samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
In Singapore, we have also disallowed innovative financing schemes for mortgages. Drawing such “bright lines” in regulation – simple, clear “out-of-bound” markers – has been very useful in targeting excessive build-up of risks in certain situations. 12. Our approach to rule-making has to strike the right balance of having a financial system that is both sound and progressive, so that it can fulfill its function as a conduit of capital and a facilitator of trade and economic activity. MAS will shortly publish a monograph on our approach to effective regulation. Effective supervision 13. The second pillar is effective supervision. Globally, there has been much discussion on having better rules, but not enough on strengthening day-to-day micro prudential supervision. 14. An eminent ex-central banker once likened this financial crisis to a massive accident on the highway. To prevent future accidents, if we assess that all drivers are irresponsible, we would have to drastically reduce the overall speed limit. But if we assess that we could also do a better job to take errant drivers to task early, we would have to also focus on strengthening the effectiveness of enforcement. We can then afford to be more measured  2  BIS Review 51/2010  and targeted in our rule-making. I believe reinforcing sensible rules with good supervisory judgements achieves a better outcome than acting on just one or the other. 15. However, effective supervision is not easy. The spectrum of supervisory issues will continue to expand and evolve.

Now that financial conditions have improved and firms are hiring again, financial institutions must invest in recruiting and developing their own staff. Taking the easy option of poaching staff from competitors to meet business expansion will undermine the collective strength of the industry in the long term, with adverse consequences on growth prospects for the industry as a whole. 26. To complement industry efforts in capability building, MAS would be prepared to consider regulatory initiatives to bring about a better-trained and more competent financial sector workforce. In the area of consumer banking, for example, some industry players have suggested the idea of a national examination to test the competencies of relationship managers serving customers in this segment. This could include topics such as ethics and conduct, so as to further promote fair dealing outcomes between industry players and endconsumers. MAS is now studying the idea and will work with the industry to develop this further. Conclusion 27. Let me now conclude. Asia’s financial systems and institutions are facing considerably less pressure for financial restructuring and regulatory reform in the current crisis. While Asia has not emerged unscathed, significant structural changes made after the Asian Financial Crisis have enabled the region’s financial systems to weather this crisis relatively well. 28. But there is no room for complacency. Even as we recognise the need to continue development of our financial markets, considerable risks and policy challenges still remain for the region.
Bank supervisors cannot prevent all fraud or illegal conduct or forestall all undesirable behavior in large, complex financial institutions. But we can help create more  BIS central bankers’ speeches  5  resilient, less complex, and better managed organizations that promote, rather than undermine, financial stability. V.  Conclusion  The Federal Reserve will continue to improve its supervision and regulation of financial institutions. We understand the risks of doing our job poorly and of becoming too close to the firms we supervise. We work hard to avoid these risks and to be as fair, conscientious, and effective as possible. Of course, we are not perfect. We cannot catch or correct every error by a financial institution, and we sometimes make mistakes. But in my view, a good measure of the effectiveness of supervision is the improved strength and stability of banks since the financial crisis. Thanks in part to enhanced supervision and regulation, banks “have the ability to meet their financial obligations and continue to make a broad variety of financial products and services available to households and businesses even in times of economic difficulty.”12 I can promise you that we will always strive to improve and that we will work hard to earn and retain your trust. I look forward to taking questions. 12  6  Scott G. Alvarez, Regulatory Rulemakings, Testimony before the Committee on Financial Services, United States House of Representatives, April 8, 2014. BIS central bankers’ speeches

Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Current issues and developments in Islamic banking and finance Keynote address by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the ASLI’s Conference on Developing Islamic Banking and Capital Market: “New Opportunities, New Market and New Frontier in Islamic Banking and Finance”, Kuala Lumpur, 25 August 2004. *  *  *  Islamic banking and finance has emerged as a financial intermediation process that is competitive and resilient and that contributes to the overall wealth creation, growth and development of our nation. Amidst an increasingly challenging and competitive financial environment, the evolution of a comprehensive Islamic financial system seeks to meet the range of requirements of a rapidly changing economic environment, with its soundness and stability secured through the robustness of its regulatory framework supported by the strength of its financial infrastructure and the sophistication of its products and services. Indeed, the strength of the respective components of the system and the interconnections of its markets will open new frontiers in Islamic banking and finance and will maximize the potential and opportunities that it accords. Distinguished guests, It is my pleasure to be here today at this conference organised by ASLI to speak on the current issues and developments in Islamic banking and finance. The Islamic financial system in Malaysia has evolved as a viable and competitive component of the overall financial system, complementing the conventional financial system as a driver of economic growth and development.
There are numerous security features but fortunately, we need to know only a few major ones to enable us to tell the difference between genuine and counterfeit notes. It would be in our interest to download and use this application so that we are able to differentiate a genuine and a counterfeit note. In the process, we will get to know and appreciate better our unique characteristics of the design and security features of our currencies. The My Ringgit application also contains useful information on the locations of the coin deposit machines of participating institutions throughout Malaysia. Users of this app will also receive a “Push Notification” message from time to time on news relevant to our currency like issuance of a new commemorative coin. Protecting our currency against being forged is critical but protecting it against being stolen is also as important. In the last few years, our ATMs have been the frequent target of criminals that has impacted the general public perception on the security of the banking industry’s ATMs. Many defective and preventive measures have been taken by financial institutions to protect the safety of ATMs such as relocating the ATMs to a safer location, strengthening the ATM security panel, installing bollards or even replacing obsolete ATMs. We are appreciative of the police who have played a significant role in improving the ATMs’ security. Bank Negara and financial institutions will always stand ready to assist the police in ensuring the security of our ATMs.

In most cases, counterfeit notes managed to pass through because the victims were too busy and casual to check their currency notes properly. This is indeed unfortunate and certainly avoidable if we are a bit more vigilant and aware of some security features found in our currency. Our currency notes are designed to protect against any forms of counterfeiting from the most basic to the most sophisticated. However, even the best security features and technology that are available will not help unless members of the public are adequately educated on the basic security characteristics of our currency notes. The security features in our currency notes utilise the latest technology and have stood the test of time. For example, “Intaglio” or raised printing effect, one of the most well-known security element found in almost every currency in the world, have never been featured on any counterfeits generated by colour printers. If only the general public is aware and able to identify of this particular security feature, they should be able to detect ninety nine percent of counterfeits in Malaysia and the world over. Intaglio by no means is the only security feature. There are many more watermark, electrotype numeral, see-through register mark, windowed colour shifting security threads with texts, hologram stripe, gold patch, to name a few, are among the basic security features that we should know on our currency notes. All this features can be easily be verified or authenticated using the “FLTC” method, that is to Feel, Look, Tilt and Check without using sophisticated devices.
But they are, and always will be, a second best. There will always, for example, be a risk of reputational contagion. Counterparties might refuse to deal with a member of a failed group because they are unwilling to take the risk that the firewalls may be flawed, or that cultural or control weaknesses which led to the failure are repeated in that entity also. This, of course, is a hypothetical risk but one which does concern supervisors. Secondly, as the firm will incur additional costs in order to comply with these ringfencing arrangements, while possibly at the same time being denied the risk reducing benefits of group wide controls, it is unlikely to provide the most efficient solution. Concern about these deficiencies has heightened as we have learned more about the way in which many global financial groups are managed. The lack of overlap between legal entities and the management of business lines means that the amount of true ring-fencing which is possible for a globally managed institution is open to debate. The creation of ring-fenced islands of activity seems to me contrary both to the trend in markets and second-best in terms of regulatory efficiency. The Bank of England has always believed that effective supervision of financial groups must involve consolidated supervision. As Alan Greenspan said last week in his testimony to the Congressional SubCommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, “Risks managed on a consolidated basis cannot be reviewed on an individual legal entity basis by different supervisors”.

