samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
On a more general view, the first effects of our reaction are evident in curbing the increase of inflation and settling it on a declining trajectory. Our assessments show that in the absence of this reaction, inflation would have averaged 4.5 percentage points higher throughout the 2022 – 2024 horizon, having significant negative consequences on both the purchasing power of households and non-performing loans ratio. At the same time, our activity in the field of supervision, regulation and licensing of the banking sector, in 2022, focused on three main directions: (i) guaranteeing the soundness of the banking sector, in presence of real and financial shocks triggered by the war in Ukraine; (ii) monitoring the impact that the upward trend of interest rates had on the balance sheets of the banking sector; and, (iii) dealing with the intense and  3/5  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  organised cyber-attacks on the country's financial industry and infrastructure. The results of our work in these directions have been positive, helping the banking sector to successfully tackle the challenges of 2022. In parallel with them, we have aimed to further improve our regulatory base and our macroprudential policies and instruments, to further strengthen banking supervision, as well as to promote the development of the payment system, through upgrading the legal, regulatory and infrastructural base. In more concrete terms: First, the Bank of Albania has continued to complete and improve the supervisory regulatory framework, aiming at its approximation with the EU acquis and Basel Committee principles.

At the same time, the Albania's budget deficit declined to 3.7% of GDP in 2022 from 4.6% of GDP in 2021, while public debt reduced to 64.6% of GDP from 74.5%. This improvement reflected the fast growth of public revenues, the reduction of the budget deficit in response to the fiscal consolidation policy, as well as the strengthening of the exchange rate. Last, but not least, financial markets have been relatively calm and the banking sector has performed positively, despite the elevated trend of interest rates and the higher uncertainty that has characterized the market actors. In particular, the banking sector appears robust, with good indicators of liquidity, profitability and capitalization. This sector has already turned into a stable business partner for Albanian households, supplying them with the necessary funds for the expansion of activity, providing reliable instruments for maintaining their savings, as well as by constantly expanding the range of financial products and payment instruments. Our analyses suggest that systemic risks remain contained, while the high level of capitalization and liquidity provides a significant buffer to withstand shocks. Dear ladies and gentlemen, The good resilience of the Albanian economy in the face of the ongoing crises of recent years is an evidence, first of all, of the dynamism, flexibility and sound balance sheets of Albanian businesses and households.
Brian P Sack: Reflections on the TALF and the Federal Reserve’s role as liquidity provider Remarks by Mr Brian P Sack, Executive Vice President of Markets Group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, at the New York Association for Business Economics, New York, 9 June 2010. *  *  *  In my remarks today, I had intended to focus on the Federal Reserve’s experience with the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or the TALF. This facility, which is scheduled to end later this month, was the last of the Federal Reserve’s special liquidity programs, and those programs were then expected to enter a period of inactivity. It had therefore seemed to be a good time to reflect on our experiences with the TALF, and more broadly on the role of the central bank as a liquidity provider. However, the context for this talk has shifted importantly with recent developments in financial markets. In particular, investors’ concerns about sovereign risk in some European countries, with the attendant pressures on financial firms with exposures in those areas, have put renewed emphasis on liquidity provision and led the Federal Reserve and five foreign central banks to reestablish dollar liquidity swap lines. Accordingly, I will begin today with some remarks on recent financial market developments and the role of the liquidity swap lines. I will then turn to the TALF program, providing a review of its performance and assessing the benefits that it provided.

