore, we discussed this topic already last year, but we have now progressed to the active phase of the efforts aimed at establishing the centralised information service Know Your Customer, or KYC, as we have got used to saying. This platform will make it possible to reduce the number of banks’ refusals and companies’ expenses for the communication with banks. Clients’ risks will be assessed not by banks, but by the platform developed by the Bank of Russia that will classify companies into three risk groups according to the traffic light principle. Banks will be able to focus only on the group having these risk signs and on the analysis of the operations of clients involving potentially higher risks. We are going to launch this platform into regular operation at the end of 2021 and then scale it up so as to embrace all credit institutions by the end of 2022 Q1. Of course, we believe that it will make life easier for SMEs. We have also discussed how to improve this platform together with you. The second issue is the Faster Payments System (FPS). Initially, we launched it to enable P2P transfers. We can see that it is highly requested. However, right from the beginning, we have built this system considering the needs of retailers and small businesses and comprehending that this system may help SMEs cut costs significantly. The FPS addresses the issue of high acquiring fees and considerably reduces costs for trade and service companies.
•  Another welcomed development of the banking system belongs to the customer service, which through electronic terminals, has been naturally associated with the increased number of electronic cards in circulation. Presently, banks provide debit and credit cards, in cooperation with the international companies of Visa and MasterCard, Diners Club. Nine banks provide the ATM service and the number of the latter ones at end of December 2005 was 205, while in August of this year it has reached to 266. In the meantime, the number of the points of sale has reached to 1073, of debit cards to about 70,176 and of credit cards to 4,245. •  Undoubtedly, the further expansion and strengthening of the banking system is an important aspect. The geographic extension of covering the territory with banking business, the increased competition, the introduction of many new products and the new recent developments constitute an additional argument for the vital role played by the banking system. The map of covering the country with banking business was further expanded, including new regions uncovered previously. Thirty new branches and agencies were opened during 2004, while in 2005 their number became 48, making the total number of branches at end of 2005 reach 127 and that of agencies reach 113. 4  BIS Review 115/2006  •  The positive developments in the banking sector and the increased number of subsidiaries and agencies have brought about a considerable increase in the number of employees.

These research programmes will lead to solutions that seek to overcome Singapore’s constraints in energy and land arising from our small size and limited resources. More importantly, the outcomes from these programmes can contribute to addressing some of the global challenges in urban development and the growth of megacities, both within Asia as well as in other parts of the world. Demographics Third, uneven global demographics will present countries with both challenges and opportunities. Developing countries with young and growing workforces will face the challenges of creating enough jobs and investing adequately in infrastructure, industry and institutions. If they succeed, they will be able to reap their “demographic dividend” and grow rapidly into middle-income economies. If they fail, high unemployment will cause increasing restlessness and agitation for political change and revolution. The International Labour Organization, in its “Global Trends for Youth Employment 2012” report, attributed the Arab Spring protests partly to high levels of youth unemployment. Such instability could similarly affect other countries, and a demographic dividend could turn into a demographic curse. At the other end of the spectrum, many advanced economies are experiencing rapidly ageing populations. Decades of low birth rates coupled with affluence and access to medical care and nutrition mean that the elderly live much longer even as fewer babies are born. Even as life expectancy in the EU and North America increased, the average retirement age has fallen from 68 to 63 (from 1970 to 2010).
Both the “standardised” and the more sophisticated “internal ratings-based” approaches will help to align capital requirements more closely with a bank’s actual risks. Both will also help us realise two key goals: to make our capital rules more sensitive to the potential for loss, and to encourage ongoing improvements in banks’ risk management. Understandably, aligning a bank’s capital requirements more closely with its borrowers’ creditworthiness has generated discussion among small business and others who want to ensure that the new rules do not encumber lending to that sector. The Basel Committee has worked hard to avoid creating such burdens. In fact, our studies have identified those characteristics of SME lending that reduce the risk to banks and hence the need for additional capital. In that vein, I’d like to turn now to the rules that will apply to SME lending, which is my second topic. The treatment of SMEs under the New Accord If you’ve followed our work over the years, you’ll know that our proposals have evolved considerably. For instance, after the Committee published drafts of the rules in 1999 and 2001, we heard the message loud and clear from small business that the rules did not fully distinguish between exposures to very large corporations as opposed to SMEs. Likewise, bankers themselves indicated that they typically view lending to large corporations and to smaller enterprises as very different businesses. We have investigated thoroughly the economics of SME lending.

Jarle Bergo: Crisis resolution and financial stability in Norway Speech by Mr Jarle Bergo, Deputy Governor of Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), at the 50th Anniversary of Bank Indonesia, Jakarta, 10 December, 2003. The references and the Charts in pdf can also be found on the website of the Norges Bank. *  *  *  Yours excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure to attend this important conference in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Bank Indonesia, and have the opportunity to share our experience of handling a banking crisis with colleagues from South East Asia. The banking crisis in Norway in the early 1990s was not as severe as the banking crises some of the Asian countries faced in the late 1990s or the one our neighbouring countries Sweden and Finland experienced. In 1991 - at the peak of our crisis - bank loan losses amounted to 2.8 per cent of GDP. In the same year non-performing loans accounted for 9 per cent of loans outstanding for the entire banking industry1. The corresponding figure for Indonesia was as high as 70 per cent, 33 per cent in Thailand, and 18 per cent in Sweden2. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the Norwegian crisis was systemic; in 1991 three of the four largest banks and a number of smaller ones had failed or were in deep financial trouble. In this relatively short presentation, I will concentrate on the main issues of the crisis and its resolution.