Most importantly, European economies and their financial systems, among which the Austrian financial system enjoys a significant share of the market, define the globalization for the region and are, to a large extent, important determinants for the success or failure of these economies. Given the large share of the European financial groups, they have and will play an important role in the transmission of global shocks in the region. What is more important, they have a significant role in the transmission of legislative and regulative shocks carried over by European monetary and supervisory authorities. The size is such that even a simple change in the future business plans of a single European financial institution can transform into real shocks for the economies of the region. It became evident during the crisis and afterwards that an increase in risk and uncertainty, led to increased incentives for banks to withdraw from the Emerging Europe economies. Though this was mostly prevented due to increased cooperation through institutions such as the Vienna Initiative, the concerns from our perspective have not completely dissipated. In this respect the business plan of EU based groups can play a potentially important role in the nature and outcomes of this cooperation.
There is UPOS, or unified point-of-sale terminal, that can accept all major credit card brands, whether using a smart chip, NFC, or QR code. And now we have SGQR, a single, standardised QR code that can represent multiple payment schemes; this is the first of its kind in the world. The pain point that remains – for banks, businesses, and individuals – is the cross-border payments and settlement of assets. Cross-border payments involve multiple currencies and cross-border settlements involve multiple assets, and there is no single trusted central party to do this. This is why we think distributed ledger technology holds promise in this area. Many of you are familiar with Project Ubin. It involves MAS and the financial industry here working closely. It aims to make cross-border payments and settlements cheaper and faster at no compromise in security or privacy, using blockchain technology. In 2016, Project Ubin demonstrated that banks could pay one another without going through MAS, using a blockchain based digital representation of the Singapore Dollar. Last year, Project Ubin successfully achieved decentralised netting of payments while preserving transactional privacy. This year, we have made two more advances. First, Project Ubin team has successfully harnessed blockchain technology for the settlement of tokenised assets. In the analogue world, payment and exchange of goods are done at the same time. In financial terms, we call this “delivery-vs-payment” or DvP. It eliminates settlement risk, i.e. sellers cannot abscond with money without delivering the goods.

We need mechanisms to foster collaboration and co-creation ... … to translate ideas into products; bridge problems with solutions. People Let me start with the most critical part of ecosystem - people. The shortage of tech skills and talent is a global phenomenon. For a small city-state like Singapore, it is almost existential …. and that is why it is our top priority. Singapore is taking a multi-pronged approach: our institutes of higher learning are adapting their curriculum with industry input to develop students who are able to work with emerging technologies; our FIs are putting in place programmes to help re-skill mid-career professionals to take on the jobs of the future; and we will continue to welcome and embrace top talents from across the world to augment our own talent pool and raise the game here. Minister for Education, Ong Ye Kung, will speak more about skills and talent this Wednesday. Identity Let me then move on to the pain of verifying identity – the KYC problem. 3/9  BIS central bankers' speeches  For personal KYC, the Singapore government has taken the first step with National Digital Identity (NDI) … … which every resident of Singapore can use to establish his legal identity in a secure manner - with two-factor authentication and a public-private key pair - when making online transactions. A powerful component of NDI is MyInfo. This is a digital service that enables citizens to authorise third-parties to access their personal data sitting across many different government agencies.
Then I made the remark that a separated responsibility for monetary and macroprudential policy, without any coordination, could result in a game between authorities, which could lead to an outcome not desired by any of the authorities. In the United Kingdom, sole responsibility has been given to the central bank. A Financial Policy Committee is to be set up alongside the existing Monetary Policy Committee. Such a solution of course means that the coordination between these two almost parallel committees, although each with a different focus, becomes an important issue. In the EU, the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) has been set up at the ECB in Frankfurt. Central banks and supervisory authorities are represented on the ESRB, but the central banks have the majority of the votes when decisions are made. In Sweden, Finansinspektionen and we at the Riksbank set up the Council for Cooperation on Macroprudential Policy in January this year. This council will discuss the assessment of risks in the financial system as a whole and discuss appropriate risk-prevention measures. The Council will also discuss analyses and the development of tools and methods in the area of macroprudential policy. The Council is a temporary solution while awaiting a more permanent distribution of the responsibility for macroprudential policy. At present, the Financial Crisis Commission is working with this issue. The recently appointed inquiry on capital adequacy regulations will focus specifically on responsibility for the future counter-cyclical capital buffer.

