samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
The present situation is difficult for the export industry and for parts of the tourism sector. We should not forget, however, that enterprises in the rest of Europe also have to contend with unfavourable conditions. High inflation or calls for massive pay rises, as seen in some countries, may cause production costs to surge. Switzerland as an industrial location remains attractive. Its advantages include low inflation, high social stability, performance-oriented and welltrained employees, trade unions with an awareness of economic correlations, a first-rate public infrastructure and administrative system and, last but not least, a low interest rate level and favourable financing possibilities in a first-class financial centre. The export industry's situation should improve rapidly once the global economy, and in particular the European economy, start to rebound. Experience has shown that the export industry always does everything in its power to further increase its productivity and to remain competitive internationally in the current exchange rate environment. Its efforts must be supported by a strengthening of domestic competition in Switzerland. The export industry will remain a key engine of growth in Switzerland and an essential basis of our prosperity. 2  BIS Review 39/2002  The main ticks on the horizontal axis indicate the beginning of the first quarter of the respective year. The value for each quarter is recorded in the middle of the quarter.

Minister Iswaran spoke yesterday about how government agencies are working with SMEs to help digitise their business processes and take advantage of e-payments. I need not elaborate. I will just give an example. •  It often does not make sense, especially for an SME, to adopt an e-payment solution or platform but continue to use paper invoices. •  Reconciliation of paper invoices with e-payments becomes a challenge, and the potential efficiency gains from e-payments will remain elusive. •  Only if the business processes from front-to-back are all digitised and integrated with e-payments, will it make commercial sense and raise productivity. Conclusion Let me conclude. This is a conference on FinTech and financial inclusion. Of all the developments in FinTech, it is in payments where the gains in financial inclusion are potentially strongest – for the simple reason that we all need to use payment services to participate in the economy and society. As we proceed along our path towards becoming an e-payments society, the way we live and work will change. •  6  Diners will pay for dinner seamlessly and securely with a mobile phone. BIS central bankers’ speeches  •  Parents will send pocket money to their children via an app. •  Young couples will make the down-payment for their HDB flats on their tablets using FAST. •  SMEs will use electronic inventory management platforms to make and receive payments. An e-payments society will be inclusive, innovative, and perhaps, even inspiring. Thank you.
The limit for how long and how much monetary policy can raise employment is determined in practice by the economy’s long-term growth potential, which in turn depends partly on how well the labour market functions. When we conduct monetary policy with an inflation target, this means under normal circumstances that we can help stabilise actual output around its long-term potential. If the Riksbank is to be able to take any account of employment in the short run, however, it is particularly vital that economic agents have confidence in monetary policy and the inflation target; this is a clear lesson from the situation in the 1970s and 1980s. As you know, the principal instrument we use to try to meet the inflation target is the repo rate. We set this rate with the aid of forecasts of inflation a couple of years ahead. Naturally, a lot can change in the space of two years so that our forecasts do not prove accurate. We can make up for this to some extent by being able to change the rate in the light of new information. But we can’t compensate entirely for such events, of course. Sometimes, developments affect inflation at very short notice: a sharp hike in electricity prices, an equity price bubble that bursts, a war that heightens unease in the world and curbs demand, etc.