Going forward, the securitized credit markets will be shaped importantly by regulatory efforts, with some potential changes such as risk retention and transparency requirements still undecided. Defining the Central Bank’s role as liquidity provider Let me now turn to the broader issue of the appropriate role of the central bank as a provider of liquidity during periods of market strain. In effect, both of the programs I have just discussed expand the reach of the Federal Reserve’s liquidity policies to a broader set of firms than those with access to our traditional discount window program. Moreover, the Federal Reserve launched a number of other facilities during the financial crisis that reached other types of firms and markets. The scope and process for launching similar liquidity facilities in the future will be guided by the legislative efforts currently under way. Still, it is important for the Federal Reserve to reflect on what we have learned through our experiences so that we may better judge the actions that should be taken in the future within that legislative structure. The liquidity programs that were launched by the Federal Reserve shared some common characteristics. In all cases, the programs provided credit in stressed markets, and for those facilities that offered credit at a predetermined interest rate, the rate was set at a penalty relative to normal market functioning. This approach yields several benefits. First, by acting in markets that are under stress, such programs have the scope to produce substantial improvements in market conditions.
For example, we have started a joint research project with the Bank of Thailand on implementing central bank digital currency in cross-border payments. We have also completed a proof-of-concept test with the we.trade platform to connect the digital trade finance platforms of Hong Kong and Europe. So far, it looks quite promising, and we have engaged Mainland China and Singapore on similar connections. 39. A lot of future Fintech development will involve cross-border collaboration. In recognition of this, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) decided to establish an Innovation Hub to explore macro issues that cut across jurisdictions. And I am delighted to say that the first Innovation Hub Centre of the BIS has recently commenced its operation here in Hong Kong, and we look forward to close collaboration with the hub. Concluding Remarks 40. Fintech in Hong Kong has come a long way since we first held this event in 2016. Many of you here have contributed to this progress. We now all look forward to building on our experience with exciting new initiatives and trends. The Government, the financial regulators and the industry bodies all recognise that we need a holistic “Hong Kong Inc.” approach in developing Fintech. This will be about making the most of synergy and collaboration to drive the Hong Kong platform forward. 41. As we continue this journey, we need your participation.

This event now brings together tech companies, banks, venture investors and regulators. The response from the industry gave us the confidence to move to a much bigger venue – the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre – in 2017. The following year, we used an even bigger venue there. And this year, we have outgrown the Convention and Exhibition Centre and moved here, to the Asia World Expo. 6. I’m really very encouraged by the impressive turnout of thousands of visitors from 60 economies at this year’s Fintech Week, despite what has been going on in Hong Kong in the last few months. 7. So we move to a bigger venue every year. And that’s because this industry is moving on to bigger ideas. Working together, all of us in this hall today are imagining and creating new services for consumers and businesses. And we are jointly creating a more vibrant Fintech ecosystem for Hong Kong. 8. We have achieved quite a lot together in Hong Kong in these three short years: the launch of the Faster Payment System (FPS); the granting of eight virtual bank licences; the adoption of the open API framework by the banks; and the creation of a blockchain-based trade finance platform. These are major milestones so far on our Fintech journey. And this is just the start. I am sure you are as confident as I am that more exciting things lie ahead. 9. Having come this far, this is a good time to ask some questions.
BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  The other is the Executives’ Meeting of East Asia-Pacific Central Banks or EMEAP, which have helped develop the capital market in the region through the establishment of the Asian Bond Fund and many other initiatives. The increasingly important role of China to the Thai economy and financial system has brought about the need for broader and deeper understanding of the Chinese economy and a more proactive response from public agencies, including the Bank of Thailand, to seek a presence in China. Your Royal Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen, Following the initial foothold in the form of two representative offices in New York and London twenty years ago, the Bank of Thailand recently established a representative office here in Beijing. The Beijing office is our first representative office in Asia. I also believe that we are the first central bank from the ASEAN region to have its representative office in China. But, being the first is not the only measure of success for our journey here. Since its establishment last year, our Beijing representative office has fulfilled its objectives to further promote closer ties between the Bank of Thailand and the People’s Bank of China, as well as other Chinese government agencies. The office also aims to sharpen its focus and first-hand understanding of the economic and financial developments in China. This achievement is well-illustrated by the deepening financial cooperation between China and Thailand.

Prasarn Trairatvorakul: Economic and financial cooperation between China and Thailand Opening remarks by Dr Prasarn Trairatvorakul, Governor of the Bank of Thailand, at the Luncheon to inaugurate the Bank of Thailand Beijing Representative Office, Beijing, 6 April 2012. *  *  *  Your Royal Highness (Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn), Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bank of Thailand is humbly grateful to Your Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn for graciously presiding over this Luncheon to inaugurate the Bank of Thailand Beijing Representative Office. The Bank of Thailand is privileged and honoured to celebrate this auspicious occasion at the Residence of the Ambassador of Thailand here in Beijing among a group of honored guests who have been part of the long-standing Sino-Thai relations. Today’s event provides a unique opportunity to celebrate not only the present achievements, but also to pay tribute to history of the friendship between China and Thailand that has spanned over 700 glorious years since the Tang Dynasty and the Sukhothai Era. Our cooperation first began in the form of trade, which remains to this day the strongest tie between our two nations. Along with the flows of trade from China came the cultural heritage, which is why our cultural linkage is deeply rooted – in all aspects of the arts, culture and cuisine. Your Royal Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen, The long-standing relations between our two economies have provided a solid foundation that shaped our modern economic and financial relationships.
There are concerns that the various regulatory reforms taken together may lead to a pullback in trade finance and long-term investment financing. The global regulatory community and national governments have become increasingly sensitised to these concerns. In the area of trade finance, the Basel Committee consulted the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation, and other relevant bodies. A number of adjustments were made to the capital and liquidity rules to facilitate trade finance. •  In the area of capital rules, the Basel Committee waived the one year maturity floor for certain trade finance instruments under the advanced internal ratings-based approach for credit risk. It also waived the sovereign risk-weight floor for certain trade finance-related claims using the standardised approach for credit risk. •  In the area of liquidity, the Basel Committee issued guidance for national supervisors to apply relatively low run-off rates for trade finance commitments. Preliminary data suggests that the availability and cost of trade finance has not been greatly impacted to-date by the implementation of Basel III. Spreads have normalised post-crisis and pricing appears to be influenced more by broader macro factors and competition. Further, there are many well-capitalised banks, especially in Asia, that are well-placed to operate in the new regulatory regime; and many of them have stepped up. We should continue to monitor closely the impact of regulatory changes on trade finance. Trade is the lifeblood of Asian economies. But we have a bigger challenge in long-term financing, especially for infrastructure.