The economic environment in which we operate today is a direct consequence of the demographic and productivity shifts taking place. Low neutral interest rates are very real, and they’re here to stay. Conclusion The facts have changed, and so it is time to change our minds also. It is often said that change is hard. But, experience teaches us that it is better to prepare for the future than wait too long. Ultimately, failure to prepare often means preparation for failure. 1 United Nations, World Populations Prospects: Key Findings and Advance Tables, 2015 Revision. 2 Antonin Bergeaud, Gilbert Cette, and Rémy Lecat, Productivity Trends in Advanced Countries between 1890 and  2012, Review of Income and Wealth, Volume 62, Issue 3, pp. 420–44, September 2016. 3 Shigeaki Fujiwara, Yuto Iwasaki, Ichiro Muto, Kenji Nishizaki, and Nao Sudo Fujiwara, Developments in the  Natural Rate of Interest in Japan, Bank of Japan Review, October 2016; Kathryn Holston, Thomas Laubach, and John C. Williams, Measuring the Natural Rate of Interest: International Trends and Determinants, Journal of International Economics, Volume 108, Supp. 1, pp. S59-S75, May 2017. 4 Thomas M. Mertens and John C. Williams, Tying Down the Anchor: Monetary Policy Rules and the Lower Bound  on Interest Rates, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Working Paper Series, May 2019.
Another change, which is created by the ongoing structural change in our country in growth dynamics, is closely related to the increases in productivity. According to SPO data, the contribution of total factor productivity to growth reached 51.3 percent in the 2002-2004 period, while this rate was 3.3 percent in the 1990-2000 period. In other words, the largest contribution to growth comes from the increases in productivity. In the 2001-2005 period, productivity increases in the private manufacturing industry reached 36 percent, in cumulate terms. Hence, the increase in productivity was the main determinant of growth, during this period. Moreover, it should be kept in mind that the increases in productivity not only enhance the quality of growth, but also contribute to the sustainability of growth. I would like to talk about another factor in the scope of the changing growth dynamics in the Turkish economy. That is the fact that our economy is getting more and more integrated with the world. High export rates have made a remarkable contribution to growth in the past four years. In this period, the average annual rate of increase of exports realized as 24 percent. In the 2002-2005 period, our exports increased by 104 percent. Parallel to this development, firms are increasingly shifting to exports and reaching international markets by quitting local production processes and local markets. As our economy opens to the outside world, profit margins narrow, due to increasing internal and external competition in the sectors.

This deadline may, as provided for in the Decree-Law, be extended by three months by the Banco de España if considered necessary for justifiable operational reasons, and by up to six months if an initial public offering is involved. A conclusive step will thus have been taken in the savings banks sector restructuring strategy, which has entailed unprecedented change on many levels: balance-sheet write-downs at institutions; integration projects among savings banks to achieve bigger and more efficient institutions; a change in corporate model to smooth access to capital and to encourage enhanced governance, and, lastly, the recapitalisation of the sector. If these three reforms are resolutely seen through, there will be a favourable change on the markets similar to that seen in the first half of this year when the pensions reform and the recapitalisation of credit institutions were approved. Spain might feature next year as a euro area country that still has a high deficit – 6% at end-2011 – but comparable to that of other major euro area countries and with the lowest debt level among the biggest economies in the area. Moreover, once the restructuring and recapitalisation of the banking system has been completed, it will be more apparent that all credit institutions have a high degree of capitalisation and that only a small portion of the sector has required public aid.
As of August, the 12-month change for a broad measure of consumer prices was 2.9 percent, almost double the change in the year before. However, the bulk of that increase was due directly to the run-up of energy and commodity prices, which tend to bounce around a lot. Measures of the underlying rate of inflation have moved up too, but by less and to levels broadly consistent with price stability. I expect those to subside soon, as well. It is important to remember that a year ago the worry was that deflation – meaning a persistent, widespread decline in prices – might take hold. Deflation tends to inhibit growth because people and companies have a harder time paying down debt and may defer investments and purchases when prices and wages are falling. Avoiding outright deflation is a very good thing. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  Thus, barring more energy price jumps, I expect inflation to fall late this year and next. Moreover – and this is crucial – households’ inflation expectations remain well anchored. Low and stable inflation expectations help us to deliver low and stable inflation. In light of the current weak outlook, the FOMC has announced that we expect to keep shortterm interest rates exceptionally low at least through mid-2013 and will change the composition of the assets the Fed holds to provide additional support for growth. In addition, we have discussed the range of policy tools available to promote a stronger economic recovery even as we keep inflation pressures in check.

Although the Bronx is the city’s second smallest borough, it has 1.4 million residents – equal to the combined population of three to four average U.S. cities. You host world-class institutions such as the Yankees, the New York Botanical Garden, the Montefiore Medical Center and the Hunts Point Market. You also are home to the largest Dominican population in the city and sizable groups from around the globe. In sum, the Bronx is a major metropolitan area and economic force all on its own. What the New York Fed does By way of introduction, I will briefly review what the New York Fed does and what makes my job so interesting. As always, what I have to say reflects my own views and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve System or the Federal Open Market Committee, also known as the FOMC. I serve as Vice-chair of the FOMC – a Federal Reserve committee that meets eight times a year in Washington, D.C., to set interest rates and make other decisions about monetary policy. At FOMC meetings, each Committee member presents a current regional and national outlook. For these assessments, we consult our researchers and add critical information that we learn from our boards of directors, regional councils and community leaders, such as you. At the New York Fed, we continually track conditions in our District and have created tools for that purpose.