samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Please note that these numbers do not even take into account the contribution by the central bank. Therefore, all that is good for the banking system and allows it to perform its traditional functions, is also good for the Bulgarian economy. Our country can ill afford to do without the banks’ considerable positive contribution to economic growth – which will be the effect, unfortunately, if the policymakers succumbed to certain populist sentiments that have been promoted recently by some figures who would use every occasion to come onto the media stage. There is no reason for the banks in Bulgaria to be additionally burdened by ill-considered administrative regulations and the related costs. Quite the contrary, the weight of such additional burden would turn back as a boomerang against the interests of our society and the Bulgarian economy in general. The nihilistic attitudes to our own achievements in the past hold back enterprise and the ability to plan for the future. That slows down the economy. Simply not knowing one’s own economic history, however, could lead to making decisions with very adverse implications. Therefore, the best we could wish ourselves for the future with regard to the sector and the economy as a whole is that in the future the public interference in the banking area in Bulgaria continues mainly within the confines of prudential and conservative regulations and supervisory practices.

Jean-Claude Trichet: Structural and financial reforms in Europe in a global economic environment  Speech by Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, Governor of the Banque de France, at the International Securities Market Association meeting, held in Paris, on 16 June 2000. *  *  *  Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure for me to take the opportunity of this ISMA meeting in Paris to present some views on how European economies have entered a new era with the introduction of the euro. First, I would like to elaborate on the pace of structural reforms, which have already produced tangible and positive effects on the growth rate in the euro zone. Second, I will focus on the integration process which is under way in financial markets across the euro area. 1. The euro area may expect a long phase of steady economic growth sustained by the strong pace of structural reforms: further liberalization, increasing labor flexibility and government budgetary discipline  Liberalization based on privatization, deregulation and transparency has been a success The time is long past when a significant portion of the European economy was controlled through various government bodies or regulations. The liberalization movement, which accelerated substantially with the development of the European Union and principally the completion of the single market, includes three aspects: –  A significant privatization movement, which has spread throughout all of Europe. Since 1990, Europe’s governments have sold more than $ billion worth of state companies.
More specifically, proponents of a “new economy” contend that advances in computer power and software - combined with deregulation in the telecommunications, transportation and financial industries - have produced many new profitable business opportunities. Using advances in technology and tapping into highly liquid world capital markets, many new and existing firms have been able to exploit these opportunities quickly. Furthermore, the proponents of a “new economy” argue, information technology has produced numerous cost savings for business operations. The growing role of the internet as the medium to exchange large volumes of information and conduct efficient transactions - among businesses as well as between businesses and consumers - will lead to a further acceleration of productivity growth. Thus, this view concludes, the increase in the output of the computer/software industry is both a cause and an effect of these deeper trends. We are just at the early stages of understanding the surge in productivity growth. But recent empirical work is beginning to grapple with some of these issues. It appears that a significant part of the increase 3  BIS Review 29/2000  in productivity relates to increased quantities of capital per worker, primarily computers and software. However, the largest part of the improvement in productivity growth has yet to be fully understood. We can not yet resolve the “new economy” debate. Nevertheless, I am persuaded that the longer productivity improvement continues, the harder it becomes to view this improvement merely as a cyclical phenomenon.

Also, it has been difficult to draw a clear line between what the actual responsibilities of a central bank are, and what represents business that the bank has carried on for historical reasons. Today, we have managed to change the market structure in a direction that we believe will benefit society through lower total costs for handling cash. However, we have not yet found a good solution for the cash handling firm we created. Measuring central bank efficiency As I mentioned earlier, central bank efficiency involves many different aspects, none of which have been the subject of much research. Unfortunately, there have not been very many attempts to actually measure the efficiency of central banks. Some recent studies have focused on monetary policy  BIS Review 24/2003  3  efficiency, and these have provided some valuable insights. However, the achievements of the central bank are typically not related to its costs. On the other hand, a number of attempts have been made to measure the cost efficiency of central banks; these have typically focused on activities for which output is measurable, such as the production of notes and coins. Measuring the costs of central banks is relatively easy. For example, one can look at the size of the bank's staff. The problem, however, is quantifying output. 50  Diagram 1.
In ten years time, we may therefore know whether “global imbalances” and “low risk premia” were resolved with or without stress; and we may be better informed on whether the changes in the structure of our financial markets help or hinder the preservation of stability. A benign outcome would be more likely if the industry were to maintain its efforts on improving ex ante measures to handle stress. Managers of hedge funds and other modern investment vehicles, as well as banks, have a clear stake in that work. Annex: Vehicles CDO: Collateralised debt obligation. Typically, a structured finance product where a SPV issues notes backed by, or referenced to, a portfolio of underlying assets. The notes issued are tranched by seniority into senior, mezzanine and equity. The underlying assets could be corporate bonds, loans or structured finance securities (such as mortgage-backed securities or notes issued by other CDOs), and they might be owned either directly or synthetically via credit default swaps. CDO squared. A CDO invested in CDO tranches, typically mezzanine tranches of synthetic CDOs. CDPC: Credit Derivative Product Companies. A highly-rated limited purpose company, with permanent capital, that sells credit protection on individual names or synthetic CDO tranches. CDPCs differ from monolines in that they write protection only via credit default swaps. They are in some respects akin to synthetic banks. Closed-end fund. An investment company that issues shares to investors and invests the proceeds in a pool of assets typically stocks and/or bonds.