Looking ahead, I wish to take this opportunity to state that despite the bad experiences in the past, the Bank continues to extend an arm of friendship that aims to foster better relationships between the exemployees and the Bank. We shall continue to regard you as members of the Bank’s extended family. As retirees, we consider most of you as persons with vast experience and expertise coupled with a huge reservoir of institutional knowledge, which if natured well, can be a great source of information for future generations. The Bank will Endeavour to invite you to various functions as retirees whenever opportunities arise, especially when we organize historical events. We consider you as an important part of the Bank’s history. Ladies and Gentlemen, there are many ways of leaving employment including dismissal, discharge, resignation or even death. In my view, retirement is the most admirable of them all. It is the ripe way of leaving formal employment, and therefore, a goal that every employee strives for. I congratulate you for achieving this. Retirement should not be viewed as an end but rather as a beginning of a new life. It is my hope that you will find life after retirement fulfilling and a fitting reward for many years of hard work. It is my earnest appeal to all retirees to utilize all the skills and knowledge you have acquired during your working life most especially in the Bank, to use your retirement resources wisely by investing prudently.
That would certainly be workable – we have done something like it before – and there could be changes in the euro zone which might add to the attractions of a move in that direction. However, it is important not to underestimate the costs of the transition and the new boundary issues it would create. The cultures and staffing of the Bank and the FSA have changed a great deal since 1997 and would not be easy to reshape. And there are genuine costs for firms and supervisors in split responsibilities for different parts of complex groups. Personally, I am not convinced there is a clearly superior arrangement to the revised arrangements we have now put in place. It is not clear that any country has done much better than the others despite the differences in regulatory structure. Perhaps Canada has the best claim and that has a system similar in many respects to the UK’s. Whatever the boundaries, in a crisis like today’s I am sure that cooperation between the regulator, Central Bank, and Finance Ministry would be essential. I am pleased therefore that the new legislation makes clear the duty of the Bank to cooperate with the FSA and Treasury. Lesson 3: Tighten international coordination If the tripartite arrangements at home needed to be improved, cross border coordination needs to be transformed if we are to avoid a drift back into a network of national and regional financial enclaves. The failure of Lehmans was a fully fledged disaster for the world economy.

This is based on the observable facts that arrears and defaults tend to emerge in downturns and that loans written at the top of the cycle tend to have higher losses. Banks are required therefore to set aside a general provision against likely future loss each time they write a loan on the basis of a formula which is sensitive to the cycle. This is an accounting provision so these provisions are deducted from profits when they are made, and reduce dividends and profit related bonuses. They are then drawn down automatically as losses appear. In effect this requires banks to build up reserves in the upswing of a cycle which can cushion their losses in the downswing. The system has not prevented a property boom and bust in Spain but it has put their banks in a much stronger position to survive it by calling on these general provisions which amounted to over 1% of total assets. And in the process of protecting the banks from the cycle, this system has helped to some degree to dampen the cycle itself. Varying capital regulations in this way can act as a brake on the exuberant swings in lending we have seen in recent years. By requiring banks to hoard capital in the upswing, regulators make it more expensive for banks to lend money. And by dampening the credit cycle policy could help stabilise spending in the real economy.
Loans to companies via the banks are another possibility that I have already mentioned. In addition, the Riksbank is prepared to carry out currency interventions if the exchange rate develops in a way that is not compatible with a rise in inflation to two per cent. The aim of this would not be to influence the long-run krona rate, but to counteract an overly rapid strengthening before inflation has stabilised around 2 per cent. I hope that my comments so far have made clear that confidence in the inflation target has been given the highest priority by the Riksbank and that monetary policy has contributed towards the favourable development of the real economy. At the same time, since 2012, we have been careful to point out that a situation with low interest rates over a long period of time may create imbalances on the financial markets and on the housing market. We have therefore clearly communicated to the Government and other authorities that it is important to use various measures to limit risk-taking in the economy. My assessment so far is that significantly  5  De Rezende, R. B., Kjellberg, D. and Tysklind, O., “Effects of the Riksbank’s government bond purchases on financial prices”, Economic Commentary no. 13, 2015, Sveriges Riksbank. 6  BIS central bankers’ speeches  more commitment will be required to obtain a functioning housing market in Sweden and to reduce the risks of household indebtedness.

