samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
The report starts with the following bold statement: “CEMFI is a remarkable adventure, both on the research front and in terms of educational achievements. A relatively recent introduction in the landscape of European higher education in economics, CEMFI has succeeded in establishing itself as one of the premier research centers and postgraduate schools (in Europe).” A number of factors have contributed to this success. First, I tend to think CEMFI has 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  benefitted from the long-term stability that the institutional support of the Banco de España has given it. Second, it has a very good working relationship with the university system, through the agreement with Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo, which provides the official recognition of the Master’s and PhD degrees. At the same time, it is not burdened by some of the constraints, that make it difficult in Continental Europe to organise graduate studies comparable to those of the best US universities. Third, CEMFI has developed over the years norms of behaviour and a collective culture in respect of the admission of students, the hiring and promotion of faculty, and the responsibility and commitment to the institution that are key ingredients for achieving excellence in training and research. Finally, CEMFI has been fortunate to count on an outstanding leadership that has steered its development over the years. Besides the Master’s and PhD programs, and the important contribution of faculty to frontier research, CEMFI provides other valuable services.

Concluding, I would like to thank you all for the insofar cooperation and avail myself of the opportunity to invite all the participating institutions to continue and intensify the cooperation in the future, in the commitment to contribute to the future generations and the Albanian society. 2/2  BIS central bankers' speeches
I thought that it is worth talking about the role of captives in the shifting sands of business in the 21st century. I would like to share some thoughts on what the future holds for captives as we contemplate the changes taking place around us. Responding to risk in the 21st century – the role of captives Major risk events often strike without prejudice. Typhoons do not discriminate in the havoc that they wreak. Terrorist attacks affect innocent bystanders who happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Organizations across the globe, no matter what their purpose, have been targeted by cyber-attacks. From the National Health Service in the UK, to schools in China, to chocolate factories in Australia, organizations large and small, for-profit or non-profit, have borne the brunt of ransomware attacks. Thanks to globalization and advancements in technology, the impact on businesses is also more far-reaching and larger in scale than ever before. The malware WannaCry hit 200,000 computers in 150 countries. Attacks on multinational transport companies based in Europe stranded cargo at ports in India. The losses from these events are large. Cyber theft cost the global economy more than $ billion in 2016. Lloyd’s of London estimates that a global-scale cyber-attack could rack up losses of $ billion, similar to a catastrophic natural disaster such as U.S. Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Unsurprisingly, risk awareness is now growing across the entire spectrum of businesses.

As disruptors, their business models and risk profiles, are often unique. Much of their competitive edge is derived from concepts and technologies that are new to the market. Ride-sharing platforms such as Uber and Grab are built on seamless apps that work exactly the same whether in London, New York or Kuala Lumpur. From an insurance perspective, however, trans-border solutions for such businesses are substantially more complicated. The ride-sharing model combines private vehicles with commercial use. The seamless insurance coverage for Uber drivers that integrates exposures from private and commercial use, and satisfy the mandatory requirements under different domestic laws, are not yet fully developed in all markets. This example calls for bespoke and efficient solutions which may not be readily available in certain traditional insurance markets. To put this in perspective, Google has projected that Southeast Asia’s web-generated business will multiply over 6 times to $ billion by 2025, from $ billion in 2015. The massive impact of technology on the world as we know it, will create new insurance gaps and demand for bespoke solutions. This will set the stage for captives to take on a more active role in the risk management ecosystem. Companies that are altering the business landscape will need creative and efficient risk transfer solutions that address their unique business needs. Used alongside other risk management strategies, including the traditional insurance market, captives allow companies to design an optimal risk transfer structure.
I believe that this is a critical component of the interest rate benchmark reform agenda. Structure of the group The Working Group we have initiated today is a private-sector group comprised of senior subject matter experts from major sterling swap dealers. Participation is at the invitation of the Bank of England, and we have convened this particular group because our experience of derivatives reform suggests that the swap dealer community can be most influential in catalysing a transition. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  It will of course be necessary to reach out to a wide range of stakeholders – but the commitment to change must originate from this group, and this group is best placed to promote adoption amongst the swap user community. In particular, we expect that you will reach out to CCPs, exchanges, benchmark administrators, and end users – including institutional investors and corporate treasures. The Bank is prepared to facilitate this outreach process by hosting roundtable meetings at the request of the Working Group. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association will participate in a non-voting capacity and provide guidance on contract robustness and reference rate transition. Representatives from the Bank of England and the FCA will participate as ex-officio members. The Bank will also provide a secretariat, host meetings, and publish the terms of reference of the Group, meeting agendas and minutes on our website. 1 Aims of the group and timeline The rest is up to you.