Jean-Pierre Danthine: Does cash have a future? Summary of a speech by Mr Jean-Pierre Danthine, Vice Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the Assemblée Générale de l’Association des Alumni HEC, Lausanne, 8 May 2014. *  *  *  The complete speech can be found in German on the Swiss National Bank’s website: www.snb.ch. One of the traditional tasks of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) is to provide the economy with banknotes and coins. Since the establishment of the SNB, banknotes have constituted the most visible link to the population. As an everyday article of use, but also symbolically, banknotes embody the quality, security and stability of the SNB, and of Switzerland in general, not least of all also for the rest of the world. It is therefore of key importance that the SNB undertake the task of cash supply and distribution conscientiously. The role that banknotes play in the public’s trust in the institution and its decisions is not to be underestimated. In turn, this trust is an important prerequisite for the SNB to be able to fulfil its core monetary policy mandate, and thereby ensure price stability. Due to technological developments in the post-war period, the significance of cash declined, as measured in terms of economic performance. Since the beginning of the 1990s, however, the demand for cash has hovered at a stable level, and since 2008, in the wake of the financial crisis, there has even been a marked increase.
Small businesses are the primary driver of job growth in the United States, they create economic opportunity in local communities, and they help drive innovation across the economy. The New York Fed and fellow Reserve Banks are supporting small business in a number of ways. First, by producing the annual Small Business Credit Survey, which is fielded by all 12 Reserve Banks, to provide timely information on the sector, how they are doing, their financing needs and their access to credit. Second, by providing a one-stop resource of all of our insights 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  and analysis to policymakers, community leaders, and service providers through the Fed Small Business website. Third, through regular meetings of our small business advisory councils, to get an understanding of real conditions on the ground. Fourth, through our Access to Capital Workshops, which provide technical assistance on access to credit for small businesses, covering topics like traditional lending, alternative and emerging sources of capital, and export financing. And, finally, through meetings like these. So, since small businesses matter to the health of our economy, and Latino-owned small businesses are the fastest growing, what do we know about them? The report, which will help inform much of today’s discussion, combines the results from the Federal Reserve’s Small Business Credit Survey, SLEI’s Survey of US Latino Business Owners and interviews conducted by SLEI and Interise, to offer a unique and unprecedented perspective into this entrepreneurial class.

It is now my pleasure to introduce Nancy Lee of Interise, Marlene Orozco from SLEI, and Claire Kramer from the New York Fed. 2/2  BIS central bankers' speeches
This performance applies to the whole system without the bank whose license was revoked and CB Victoria which is still under special supervision. All these indicators and results are especially rewarding because they have been achieved in a very harsh year! At the same time, however, nobody entertains the illusions that the hardships and trials to the banks in our country are over. Because most likely in 2015 as well the banking community  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  will work in a testing business environment, where I do not rule out the possibility of new attempts to deliver blows against the sector, motivated by the intertwining economic, political and media interests, such as those we saw against the Bulgarian banking system right after KTB and CB Victoria were placed under special supervision. The passing 2014 year has shown how dangerous to society, as well as useless for their authors, such attacks can actually be. Remember how, right here before you, a year ago I called your attention to the fact that we could expect political tension to rise and the topic of banks to be turned into an object of pre-election campaign and party bickering. Regrettably, this unpleasant prediction has come true. Throughout the past year we were not spared statements by party representatives who administered negative public judgments and pronounced the gloomiest of predictions about the banks in the country.