This is one considerable difference compared with the developments in the 1970s and 1980s. While real wages have risen by about 2.5 per cent a year since 1995, the annual increase in real wages was no more than around 1 per cent in 1970-89. So, even though nominal wages rose more than 9 per cent a year during the 1970s and 1980s, purchasing power improved by only about 1 per cent; the high inflation and devaluations eroded the rest. In fairness, I should add that in addition to the shift in stabilisation policy regime there were a number of significant changes in other areas too that may have contributed to the robust performance. For example, the rapid advances in information technology are likely to have contributed to the improved productivity. Another important factor underlying the stronger recorded productivity growth in the whole economy is the relatively smaller role of the public sector today compared with ten years ago. Yet another feature of the performance of the last ten years is deregulations and increased international competition, the latter boosted by membership of the EU and the ongoing integration of the world economy. So, Sweden’s economic performance after the crisis in the early 1990s has been healthy in many respects. This does not mean that there are no problem areas. One of these is employment. There was indeed a relatively fast upturn in employment after the crisis years.
I will look at both the underlying economics of the Fund, and on how we have structured our management model. As our "liabilities" are rather intangible, a broad approach is necessary in order to convey the major principles behind our model. The source of our Fund is commodity wealth. So let me start by putting the petroleum sector in Norway into perspective. In 2006 government oil revenue amounted to 36 per cent of total government revenues. That is a high figure, but it also implies that Norway has a substantial tax base (64 per cent) in addition to our natural resources. The Government Pension Fund has two main objectives: One is to serve as a savings instrument with an aim to distribute our national wealth in an equitable manner across generations. The petroleum resources are part of our national wealth and belong not only to the current generation but also to future generations. Second, even though Norway has a fairly diversified tax-base, the large variability in the price of oil would have caused large demand fluctuations in the Norwegian economy, if petroleum revenues were to be used as they accrue. Moreover, internationally exposed industries would suffer a negative impact from high-level spending of petroleum revenues through a deterioration in competitiveness. Hence, an important objective for the Fund is to shield the economy from fluctuations in prices and extraction rates in the petroleum sector, which is one reason why the Fund is not allowed to invest in Norway.

Pablo Hernández de Cos: Close of the 2019/20 academic year Speech by Mr Pablo Hernández de Cos, Governor of the Bank of Spain and Chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, at the Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros (CEMFI), Madrid, 10 July 2020. * * * Good afternoon class of 2020. Good afternoon dear colleagues, friends and families. It is a pleasure for me to participate in this virtual graduation ceremony together with Mari Luz Morán, Rector of Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo, Susanna Esteban, Director of the Master Program, and Rafael Repullo, Director of CEMFI. I would especially like to thank the Rector for being here today. The partnership with Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo dating back to 2006 has been instrumental in improving our ability to attract excellent students and the quality of our graduate program, and I am very grateful for this. Before I begin, let me acknowledge everyone whose hard work has made this online celebration possible, especially the CEMFI administrative and IT staff. The world into which this class of 2020 is graduating is a fundamentally different one from what we expected just a few months back. The coronavirus pandemic has caused the loss of many lives and affected the livelihood of millions of people worldwide.
The current financial turmoil is here to remind us that financial innovation is not a smooth process. An appropriate knowledge of the mechanisms through which monetary policy affects the economy is of crucial importance for central banks. Financial innovation affects these mechanisms by altering the channels through which monetary policy operates. Drawing on some lessons from the current turmoil, I would like to make four points. First, securitisation has created new uncertainties in the transmission channels of monetary policy. It may have weakened some channels and strengthened some others. At least in normal times, financial innovation significantly weakens the bank-lending channel. Securitisation gives firms broader access to capital markets and, as such, makes them less dependent on bank funding. Similarly, banks may be more able to issue debt securities and less dependent on the constraint of funding themselves with secured deposits. At the same time, however, securitisation strengthens the “direct” transmission channel through which interest rates operate, since a great number of financial intermediaries are more dependent on liquidity and on its price. Second, financial innovation – to the extent that it makes it easier to take risks and encourages the “search for yield” – may have increased the impact of monetary policy because, in such an environment, risk premia are highly procyclical and move in tandem with interest rates. Third, this same procyclicality of “risk taking” can lead to booms and busts, when investors’ appetite for risk changes.

In this way, the systemically important banks benefit from the implied state guarantees. For instance, through attracting more customers or being able to pay lower interest rates to their financiers. However, when the survival of smaller banks is threatened, they are left to their fate. The Basel Committee is now discussing the possibility of systemically important banks having an additional increase to the capital requirement I mentioned earlier. This additional requirement would further increase these institutions’ resilience, as problems in these banks to a greater  8  BIS Review 159/2010  degree affect other parts of the financial system. Switzerland has decided to introduce such requirements anyhow. But here in Sweden, too, we need to continue the work on strengthening the financial system. We must, for instance, ensure that we have an effective regulatory framework for winding up banks in distress so that their operations can continue at the same time as the shareholders have to bear the costs. And this does not only apply to large, systemically important banks. In the wake of the HQ crisis, both Finansinspektionen (the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority) and the Swedish National Debt Office have expressed concern regarding the difficulties in dealing with banks in distress. The Riksbank shares this view. Fortunately, the EU is carrying out extensive work on providing the conditions and tools to facilitate dealing with banks on the verge of bankruptcy. As I mentioned earlier, it is good that the Basel regulations will make greater demands regarding the banks’ liquidity.
Let’s make sure we don’t waste this opportunity. 1 Notional value outstanding; see: www.bis.org/statistics/d7.pdf. 2 See Judgment of the General Court (Fourth Chamber) of 4 March 2015, United Kingdom of Great Britain and  Northern Ireland v European Central Bank (ECB), Case T-496/11. 3 See www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/legal/pdf/oj_joc_2017_212_r_0004_en_txt.pdf 4 4/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  4 Listed in Chapter IV of the Statute. 5 See Judgment of the European Court of Justice, §153 in case C 370/12 (Pringle case). 6 See Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 16 June 2015, Peter Gauweiler and Others v Deutscher  Bundestag, Case C 62/14. 5/5  BIS central bankers' speeches