To my mind, international financial centres cannot be located in such countries without some ex ante mechanism that at least partly insulates the domestic economy from the risks involved. In some sense, this is what Iceland did in the nick of time in early October 2008. Furthermore, in very small, open economies with their own currency, like Iceland, the international activities of domestic banks and FX risks on their balance sheets must be limited and regulated. In this context, we have been thinking about the prudential regime that must be in place in Iceland when we have lifted capital controls and Icelandic banks are again free to use their European passporting rights. We will have more stringent restrictions on permissible currency mismatches than in the past, also taking into account positions of unhedged households and companies, but more importantly, we will, through some combination of LCR- and NSFR-type ratios in foreign exchange, put strict limits on FX maturity mismatches. The combination of these and other measures will make it impossible for the banking system to attain the size and cross-border reach it had before the crisis. The big question is whether it will be deemed compatible with the EEA Agreement. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  More generally, I think the distinction between macroprudential measures and capital controls can be more complex than many make it out to be.
To better understand the fintech state of play in our economy we conducted the first national Survey and prepared a feasibility study, which clearly underline the opportunities and benefits that Fintech can bring to our country, as well as the barriers that need to be overcome for further development. The main conclusion of the feasibility study that follows the Survey is that digital transformation is high on the agenda for all parties involved in the ecosystem. Traditional players look to gain operational efficiencies, cut costs, and enhance the customer experience. At the same time, alternative finance firms are on the rise, bringing better products and services than traditional players can offer. However, it appears that regulation is a common challenge for Fintech led innovation and the entry of new players. On this front, Survey respondents see a need for changes in the payment services regulation, the regulation for electronic signature, AML/CFT regulation and rules for data protection. In the period ahead, we will focus our energy on activities related to governance arrangements and coordination issues with all stakeholders in the ecosystem. We also plan to devote special attention to developing effective consumer protection regulation in the area of financial services. Setting criteria for licensing process for newcomers is another activity that is on our agenda. Furthermore, we would also explore the feasibility of creating a regulatory sandbox, to enable firms to experiment with new technologies in a safe space.

Jean-Pierre Roth: Impact of the global crisis on Switzerland Introductory remarks by Mr Jean-Pierre Roth, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the Schweizerisch-Deutscher Wirtschaftsclub, Frankfurt am Main, 2 March 2009. The complete speech can be found in German on the Swiss National Bank’s website (www.snb.ch). *  *  *  What started as a financial crisis has now become a global economic crisis. Although the Swiss economy was in a very sound state before the crisis set in, Switzerland’s standing as a financial centre, its real economy and its public finances have all been strongly affected by the global turmoil. Recovery will depend largely on the development of the US economy. Despite having reached worldwide proportions by now, the crisis was not triggered by globalisation itself. Rather, it is the result of a lack of discipline in the industrialised nations. Monetary policy today must contribute to the stabilisation of the financial system and the real economy without losing sight of its principal task, which is to maintain price stability. BIS Review 24/2009  1
The work that CEMFI’s experts and our own researchers will carry out as they conduct these evaluations is also an example of the Banco de España’s commitment to this culture of evidence-based policies. In this way, we hope to establish a genuine technical hub specialised in the evaluation of public policies and programmes that can serve other areas of public policy. And, beyond this specific initiative, at the Banco de España we believe that we can also contribute to these aims by evaluating the actions taken in the exercise of our responsibilities and allowing the 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  research community to use our information. The data laboratory recently launched by the Banco de España (BELab) is a good example of this service to society, since it makes the microdata from many of our main databases available to researchers. So is the recent agreement between the National Statistics Institute, the Tax Agency, the Social Security System and the Banco de España, as holders of a significant amount of administrative information and granular data collected for statistical purposes, for the joint design of a collaborative data system to which researchers will have access, provided that the information is to be used for scientific purposes in the public interest. The challenge is for initiatives such as those we are seeing here today to become widespread, so that a genuine culture of evaluating public policies can take root, allowing their design and implementation to be improved on the basis of evidence. Thank you.

