samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
In a few months’ time, the Bank will be issuing an Exposure Draft on Fair Treatment of Financial Consumers which will set out heightened regulatory expectations for all players. Agents will need to exercise greater care, skill and diligence in their dealing with customers. But rules and regulations are in themselves not sufficient to create a pool of agents trusted by customers: That would require all-round, holistic professionalism – an agent who is technically qualified, fully committed and uncompromising on ethical standards. To me, it is this integrity and calibre that will ultimately guarantee the continued success of agents into the next decade, more so than any other factor. Faced with a more demanding and complex business environment, agents must continuously develop and equip themselves with skills and knowledge that are relevant, and that will continue to remain relevant well into the future. There are plenty of formal programmes available to help agents progress in their technical competencies. There is also a whole host of open online courses which can be accessed anytime, anywhere, with the desire to learn is the only prerequisite. It is encouraging that various professional training courses are already being offered through NAMLIFA’s Financial and Life Practitioners Council, and that one of the programmes has been accredited by the Financial Accreditation Agency (FAA).

Together with the Guangzhou Branch of the People's Bank of China and HKEX, we launched the "Guide for Mainland corporates to issue green bonds in Hong Kong" last year, providing operational guidance for more Mainland corporates to issue green bonds in Hong Kong. Thirdly, we have introduced a number of financial support measures, including subsidies and tax incentives, such as the Green and Sustainable Finance Grant Scheme, to cover the issuance and external review cost of green bonds and loans, and concessionary tax treatment on the interest income and trading profits derived from eligible debt instruments. Finally, a vibrant and competitive climate finance ecosystem needs to be supported by data, talent, and awareness. We are working with other regulators and the industry to improve data accessibility and analytics capability, and nurturing talent through a green finance training scheme and regulator-approved knowledge framework. As a responsible investor and major global asset owner, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)'s Exchange Fund has been leading by example by integrating sustainability into our investment strategy and prioritising green investments over others with a similar long-term risk-return profile. We have been investing in green, social, and sustainability bonds since 2015 and increased the number of ESG-themed mandates in our externally managed portfolios. Additionally, we seek to collaborate with like-minded  2/3  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  investors and international organisations to promote ESG standards in the investment process.
That’s in part because, to a large extent, the thrifty saver and the rich asset holder are often one and the same. Just 2% of households have deposit holdings in excess of £ few other financial assets, and xxix  don’t own a home. So the vast majority of savers who might have lost some interest income from lower  policy rates have stood to gain from increases in asset prices, particularly the recovery in house prices. Alternatively, have low interest rates meant the rich get richer at the expense of everyone else? Again, no. The data show that the poorest 20% of households have actually seen the largest proportional increases in their net wealth since 2006 (Chart 14), though a large part of this is due to a painful deleveraging (via lower mortgage debt). The data do not support the idea that the period of low rates has benefitted the wealthiest at the expense of the least wealthy. In actual fact, all wealth quintiles have experienced wealth increases. What about the distribution of income? Similar to wealth, and although labour income has been exceptionally weak, the total incomes of all groups have risen since 2006 (Chart 15). In fact, between 2006 and 2014, the bottom 20% saw the largest proportional gains, in spite of a devastating recession. Moreover, all groups have gained since 2009, when extraordinary monetary measures began to be implemented.