Responsible investment is an integral part of the investment strategy and includes the exclusion of companies on an ethical basis. In 2016, the Ministry of Finance, at the request of the Storting, introduced two new criteria for ethics-based exclusions: a climate criterion and a coal criterion. Norges Bank has conducted extensive research to collect data and perform analyses to identify the companies that fall under the coal criterion. Based on the results, the Executive Board decided to exclude 69 companies and place 13 companies under observation in 2016. On the advice of the Council on Ethics, the Board also decided to exclude a further eight companies and place one company under observation, while the exclusion of one company was revoked. The exchange of information and division of responsibilities between Norges Bank and the Council on 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  Ethics functions smoothly. At the end of 2016, Norges Bank submitted a recommendation to the Ministry of Finance to increase the share of equities in the GPFG. Historically, equities have generated a higher return than bonds, but the return has also been more volatile. A lower return on bonds is the price we pay to dampen fluctuations in the fund’s value. In recent years, bonds have become a more efficient, but also more costly, hedge against security market volatility. Both factors suggest that the bond allocation should be somewhat lower. In addition, Norway’s petroleum wealth as a whole has become more diversified over the past ten years.
Andrew G Haldane: A leaf being turned Speech by Mr Andrew G Haldane, Executive Director, Financial Stability, Bank of England, to Occupy Economics, “Socially useful banking”, London, 29 October 2012. *  *  *  The views are not necessarily those of the Bank of England or the Financial Policy Committee. I would like to thank Mark Cornelius, Paul Fisher and Varun Paul for their comments and contributions. The theme for tonight is “Socially Useful Banking”. And what better place to discuss it than tonight’s venue – the main meeting hall of The Friend’s House, traditionally the venue for the annual meeting of the Quakers. The Quaker movement famously gave us two of the UK’s largest banks, Lloyds and Barclays. Between them, these banks have almost 600 years of history. For most of that period, no-one questioned their social usefulness. They extended loans to businesses and helped families buy homes. Nationally and regionally, they were part of the social fabric. Today, that fabric is torn. As the CEOs of these two institutions have both recently said, these banks need to rediscover their social usefulness. But this is not only a question for the banks. It is a key issue for wider society too, who have after all felt the financial consequences of banks’ failings and failures. What do we want our banking system to do? And how do we create that system? This is where Occupy enter the picture.

So what followed was an era of ultra-cheap credit globally – the Heineken era, in which credit reached the parts of society it previously had not reached. Levels of debt, in particular among households, rose pretty much exactly in line with levels of inequality. Rising credit meant expanding bank balance sheets. To maintain this expansion, banks began to manufacture new financial products, slicing and dicing loans to meet investor demand for high yield. The acronyms we have now come to know and loathe – the CDOs, the ABSs and the CDOs of ABSs – emerged to meet this demand. Manufacturing high-tech loans was a lucrative business. Returns to banking rose to their highest levels since the roaring ‘20s. Those designing and selling these new financial gadgets saw their salaries sky rocket. In 1980, an investment banker was paid roughly the same as a similarly-skilled professional in any other industry. By 2007, they were earning nearly four times as much.1 Those salary differences were particularly pronounced at the top of the pyramid. In 1989, the CEOs of the largest US banks earned 100 times the median US household income. That is quite a gap. Yet by 2007, that multiple had risen to 500.2 A similar gap emerged for UK and European bank CEOs. These widening discrepancies within banks compounded the widening discrepancies between banking and other industries. Banks, especially the top of banks, became first among unequals.