1 See the speeches “The role of the media in promoting evidence-based policies” at the Líderes de la  Información award ceremony and “Long-term considerations in economic policy” at the awarding of the Gran Cruz al Mérito en el Servicio de la Economía by the Consejo General de Economistas (General Council of Economists) to the Banco de España. 2/2  BIS central bankers' speeches
That role requires them to be vigilant over the emerging risks in a central bank and alert all the concerned parties, management of a central bank and the legislators, so that early corrective measures could be taken to mitigate the risks. Since auditors are governed by the “principle of public trust”, they would be liable for criminal negligence if a central bank becomes insolvent and auditors have not given early warning about it. To play this role effectively, auditors should endeavour to acquire the knowledge necessary for them to assess the work of a central bank and make judgments about the adequacy of that work. They should place themselves on a continuous learning programme so as to acquire not only the technical skills, but also the current global best practices relating to central banking. The central bank management on their part should heed to the warnings issued by auditors and make the necessary internal adjustments promptly. BIS Review 58/2009  7

Christian Noyer: Re-examining central bank orthodoxy for un-orthodox times Speech by Mr Christian Noyer, Governor of the Bank of France and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements, at the conference of the Global Interdependence Center/Bank of France, Paris, 26 March 2012. *  *  *  The unconventional policies implemented during the crisis have transformed the face of central banking. But will these changes prove permanent and will “the unconventional become the new normal?” There is not yet definitive answer to this question. We may not, as easily as we would like, be able to revert exactly to the status quo ante. However, I strongly believe we must make sure that the gains from the pre-crisis period, in terms of monetary and price stability, are not compromised in the process. Prior to the crisis, a description of central banks would have centred on four characteristics: They were focused with price stability being their primary or key objective, and no responsibility was sought or given for financial stability; They were of limited size with very small balance sheets and interest rates as their only policy instrument; They were independent, a condition recognised as necessary to anchor inflation expectations, and embodied in very strong institutional frameworks; And they were successful: the “Great moderation”, a period of exceptional low volatility in output and inflation, was widely seen as a product of efficient and wise monetary policies.
Mugur Isărescu: Issues related to real convergence on the path to euro adoption Presentation by Mr Mugur Isărescu, Governor of the National Bank of Romania, on the occasion of the session organised by the Romanian Academy on “The Euro Adoption Strategy and the International Financial Crisis”, Bucharest, 2 October 2008. *  *  *  The Romanian authorities set as a strategic economic policy objective the fulfilment of all the requirements that would allow the adoption of the euro as the national currency in 2014. Although this is an ambitious objective, it can be achieved provided that a coherent economic policy mix is adopted and maintained to support both nominal and real convergence with the euro area countries. Mention should be made that, in order to join the euro area, only the nominal convergence criteria need to be considered: a stable exchange rate, subdued inflation, interest rates close to those applied by euro area countries, moderate budget deficit and public debt. Nevertheless, the maintenance of the convergence of nominal indicators in the long run and even the turning to good account of all the advantages derived from being part of a wellfunctioning monetary system compel us to equally consider the accomplishment of real convergence between the European developed economies and the Romanian economy. In this context, Romania’s adoption of the single currency before achieving a minimum level of real economic convergence would be risky and counterproductive.

The persistent slippages do not augur well for the July 2005 deadline for the launch of the Second Monetary Zone. In this regard, it is imperative that all hands be put on deck in pursuing the monetary integration project. As legislators, your involvement in enacting the enabling legislation that would form the legal underpinning for the policies, programmes and institutional framework for the monetary union will be critical. In this connection, the national parliaments should set up as a matter of urgency, research units comprising economists and financial experts to provide the requisite professional back-stopping for them. 2  BIS Review 43/2004  Conclusion Ladies and Gentlemen, Once more, I welcome you all to Freetown and wish you a pleasant stay. It is my singular honour and privilege to declare open the third Regional Forum on Economic and Financial Management for Legislators. BIS Review 43/2004  3
Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula: Accelerating women’s economic empowerment – key to job and wealth creation; sub theme: financial inclusion Keynote address by Dr Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula, Deputy Governor (Administration) of the Bank of Zambia, at the 2012 Month of the Woman Entrepreneur (MOWE) Conference, Lusaka, 26–27 September 2012. *  *  *  •  The Chairperson, Zambia Federation of Associations of Women in Business  •  Senior Government officials present  •  Country Director UNDP  •  Chairpersons of affiliated organizations  •  Distinguished invited guests  •  Members of the press  •  Ladies and Gentlemen  Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to thank Zambia Federation of Associations of Women in Business (ZAFWIB) for organising this very important conference, with an emphasis on achieving greater financial inclusion for women in general and women entrepreneurs in particular. We commend the focused attention being paid by the ZAFWIB to the subject of this year’s theme for the month of the woman entrepreneur which is: “Accelerating Women’s Economic Empowerment – Key to Job and Wealth Creation” under the sub theme: “Financial Inclusion”. Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been established in many countries that women entrepreneurs play an increasingly important role in the development process of an economy through job and wealth creation. According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an estimated 31 to 38 per cent of SMEs in developing countries are owned or run by women. The figures are between 21 and 26 per cent for Sub-Saharan Africa.