Boosting the determinants of long-run prosperity is the job of government’s structural, or supply-side policies. These government policies influence the economy’s investment in education and skills; its capacity for research and development; the quality of its core institutions, such as the rule of law; the effectiveness of its regulatory environment; the flexibility of its labour market; the intensity of competition; and its openness to trade and investment. The Chancellor’s recent Autumn Statement begins the process of rebalancing policies. While fiscal prudence will continue, the degree of fiscal drag will be reduced somewhat, and major investments in the structural drivers of productivity including R&D and strategic infrastructure are planned. 1  To be clear, these improvements in financial distributions were not explicit objectives but; but welcome outcomes. 14  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  14  Chart 16: Productivity explains all of the shortfall of GDP; while monetary policy has offset all headwinds to it pp deviation from 1993-2007 trend 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 Headwinds 2008Q1  Monetary policy 2010Q1  2012Q1  Productivity  GDP 2014Q1  -25 2016Q1  Source: Bank Calculations. “Headwinds” include the drags on demand from deleveraging, subdued world growth, fiscal consolidation, and uncertainty. The contribution of monetary policy is computed by considering the impact on demand of maintaining Bank Rate the level prevailing immediately before the crisis. VI. Building a Globalisation that Works for All To address the deeper causes of weak growth, higher inequality and rising insecurity requires a globalisation that works for all.
Moral development is equally important as technical development Laws can promote good governance but they cannot ensure its adoption in organisations. The experience of many regulators is that, on many occasions, organisations vociferously announce of governance principles, but in practice, totally disregard them. In other words, with respect to governance, there is a wide gap between what is on paper and what is actually practised. In the case of microfinance institutions, this gap has to be eliminated totally. A sure way to do it is to develop microfinance practitioners both morally and technically. To attain a high  BIS Review 82/2009  3  performance level, technical developments are necessary; but, without moral development, its sustainability cannot be guaranteed. Hence, the moral development of microfinance practitioners must receive the highest priority in any microfinance training programme. In simple terms, they should cultivate truthfulness, honesty, respectfulness and exemplar in them. A mere technical knowledge without these quality traits in-built into their personality would be meaningless as far as the future of microfinance industry is concerned. 4  BIS Review 82/2009

After it became clear that Russia would not, in practice, be servicing its foreign debt, market participants became highly risk-averse. The unrest spread to European BIS Review 10/1999  –6–  financial markets and Norway. Investors fled to safe-haven countries such as Germany, the US and Switzerland, and the currencies of countries with less liquid and more volatile financial markets depreciated. This included countries such as Norway and Sweden. The Norwegian krone depreciated sharply from around 101 against the ECU index at the beginning of the year to 115 in October, or the weakest rate since the objective of exchange rate stability against the ECU was adopted. 6) Monetary policy in 1998 Norges Bank responded to the sharp depreciation of the krone by raising its key rates in several steps in 1998. These rates were first raised in March, after the krone weakened in the first three months of the year from 101 to about 103.5 against the ECU index. The krone then appreciated slightly and stabilised for a period. Pressure on the krone increased during the summer. Norges Bank responded by raising its key rates on six further occasions. Following the last increase on 25 August, the deposit rate and the overnight lending rate were 8 and 10 per cent, respectively, i.e. 4.5 percentage points higher than at the beginning of 1998. It is difficult to predict the direct short-term effect of changes in interest rates on the exchange rate.
There has also been a trend towards greater intraAsian investment flows in the region. This includes higher investment of surplus funds into the region, in the form of foreign direct investments as well as portfolio capital flows. These regional developments will lead to greater demand for OTC financial derivatives, which can be met by any of the major national, regional or global financial institutions operating in these markets. Malaysian banking institutions must be prepared to compete in this highly innovative and agile global industry by staying ahead on the learning curve for writing OTC derivatives that precisely match the risk management characteristics needed for effective hedging. At the same time, banking institutions must take into account the need for robust internal controls specifically in the area of credit, market, operational and legal risks to prevent the failure of any derivative contract. 2  BIS Review 11/2004  My second point concerns the New Basle II Capital Accord. The International Swap Dealers Association, as the global trade association representing the leading participants of the OTC derivatives industry, has provided its views to ensure that the capital requirements of the New Capital Accord’s will reflect the actual amount of risk that a bank is exposed to in a particular derivatives transaction. According to the recommendations put forth by the Basle Committee, capital requirements to support off-balance sheet derivatives are calculated by reference to the credit risk of the item adjusted for credit quality of the counter party.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam: Singapore’s dynamically changing landscape Speech by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the opening of One Raffles Place Tower Two, Singapore, 18 September 2012. *  *  *  Wee Ee Cheong, Chairman, OUB Centre Limited, Mr Henry Kok, General Manager, OUB Centre Limited, Distinguished guests, Good evening. It is my pleasure to be invited to officiate the opening of a new twin skyscraper in Raffles Place – One Raffles Place Tower Two. It is part of the continuing rejuvenation of the cityscape at Raffles Place, which continues to be at the heart of businesses and commerce in Singapore. Raffles Place – a continuing history of new blended in old Raffles Place has indeed been a continuous story of the new inserted in the old, as it emerged from being a humble docking location for small boats and ships in the early 1800s, to become a thriving centre of regional commerce and now a global business and financial centre. On 8th August 1988, OUB Centre, now called One Raffles Place Tower One, was opened by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who was then Prime Minister. He had noted the building’s quality design and distinctive workmanship. It was also an icon for Singapore at the time, as the building went on to be recognised as the tallest building in the world outside of the United States. Designed by Kenzo Tange, One Raffles Tower One still remains amongst the tallest three skyscrapers in Singapore.
These efforts have helped to avoid retrenchment of staff who might otherwise be displaced, and contributed to the steady decline in retrenchments in the financial sector, from the peak of 2,300 in 2016 to 1,300 in 2019.7 However, given the accelerated pace of digitalisation, we need to do more, and at scale. We are now experimenting an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform with 13 FI partners to automate the process of identifying adjacencies in jobs and skills, so that more workers can benefit from reskilling and pivot into suitable roles. We hope to share more about the platform early next year. Creating Opportunities Our second priority is to expand opportunities for those aspiring to enter or reenter the financial sector workforce. 9. The National Jobs Council has been set up to mobilise tripartite partners’ resources to create opportunities amidst the weak labour hiring conditions. I am pleased to note that the financial sector is one of the top contributing sectors to 2/6  BIS central bankers' speeches  the jobs and traineeships programmes, offering a wide range of opportunities, including in technology and innovation, retail and corporate banking. Close to 60 FIs have offered about 1,300 SGUnited Traineeship positions for fresh and recent graduates in this challenging job market. As of end July 2020, 50 FIs have committed to hiring 900 Singaporeans over the next 3 years to be groomed for future leadership and specialist roles under structured talent development programmes supported by MAS.