A large proportion of the transit travel from the north to the south of Europe goes right through Switzerland. In order to make this more efficient, we are currently digging a 57-kilometer-long railway tunnel through the Gotthard Mountain - an undertaking that is going to cost Switzerland a lot of money. So I hope that it will manage to be the longest railway tunnel in the world for a few years at least. The country’s economic relations with the European Union are governed by the Bilateral Agreements this comes after the electorate voted against Switzerland’s accession to the European Economic Area in 1992. Agreements in seven sectors have been in force since mid-2002; a further eight agreements were signed by the EU and Switzerland just three weeks ago. These now need to be approved by parliament or, if necessary, by the people. Opening up the Swiss labour market vis-à-vis the EU is of particular importance. For our country, the enlargement of the workforce through the immigration of foreign nationals has long been crucial, given its own limited labour potential. Earlier arrangements were customised to suit the needs of certain sectors, notably the construction, tourism and agricultural industries. However, since the bilateral agreement on the free movement of persons entered into force two years ago, the Swiss labour market has been open to EU citizens. And vice-versa - Swiss nationals seeking employment are free to work anywhere in the European Union. There are, however, still quotas in place. These will be removed in 2007.
I have a very simple mantra. Incentives drive behavior. Behavior sets social norms. And those social norms define culture. So if you have the wrong incentives, you’re probably going to have bad culture. If you have the right incentives, you’re probably going to have a much better culture. One thing that Preet Bharara said when he came to a conference we had at the New York Fed, he said one of the big challenges that he sees is that people don’t speak up early enough when they see something wrong going on. He said that if people spoke up early, a lot of these big 7 / 13  BIS central bankers' speeches  things would never have been big things. They would have been little things. And so, the important thing also is to really educate people that it’s okay if you see something that bothers you, that you’re not comfortable with, raise your hand. You’re not doing anybody a favor by keeping silent, hoping it will go away. You’re not doing anybody a favor by thinking, well, if I raise my hand, I’m sort of tattling on my colleagues. That is not the right way to think about it. Bad behavior is not good for you, it’s not good for the institution. And so, if you do see bad behavior, or something that you’re not really sure whether it’s bad behavior or not, raise your hand and raise it to your manager, and have a conversation about it.

I think the Administration wants better trade deals and not – I think the question is whether they’ll get better trade deals without actually having to put, you know, higher trade barriers in place. Obviously to the extent that trade barriers go up and that would tend to raise import prices, that would feed into price level in terms of inflation, and so obviously, we had to take that into consideration in terms of how we do monetary policy. But going to be happening in a dynamic world where a lot of other things are going on. So, I wouldn’t want to take one thing and say, “Oh, if that happens, we’re going to do X,” because it really depends on, one, it’s highly speculative what’s going to happen on trade policy, and two, even if it happened, it would depend on magnitude and it would depend on a lot of other things that are going on. So I think it’s really hard to speculate about something like that. Maureen O’Hara: Okay, I see some hands way back there. So if you can hand the microphone to someone who’s got their hand up, way back there, that’d be great. Audience Member: Recently, it’s been speculated that the Trump trade policy actually will evolve into a border tax. It’s been in the works in the Republican Party for the last several years. This would simply entail an increase across-the-board in taxation on imports and an equal proportional across-the-board decrease on all exports.
Chart: Central bank balance sheets Policy rates are still negative for several of our trading partners, more than a decade after the financial crisis. The extraordinary measures that have been applied have also led to a substantial expansion of central bank balance sheets, and in a number of countries they are still expanding. In Sweden and Japan, the asset purchase programmes have not yet been brought to an end, and the European Central Bank has recently announced that its asset purchase programme will be restarted (also note that Japan has to have a separate graph in this chart). Unconventional instruments appear to have become a part of the ordinary central bank toolkit. We have more policy room for manoeuvre in Norway as the policy rate has risen slightly. In the event of a severe downturn, we would lower the policy rate. In principle, other countries’ experience shows that the impact of a lower policy rate does not stop at the zero lower bound, 6/9  BIS central bankers' speeches  even though the scope for rates below zero is limited. But in Norway it is difficult to envisage negative rates over a long period or monetary policy being stretched even further through unconventional measures. Even though such measures would probably have some effect here in Norway, the potential gains must be weighed against the costs. Norway also has fiscal room for manoeuvre.