In addition to surveys, international organizations have mobilized to develop a range of indicators to assess the different dimensions of financial inclusion. Since the Cannes Summit in 2011, the G20 has focused on developing financial inclusion indicators, including indicators on access to and use of financial services, financial literacy, and the quality of financial service provisioning and consumption, as part of a continuous reflection process integrating new international trends in this field, notably the development of new distribution models and the emergence of digital financial services. The AFI also published a set of basic indicators on access to and use of financial services in 2013 and on quality in 2016 with the aim of harmonizing data among its members by providing them with a common tool to ensure comparability and foster peer learning. Ladies and gentlemen, In Morocco, since 2007 both the Ministry of Finance and Bank AlMaghrib have considered financial inclusion as a major instrument to develop a comprehensive strategy of the financial sector by 2020 which aims to deepen the national banking market, develop capital markets and position our country as a regional financial hub. Through our commitment to the Maya Declaration in 2013, we announced our pledge to promote access to and use of quality financial services based on sound and solid foundations. That same pledge was 4  reaffirmed in 2016 as part of the roadmap of aligning the Moroccan financial sector to sustainable development goals at the COP 22 held last year in Marrakech.
If each country were to go its own way, the market for the relevant financial instruments would become too fragmented. The ECB welcomes current proposals which foresee the introduction of non-preferred senior debt instruments and a general depositor preference rule. This would further facilitate bail-ins. The second question is: what happens if the Single Resolution Fund runs out of money? What if there’s a major crisis, and the € billion is not enough to cover the losses? Well, in such a situation we would need a common European backstop for the SRF. And we need it quickly, and in any case before 2023, which is when the SRF will reach its target volume. European leaders committed to this when setting up the SRF, and they should stick to their commitment. The backstop could take the form of a direct credit line from the European Stability Mechanism to the SRF. The important thing is that it can provide both solvency and liquidity support. And now to the third and final question: has public support for failing banks really become a thing of the past? “Almost” is the answer to this question. And the rules are now such that any public support for a bank in fact triggers a “failing or likely to fail” decision. There are a few exceptions, however. One of these is known as precautionary recapitalisation. It allows governments to recapitalise banks using public funds. But the scope for this kind of state aid is very narrow.

This is with the view of facilitating greater efficiency in the provision of appropriate services by financial planners and financial advisers in response to consumer needs and demands as well as to pave the way for greater convergence in the financial planning industry. I would strongly encourage financial planners licensed by the Securities Commission to take advantage of the opportunity to apply for a financial adviser licence or become a financial adviser’s representative through this greenlane approval process and expand your current business scope. Some of the measures implemented earlier to promote the development of financial advisers include facilitating the transformation of the tied agency force into financial advisers’ representatives by allowing tied agents to continue receiving renewal commissions during the transition period of five years. These measures are indeed a reflection of Bank Negara Malaysia’s serious effort and commitment to continuously promote the development of financial advisers as a new distribution channel for financial products and services. Moving forward, the financial services intermediary sector which includes financial advisers, would be gradually deregulated and liberalized to pave the way for self-regulation with the expectation of continuous improvement in service standards. We believe that professional pride and aspiration of intermediaries such as financial advisers will provide the necessary self-discipline to ensure orderly development of the sector. In this regard, Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission are working together with key industry players in formulating a workable self-regulatory regime for the financial advisory and planning industries.
The fall in market interest rates has also played its part in narrowing the net interest margin, since the cost of liabilities, and especially of deposits, which are the main source of funding for Spanish banks, tend to be less sensitive to changes in market returns than the remuneration of assets. This effect heightens when interest rates move close to cero, since this level has served as a lower bound for the cost of deposits. The reason for this downward stickiness in the cost of deposits is that negative interest rates in these instruments could reduce the supply of funds, especially in the case of households, as they would prefer to hold cash, which has zero but not negative remuneration, rather than deposits. An analysis of the average loan-deposit gap in the case of outstanding balances shows that there is in effect a historically positive relationship between this variable and the level of market interest rates. Nevertheless, the fact that since 12-month EURIBOR turned negative in February 2016 the loan-deposit gap has not narrowed and in fact has widened is quite striking. There are two reasons for this. The first is that average remuneration of loans has been sustained in recent years by the decline in non-performing loans, which has reduced the proportion of loans not earning interest. The second reason is that in February 2016 there was still some margin for decline in the cost of deposits, which averaged 0.35% for outstanding balances and 0.20% for new business.