16.11.2018  Welcome address at the Conference “Economic Policies, Trade Integration and Sustainable Job Creation. A View from the Mediterranean Countries” Banco de España and European Institute of the Mediterranean with the support of the Central Bank of Tunisia Pablo Hernández de Cos Governor  Good morning ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure for me to be here in Tunis to welcome you all to this Conference on Economic Policies, Trade Integration and Sustainable Job Creation, jointly organised by the Central Bank of Tunisia, the Banco de España and the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed). Let me start by thanking Governor El Abassi for his kind words and our colleagues from the Central Bank of Tunisia and the European Institute of the Mediterranean for their cooperation in organising this Conference. I would also like to congratulate Governor El Abassi and all the staff of the Central Bank of Tunisia for the 60th anniversary of this institution, created just two years after the independence of Tunisia. I wish to convey my best wishes for the future of this institution which, through the attainment of its of macroeconomic and financial stability objectives, can make a decisive contribution to the prosperity of the country and its citizens. Governor El Abbasi, I hope that this Conference will be an initial step towards permanent cooperation between our respective institutions.
This is of course true to some extent. However, at the same time I find it difficult to see that we should act in a different way when we are now, as far as I know for the first time since introducing the inflation target, experiencing a period when house prices and household indebtedness have developed in a way that raises concerns that monetary policy has been too expansionary. The important thing is that the Riksbank in these situations reports the motives for the decisions made as clearly as possible. However, the considerations are very difficult to make and it is not always possible to provide simple, precise explanations. One might say, somewhat provocatively perhaps, that it appears as though many have interpreted our objective of maintaining price stability, or more generally, safeguarding confidence in the inflation  2  BIS Review 87/2006  target as meaning that the Riksbank should conduct a policy where the inflation forecast always shows inflation as being on target two years ahead. However, this is an overly narrow interpretation and I am convinced that if we were to follow this principle in all situations the final result, seen over a long period of time, would be worse than with a policy that also gives consideration to other prevailing circumstances. In this context it can also be observed that, despite the debate that monetary policy has become less clear and that there is a risk that confidence in the inflation target will weaken, none of this is reflected in inflation expectations.