Not only are populations growing older. People are also living for longer. All of these considerations have led to greater attention to retirement planning and to an increase in the size of the pension fund portfolio. Although Asia as a whole lags behind the rest of the world in the development of pension schemes, the numerous pension reforms undertaken to facilitate pension and other retirement schemes have stimulated considerable growth in the size of funds. In some economies, such as Malaysia and Singapore, the pension asset-to-GDP ratio is as high as 50 to 60%. For a number of good reasons, pension funds tend to involve large bond allocations. This has already added to the demand for bonds, and, as with public sector funds, this demand is likely to grow in the future. But, as we are all aware, there is lack of a deep bond market in the emerging Asian economies and therefore much of the increased demand, from both the public and private sectors, has been satisfied by investments in bonds denominated in the major foreign currencies. Indeed the net portfolio outflows from nine emerging markets in Asia (including both public and private sectors) have increased sharply over the past five years - from $ billion in 1998 to $ billion in 2003. Emerging Asia as a whole is now a large net exporter of portfolio capital. The growth in demand for bonds arises from what is surely a positive process - the increase in public and private wealth in our region.
A consultation paper has already been issued to banks in this regard and the relevant standard is to be implemented during this year. The Leverage Ratio is also to be introduced as a simple, transparent and non-risk based tool that will supplement other risk-based capital requirements. The implementation of guidelines related to this ratio is expected to curb the build-up of excessive leverage in the banking sector. While we operate a deposit insurance and liquidity support scheme, an effective crisis management and resolution framework is a precondition for effective supervision. We are working closely with all relevant stakeholders to guide banks with the maintenance of appropriate recovery plans. Preliminary guidelines regarding the adoption of Sri Lanka Financial Reporting Standard 9 (SLFRS 9) are also to be issued during the year to ensure the appropriate classification and measurement of financial assets. Directions have already been issued to the banks on financial derivative transactions to streamline the risk management processes. Further, new directions have been issued on foreign currency borrowing limits  18  based on the total assets of a bank, replacing the previous direction involving assets of Domestic Banking Unit (DBU) only. With several new developments in the pipeline for the banking sector, we understand that it is essential to review the existing criteria and the mechanism for the selection of the panel of qualified auditors. The guidelines from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision also emphasise this.

It is therefore reasonable to try to find out whether the Riksbank can use new methods and techniques to offer means of payment that are guaranteed by the Riksbank in the same way as banknotes and coins. 16  The Riksbank's role as supplier of liquidity in a changing world Technological advances and structural changes affect not only the methods of payment, but also the risks and threats to the financial system. This means that the authorities need to regularly evaluate and test their crisis preparedness. The Riksbank also needs to review and maintain its liquidity tools in good shape. Although the banks are still central to the payments system and comprise a natural focus in the Riksbank’s financial stability analysis, other agents such as central counterparties (CCPs) are gaining increasing importance in the financial system. Structural changes, such as the banks’ funding or how they choose to organise their cross-border operations, affect the liquidity risks in foreign currency, among other things. This is something that the Riksbank and other authorities must monitor. Financial innovations such as trading robots and other types of automated financial services can contribute to greater efficiency, but they can also give rise to considerable liquidity stress. 17 In line with technological advances, the speed at which the transactions can be implemented is also increasing. The fact that money and securities can, at the touch of a button, be moved immediately from one continent to another, is something that hardly reduces the liquidity risks in the financial system.
The expected performance of the economy and its interaction with the monetary and fiscal policies The Albanian economy has shown signs of recovery over the past two years. This performance reflects the recovery of private consumption and investments, whereas the external environment has been and remains unfavourable. The expansion of the private sector activity was supported by our accommodative monetary policy and was favoured by the consolidating fiscal policy implemented during this period. This policy mix has brought financing costs down for the private sector and has improved the liquidity situation in the economy. The 2017 budget takes into account forecasts for the real economic growth at 3.8% and an increase in the nominal value of the gross domestic product to 6.3%. As detailed in the draftbudget and in the accompanying explanatory notes, such economic growth will be supported by the continuation of the combination of the monetary stimulus with the fiscal consolidation policy. However, the intensity of the fiscal consolidation in 2017 is foreseen to be somewhat lower than in 2016. The Bank of Albania deems that the expected economic developments and the sustaining 1/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  policies constitute an acceptable and consistent starting point for drafting the budget for 2017. Economic activity at home is expected to mark an improved growth over the next two years. The monetary stimulus will support boosting domestic demand, keeping financing costs down for private consumption and investments.

It is our hope that AmIslamic Bank would be able to contribute effectively in the development of the Islamic financial system. I wish AmIslamic Bank Berhad every success in its endeavours. Dengan lafaz Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, saya dengan sukacitanya merasmikan pelancaran AmIslamic Bank Berhad. Terima kasih. 2  BIS Review 43/2006