We have had examples of this in Sweden and it could also happen in some other countries. How can euro adopters prepare public finances for asymmetric shocks? This was a major issue in the Swedish debate ahead of the euro referendum. Despite the fact that there had been reforms in the public-finance framework in Sweden in the 1990s, the Riksbank and others argued that more should be done before joining the euro area. 2  BIS Review 53/2003  Essentially two things are required: First, there is a need for sufficient margins in the public finances. In practice, this means that debt levels should not be too high. If the economy enters a downturn that does not affect the rest of the euro area to the same extent, it is important that there is scope to conduct more expansionary policy. If the scope is there, one can be reasonably sure that it will be used. It is more difficult to handle the second, opposite situation - upturns and over-heating tendencies. What is then required is a framework that stimulates or even forces political decision-makers to act in time and to take decisions that might be difficult in the short run but that are correct in a longer perspective. Here we drew some inspiration from our monetary policy set-up. Fiscal policy could be guided by clear targets that are defined in terms of countries’ output gaps. Alternatively, national inflation targets could be introduced.
The debt-to-GDP ratio in 2020 is expected to grow by more than 20 pp under scenario 1 and by some 25 pp under scenario 2, up to 116.8% and 120.6% of GDP, respectively. High public debt also means future vulnerability. In the short term this risk has been mitigated: first by the measures taken by the ECB, which have prevented fragmentation of the euro area sovereign debt markets; and second by the European response, with the launch of mechanisms to jointly address the costs of the pandemic. However, if such a high level of public debt were to remain in place over time, the Spanish economy would be exposed to a situation of chronic vulnerability to changes in investor sentiment in the financial markets. For its part, the negative net international investment position of the Spanish economy and the foreign debt position have risen, in terms of GDP, as a consequence of valuation effects and of the fall in output. Specifically, in 2020 Q2, the negative net international investment position stood at 77.4% of GDP, 6.5 pp more than in Q1, influenced by the sharp contraction in output. The nation’s gross external debt rose by € billion in 2020 Q2, owing solely to valuation effects, to 188.1% of GDP, a record high. The high net liability position of the Spanish economy continues to be another factor of vulnerability, especially in the present setting of high uncertainty over future economic developments.

Building on our experiments with the private sector on a ‘wholesale’ CBDC to be ready for the future By comparison, the topic of a wholesale CBDC is less contentious and of less concerns to stakeholders; but it should not be perceived as less important. We central banks have been very proactive here, as demonstrated by the “wholesale CBDC focus” of the BIS Innovation Hubs. The Banque de France is at the forefront here, and we have especially identified two critical use cases for improving the payments ecosystem.  First, the tokenisation of securities. A wholesale CBDC could be used for the settlement of such securities issued on DLT, which is essential to prevent market and liquidity fragmentation. This technology also streamlines the information flows in financial markets, from trading to exchange procedures and settlement.  Second, a wholesale CBDC could enhance cross-border and crosscurrency settlements. Over the past year, we have successfully completed the first phase of our experimentation programme, comprising 9 experiments, hand in hand with the private sector and with other public actors. Thanks to these experiments, we have developed a direct technical expertise including two key innovative assets born in the Banque de France:  A proprietary DLT technology, called DL3S. This blockchain has been entirely designed by the Banque de France in order to meet the needs and expectations of market participants as a permissioned blockchain with efficient delivery and settlement services, using CBDC.