Some figures indicate that most of the adjustments have now been made, but the picture is not unambiguous. Nevertheless, a recovery is under way, after what must be regarded in many areas, and particularly in Sweden, as a fairly mild  2  BIS Review 15/2003  slowdown. Our forecasts indicate an average GDP growth over the coming years in line with the economy's long-term sustainable rate and resource utilisation is expected to remain largely unchanged over this period. This means that economic activity and the labour market are not expected to put any great pressure on prices and wages at present or in the coming years. There is, of course, a risk that developments will follow completely different paths than those we anticipate in our main scenario. This could in turn entail both upside and downside risks for inflation. The downside risk that concerns us most is connected to international developments. There are problems in the euro area in particular that could lead to a weaker development. The upside risks are mainly linked to domestic price-setting and wage formation. The rise in energy prices pushes up costs in other parts of the economy and can spread. It could also affect expectations and wage demands. We are facing collective wage bargaining rounds in the autumn, which will play a decisive role for the future of the economy.
We are now focusing our efforts on four major areas: first, building Hong Kong’s international profile and forging closer ties with market participants in the Middle East; secondly, promoting market infrastructure and establishing policies conducive to the development of Islamic finance; thirdly, promoting talent and knowledge of Islamic financial principles among market professionals in Hong Kong; and fourthly, encouraging the development and launch of Islamic finance products in Hong Kong. Concluding remarks Ladies and gentlemen, the potential for the growth of Islamic finance is clear. The foundations for its development here in Hong Kong have already been laid. It is essential for all of us to look beyond the current global financial turbulence and treat the development of Islamic finance as an investment in the future. With this in mind, I would like to encourage all of you, whether you are regulators, financial institutions or investors, to look critically at the opportunities that lie before us. Islamic finance is a new asset class that has the potential to bring new economic growth to Hong Kong and the region given our wealth of knowledge in financial intermediation, our experience, and our agility in adopting innovative products. So let us work together towards building a stronger and stronger link and increasing cooperation with other global players to identify and capitalise on new opportunities. Today’s holding of the Islamic Finance Forum in Hong Kong is a significant step on a journey that is just beginning. I look forward to travelling this road with all of you. Thank you.

This suggests that there is still ample room for growth on the supply side in the provision of Islamic financial products. On the demand side, the potential of Islamic finance is often linked to the 1.4 billion-strong Muslim population worldwide, and some people appear to believe that this obviates the need for further development of Islamic finance. But population is not the only factor: economic development in Islamic regions also has to be taken into account. The IMF has estimated that there are some $ billion worth of investment projects under way or in the pipeline in countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) over the next five years, with major projects in the oil and gas sectors, infrastructure and real estate. According to a UK research report, the annual investment rate in the range of $ billion to $ billion in the GCC is about half the annual rate of India and one-tenth that of China. 3 As some of the deals may be of a scale that requires financial risks to be spread internationally, global banks are already geared up to tap this market through the formation of Islamic bank subsidiaries and Islamic banking windows. With the increased participation of global and regional players, project financing opportunities will increasingly attract interest from investors worldwide and that project finance will need to be delivered in forms that comply with the principles of Islamic finance. This in turn will fuel the demand for Islamic finance.
In terms of addressing the external position, there are two, admittedly stylised, ways in which countries can do this: they can pay down debt or they can grow out of debt. Yet given the size of the net liabilities involved, each option taken in isolation has challenges. Paying down external debt would require very large surpluses coupled with sizeable nominal adjustments. As rebalancing towards the tradable sector has not yet been completed, it is difficult to see how this could happen without depressing incomes and employment. Further still, the scale of the required adjustment would create prolonged disinflationary expectations, which would raise expectations of future real interest rates, depress demand and hinder internal rebalancing.9 At the same time, growing out of debt through boosting nominal GDP – a so-called “beautiful deleveraging" – is also not feasible on its own. Reducing NIIPs solely through the denominator would require unrealistically high rates of growth, beyond even the most heroic assumptions for structural reforms and/or fiscal and monetary stimulus. What is more, a large growth spurt without structural change might simply suck in imports and lead to new external imbalances emerging. Incidentally, a third option would be to aim to change the composition of net external liabilities – that is, to replace debt with equity and foreign direct investment. This would not alter the level of NIIPs, but it would reduce vulnerabilities by improving risk sharing. In this context, the Capital Markets Union project could be powerful. However, this has to be considered a longer-term goal.

•  The forecasts of inflation are now based on an assumption that the repo rate will develop in line with market expectations. This new assumption makes it easier for us to refer to the entire interest rate path in our communication of monetary policy. •  Large fluctuations in asset prices entail risks that we must take into account, even if the theoretical analysis of the significance of the asset prices has not yet been fully developed. BIS Review 29/2006