samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Furthermore, some of the very largest commercial banks earn a substantial portion of their net revenues from the various payment and credit services they offer to the securities industry. In addition, the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission jointly regulate and oversee the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation through which privately issued bonds and equities are settled in the United States. Third, as fiscal agent, the Federal Reserve provides a variety of payment-related services on behalf of the United States Treasury and other government agencies. These services include the processing of government payments as well as the creation, safekeeping, and transfer of book-entry records detailing ownership of the public debt. As an extension of these fiscal agent duties, the Federal Reserve also seeks to promote the efficient operation of the government securities market. BIS Review 93/2000  2  Fourth, the Federal Reserve oversees private clearing and settlement systems and provides payment services, principally Fedwire. These services are central to overall financial stability because disruptions in payment systems have the clear potential to impair the functioning of the financial sector and the real economy. Moreover, a major financial or operational problem at a key institution in a securities settlement system can also spill over to the payment systems that it uses and thereby have systemic repercussions. Finally, to enhance the general welfare of the US economy, the Federal Reserve promotes the efficient functioning of the payment system and helps to supply payment services.

And the inability of the money supply to vary in response to demand would likely cause greater volatility in prices and real activity. 17 As the Italian philosopher George Santayana famously observed. 7  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  7  In the short run, the fixed supply of Bitcoin has fed a global speculative mania that has encouraged a proliferation of new cryptocurrencies. As my colleague Agustin Carstens has argued, this surge of competitors and the “forking” of Bitcoin echoes the debasement of private monies in the past. 18  Inefficient Media of Exchange The most fundamental reason to be sceptical about the longer term value of cryptocurrencies is that it is not clear the extent to which they will ever become effective media of exchange. Currently, no major high street or online retailer accepts Bitcoin as payment in the UK, and only a handful of the top 500 US online retailers do. For those who can find someone willing to accept payment for goods and services in cryptocurrencies, the speed and cost of the transaction varies but it is generally slower and more expensive than payments in sterling. That’s because the more heavily used cryptocurrencies face severe capacity constraints compared with other payment systems. For example, Visa can process up to 65,000 transactions per second globally against just 7 per second for Bitcoin. And if you use a debit or credit card in the UK, the transaction is completed in seconds and without exchange rate risk.
This morning, I would like to share with you some observations of the changes that we must act on, in order to be a truly “Dynamic Trust Centre”. Growth drivers are strong 4. Let me say a few words on the outlook. Prospects are bright, with strong growth in Asia-Pacific wealth and greater traction in the use of trusts. While trust services have had a long history in developed economies, such as US and Europe, the trust industry in most of Asia is still at a relatively nascent stage. 5. On the demand side, we expect to see further interest, as Asia attracts more investment inflows, and the number of High Net Worth Individuals in Asia continues to grow. According to the Boston Consulting Group, Asia-Pacific wealth is expected to expand around 11% per annum until 2017. Wealthy families in Asia are increasingly attuned to use of trust structures to facilitate estate planning, succession planning, and to safeguard assets. Philanthropy is also gaining traction in the region, and according to a study by UBS and INSEAD, there is a rising trend towards the use of charitable trusts for philanthropic initiatives. 6. On the supply side, Singapore’s trust industry has expanded steadily, and the ecosystem is evolving alongside the wealth management sector. Since the introduction of mandatory licensing of trust companies in 2006 by MAS, we have 53 Licensed Trust Companies operating here. Many private banks have also broadened their capabilities to the area of trusts.