Yet on the other hand, adopting technological innovation may also mean efficiency improvements for banks, although it is true that in the short term adapting to the new way of providing financial services and managing their assets will entail hefty costs for established banks. For society as a whole, the use of new technologies in finance may mean significant advantages in terms of cost savings and financial inclusion. As regulators, we have to promote the adoption of innovation while continuing to treat all participants symmetrically so that regulations governing the same activities are comparable, irrespective of the type of company providing the services. As I mentioned earlier, the decrease in non-productive assets has been one of the main factors which has contributed to the return to profitability of the Spanish banking system in recent years. Nevertheless, although it has decreased significantly, the share of these assets in banks’ balance sheets continues to be historically high and, consequently, banks should take advantage of this point in the cycle to make further progress in this area. Another important challenge for Spanish banks relates to the need for them to achieve reputational improvements. After the economic crisis, litigation increased notably, resulting in sizeable costs for banks which have a negative effect on their profitability. This increase in legal costs is not confined to the Spanish banking system but has also been observed in other jurisdictions.
I will though:   update on progress towards a global Insurance Capital Standard;    talk about the fledgling UK market for Insurance-Linked Securities and our own new insurers unit;    reiterate the messages on underwriting and reserving in wholesale insurance and reinsurance markets from Anna Sweeney’s Dear CEO letter earlier this year;    discuss capital management, building on a Supervisory Statement we published in May;    share some data we collect on the sensitivity of the capital surpluses of UK life insurers to various market movements and    encourage greater consistency in disclosure of such sensitivities by insurers as well as of the drivers of changes in their capital positions over time. Update on progress towards an International Capital Standard  The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) began work on an international capital 1  standard (ICS) for Internationally-Active Insurance Groups in 2014. A third consultation paper on ICS version 2.0 will close on 30 October. I encourage UK insurance groups to take part in this consultation and in the final round of field testing next year. The Standard will then be finalised ahead of a five-year monitoring period starting in 2020. During this period Internationally-Active Insurance Groups will report a reference ICS confidentially to their group-wide supervisors, including for discussion in regulatory colleges. But it will not be the basis of their regulatory capital requirements. Calculation of the reference ICS and the additional reporting is not meant to be burdensome.

We are also monitoring consumers' needs regarding access to funds, including stimulus payments, through traditional deposit accounts, as well as for individuals without a traditional banking relationship who utilize pre-paid cards. Conclusions Taken together, these steps demonstrate the Fed's strong commitment to help the U.S. banking system support the U.S. economy and protect consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are aware, however, that many low- and moderate-income and minority communities remain severely impacted. The regional partnership between the New York Fed and socially responsible providers of capital continues to inform our understanding of the needs for access to credit for these critical small businesses. We will continue to work with you to ensure that the financial system acts as a source of strength to support all segments of the U.S. economy. Thank you. 1Agencies issue revised interagency statement on loan modifications by financial institutions working with customers affected by the coronavirus 2Federal Reserve provides additional information to financial institutions on how its supervisory approach is adjusting in light of the coronavirus 3Agencies announce changes to the community bank leverage ratio 4The Fed has also taken action to support the provision of credit by larger institutions.