As the risks associated with a high level of debt are so high, it should be in the countries’ interests to shoulder a greater responsibility for improving their own situation. This brings me to the second aspect I would like to discuss today, that is how the problems of highly-indebted countries are handled. Sustainable solutions require responsibility It is now obvious that some European countries need support from the IMF and the EU and it is good that this possibility exists. However, focusing too much on various support measures undermines the incentives for the countries themselves to find sustainable solutions to their problems. I suspect that at least one reason for the comparatively weak results achieved so far with regard to budget consolidation and reforms at the national level is that altogether too much energy has been expended on support facilities and too little on what is needed to improve the preconditions for an economically strong Europe. However, I am not a fanatic who claims that budget consolidation is the one and only solution. The least painful way to strengthen a country’s public finances is to work with structural reforms that benefit the country’s economic growth. This may relate to reforms of the labour market and the pension system, reforms of the fiscal-policy framework and, in some cases, fundamental institutional reforms.
The pace of food price inflation and capital inflows into Asia will moderate compared to the last two years. Much of the recent food price increases reflect the impact of supply disruptions, and these are largely expected to be of a temporary nature. Capital inflows are also unlikely to persist at the volumes seen in the last two years, as monetary policy settings in the advanced economies are normalised. 16. More importantly, policymakers in most Asian economies are not behind the curve, or at least not anymore. Central banks in ASEAN are deeply cognisant of underlying inflation risks. They have either hiked interest rates or allowed the exchange rates to appreciate over time or done both. Malaysia and Thailand have raised policy rates by four and six times respectively since early 2010. Key ASEAN countries are also relying more on exchange rate appreciation to dampen import price pressures. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  17. In Singapore, MAS preemptively tightened exchange rate policy as early as April 2010. Subsequently, exchange rate policy was tightened in October 2010 and again in April this year. Allowing the Singapore dollar to strengthen has had a dampening effect on inflation in Singapore, which would otherwise have been much higher. Headline inflation has probably peaked in Singapore and is expected to average 3 to 4 per cent this year. Core inflation – which excludes private transport and accommodation costs – is expected to be 2 to 3 per cent this year. 18.

The Urban Hub has also partnered the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise – a platform that leverages on the public sector expertise of Singapore. Together, they have implemented six projects in Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Mongolia. This includes helping these governments develop a regulatory and financing framework to prepare PPP projects for private sector investment. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  37. Regional governments have also introduced schemes to encourage private sector investment. For example, the Indonesian Ministry of Finance has worked with the World Bank to set up the Indonesia Infrastructure Guarantee Fund. This fund provides guarantees to the private sector against risks arising from government actions, so as to improve the creditworthiness and quality of PPP infrastructure projects. 38. A critical success factor for achieving Asia’s infrastructure investment potential is a well-developed financial sector. Asia needs financial markets that are deep enough to effectively intermediate its considerable savings pool and broad enough to provide a range of suitable instruments for risk mitigation. Although ASEAN has made progress on these fronts since the 1997 crisis, more needs to be done. These include strengthening legal and regulatory frameworks, increasing market access, harmonising cross border regulations, and raising the level of corporate governance. 39. ASEAN has set in motion several initiatives. It has drawn up a scorecard to identify gaps in the development of bond markets. Its capital markets regulators are working on initiatives to harmonise domestic laws, regulations, and practices.
Not least, Islamic banking continues to grow  1/4  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  further with more institutions adopting an Islamic-first strategy. With the growth of the assets comes the demand for corresponding Shariah-compliant investing and treasury services. These factors point to another area where we believe to be important in further advancing Malaysia as an international Islamic financial centre. The development of a vibrant Islamic financial market, in particular the ringgit Islamic financial market. Currently, Islamic money market volume already accounts for 38% of the total turnover in the money market while total trading volume has increased steadily over the years to RM5.9 trillion in Islamic money market as at end of 2021 (2020: RM4.91 trillion). Commodity Murabahah has been the predominant instrument in the Islamic money market with a 92.7% composition, followed by Qard Acceptance (5.6%), Negotiable Instrument of Deposits (1.2%) and others3. The overall bond market (including sukuk market) continued to grow with outstanding bond and sukuk growing at 8% in 2021 to RM1.7 trillion4. Turnover of debt securities and sukuk remained robust at RM1.87 trillion as of end-2021, with average daily secondary bond trading volume of RM3.8 billion. To date, Malaysia remains the biggest global sukuk market with a share of 52% of total outstanding sukuk and 42% share of global sukuk issuances as of end-20215. These are very good achievements - a strength that we can further build upon.

The committee identified the following immediate development areas: the need for continued collaboration between regulators and the financial market community in promoting and improving the transparency to broaden the investor base of the Malaysian sukuk market; the concept of "anticipatory hedging" was identified to be vital in advancing the Islamic derivatives market in Malaysia and in creating a healthy, liquid market for practitioners' hedging activities; enhancement of ESG data so that capital and funding can be directed towards more sustainable and higher-impact assets; and  2/4  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  Islamic Social Finance (ISF) has a role to play in the Malaysian retail market, potentially through a Cash Waqf Linked Sukuk model. This model can serve as a guide for similar social financing models for IFIs to emulate in the Malaysian market. Looking beyond the financial market, there will be a higher platform that will steer the MIFC agenda. With the growing maturity of the Islamic financial sector in Malaysia, Bank Negara Malaysia also believes that the industry is now well positioned to drive the broader MIFC agenda. The MIFC Leadership Council, a joint initiative of Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission Malaysia will provide thought leadership, and drive strategy formulation and implementation to enhance Malaysia's position as an international gateway for Islamic finance. It is envisioned that the Council will also evolve into a fully industry-led structure that will be better able to respond to - and capitalise on - global opportunities in Islamic finance.
According to the forecasts produced by the IMF and other major forecasting organisations, this relatively strong growth is set to continue through 2011 and 2012 and the Bank of England’s own Inflation Report forecasts also reflect the pattern of continuing strong world growth. Against this background, it seems to me likely that the upward pressure we are seeing from global inflationary pressures is likely to continue for some time. Rises in energy and commodity prices are clearly part of this pattern, and they may continue. An oil price of $ barrel and perhaps higher is quite conceivable.4 And we should not be surprised to see these inflationary pressures transferred to more general increases in the prices of manufactured goods imported into the UK. In China and other Asian economies which are key producers of manufactured goods, domestic inflation and the pressure of demand from global markets is putting upward pressure on wages and the cost of production. This prolonged period of upward pressure on inflation from the global economy can be seen as the mirror image of the “China effect” which helped to hold down inflation in the UK and other western economies in the late 1990s and the first half of the 2000s. 4  6  Between last autumn and this spring, the price of Brent crude rose from around $ barrel to over $ in the space of just six months. A continuing rise at just half this pace would take the price to $ by the autumn of 2011.

Unicredit Group can probably be qualified as the quintessential European cross-border banking group, with operations in 22 European countries and, amongst these 22, in 19 Central and Eastern European countries. Alessandro is also the President of the European Banking Association. The last 2 to 3 years have been especially eventful for financial integration and stability, with once in a life-time developments. After Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, the global financial system experienced unprecedented stress and policy makers had to tread unknown territory in dealing with it. BIS Review 47/2010  1  The financial crisis has raised a host of policy issues that will provide food for reflection for generations to come. I will mention a few of them to set the scene and to kick-start the discussion. The first set of issues relate to the developments in the late nineties and early 2000s. The combination of high economic growth, ample liquidity, increasing financial integration and development, and “light handed” regulation sewed the seeds of the crisis to come. I believe that a number of people and organisations, including mine, identified vulnerabilities in the financial system before the crisis erupted. Nevertheless, we did not anticipate the timing and the intensity. We should ask ourselves what we missed in the run-up to the crisis and what the lessons are for the future. Once the crisis erupted in full force, a first casualty were the money markets, which provide the oil to make the banking system run smoothly. Money markets came to an unprecedented stand-still.
Secondly, in order to make it easier for investors to purchase the bonds, all commercial and Islamic banks, as well as Bank Kerjasama Rakyat, have been appointed as agent banks. The public may start applying for the bond beginning 5 January until 30 January 2004. Thirdly, profits will be paid to investors on a quarterly basis. Through the quarterly payment of profits, investors will receive a steady stream of income to support their expenditure needs. For the first issuance, the Merdeka Savings Bond offers a profit margin of 5% per annum. At 5% per annum, the return is higher than interest rates paid for 12-month fixed deposits by the commercial banks. The income earned from the bonds will also be exempted from tax. The Merdeka Savings Bond also provides investors with the benefit of early redemption without any penalty in terms of forgone profits. Investors can redeem the full amount of their initial investments at any time after the first profit payment. Profit payments will then be based on the number of days the bond is held. This feature gives investors the option and flexibility to withdraw their savings at any time to meet unanticipated expenses. There will be a dedicated hotline and website to attend to public queries regarding the bonds. The launch of the Merdeka Savings Bond marks a further step forward in creating new investment instruments for a specific target group of savers who have retired. Moving forward, further savings products should be developed by the financial services industry.

Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Malaysia - encouraging savings in a dynamic economy Opening remarks by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the launching of the Merdeka Savings Bond, Kuala Lumpur, 2 January 2004. *  *  *  Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my honour and pleasure to welcome you to the launch ceremony for the Merdeka Savings Bond. The launching of this bond marks another step forward in our efforts to enhance the diversity of financial products for Malaysian consumers. In this more dynamic environment, the Malaysian economy has continued to expand with per capita income rising to exceed levels prior to the Asian financial crisis. This growth has been supported by comprehensive pro-growth policies and the development of a much stronger banking sector that is able to better manage new risks and challenges. As a trade-oriented economy, external developments will continue to be important in affecting our growth prospects. In order to reduce our vulnerability to adverse external developments, increased attention has been given to promoting domestic demand. Policy strategies have therefore been directed at promoting domestic consumption and investment. Low interest rates, together with policies to increase disposable incomes, have led to higher consumption and a recovery in private investment. These trends have been important in sustaining growth. As a high savings country, Malaysia has the potential to promote a higher level of consumption without undermining the prospect for financing of private investment from domestic sources.
8 Official Norwegian Report NOU 2019:17: Arbeid og inntektssikring [Work and income security] (Norwegian only). 17  NORGES BANK  Chart 18 Higher disability rates. Change from 2010 to 2019. 4  1)  Share of population. Percentage points 4  3  3  2  2  1  1  0  0  20-24  25-29  30-34  35-39  40-44  45-49  50-54  55-59  ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 13 FEBRUARY 2020  60-64  1) Change from 30 September 2010 to 30 September 2019. Source: Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV)  The Norwegian labour market is characterised by small wage differences. On the whole, small wage differences are an asset for the economy, partly because this entails higher skills and productivity requirements. On the other hand, it means that jobs for unskilled workers are limited. Those in a weak position in the labour market may then struggle to enter the labour market, or re-enter after a period of unemployment. The economy’s structural features and the functioning of the labour market will determine the level of employment in the long run. Economic policy plays an important role, particularly in terms of how education, tax and welfare policies are designed. For those who are at risk of being excluded, targeted measures may be necessary. Monetary policy can serve as an employment cushion. In periods of falling labour demand, a more expansionary monetary policy will dampen the decline.

This was not a given as we were heavily reliant on foreign capital and expertise in the first years of oil activities. But decisions were taken early on in favour of substantial government ownership, high taxation of production profits and skills transfer requirements, which were in many ways in keeping with Norwegian traditions. The roots can be traced back to concession policy and hydropower management, and to the post-war focus on collective solutions. It was also broadly recognised that economic gains from the use of natural resources, economic rent, should be returned to society. The value of the fund is now more than three times annual mainland GDP. The fund has grown bigger than total net household wealth, including housing wealth (Chart 9). This means the fund has an interesting distributional aspect. While the richest decile controls half of household wealth, we all benefit from the fund. 8  NORGES BANK  Chart 9 ... and larger than household wealth. Share of mainland GDP. 350 300  1)  Percent 350  Net household wealth  ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 13 FEBRUARY 2020  300  GPFG value  250  250  200  200  150  150  100  100  50  50  0 1998  2001  2004  2007  2010  2013  2016  0 2019  1) At 30 September 2019. Net household wealth is the sum of net value of household assets from the financial accounts and an estimate of the value of their dwellings.
The frequency distribution of the return on equity of large euro area banks (see chart on the left on slide 10) shows that the degree of dispersion among banks narrowed considerably in 2005. The banks with the lowest returns on equity managed to improve their performance, shifting the overall distribution to the right. Banks’ profits were also supported by the fact that the frequency distribution of loan impairment charges of large euro area banks, previously referred to as provisioning, shifted substantially to lower levels between 2004 and 2005 (as shown on the right-hand side of slide 10). Although this is an indication of an overall improvement in the quality of large euro area banks’ loan books, questions can be asked about the sufficiency of banks’ charges for expected loan losses should the credit environment deteriorate from the current very benign conditions. Regarding banks’ buffers for unexpected losses, on the other hand, the capital ratios for the same (large euro area) banks show that, in general, a greater proportion of banks exhibited higher capital ratios in 2005 relative to the previous year. The generally positive assessment of large euro area banks is complemented by a thorough analysis of risks related to interlinkages between banks. Special features B and C look at two different aspects of the relationships between banks: those running through extreme contagion channels and through earnings expectations.

Finally, there are some signs of a maturing of the global corporate sector credit cycle and this has the potential to generate tensions in global financial markets, especially credit derivatives. 3. Global macro-financial environment  Let me now illustrate the analysis behind our assessment in more detail, starting with the global macro-financial environment where the ever-expanding current account and financial imbalances and the high oil prices continue to feature as prominent sources of risk. BIS Review 50/2006  1  The Chart on the left draws your attention to the scale of global financial imbalances and to the fact that the United States remains the largest debtor country. However, there have been changes in the relative importance of global creditor countries. Indeed, the aggregate contribution of the Asian economies to financing the US deficit has broadly stabilised while the oil producing countries have surpassed them in importance. There have been concerns about the sustainability of global current account positions over the past six months as the cyclical support for the US dollar has been gradually waning. In this context, I would like to draw your attention to Box 1 of the Review that contains an overview of the recent debate on this topic. Oil prices have been volatile and they have surged further since November last year, against a background of persistently strong demand and renewed geopolitical tensions.