samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
The new National Bank was expected to gradually take over the activities of the former noteissuing institutions and to bring some welcome order to the payment system. At the time, the value of the Swiss franc was defined in gold and silver, the precious metal content of the coins was fixed accordingly and banknotes could be exchanged for gold. Nowadays, the SNB’s responsibility in matters of monetary stability is uncontested. In fact, it is explicitly mandated by law to preserve price stability while taking economic developments into account. Moreover, economic theory stresses the special responsibility of central banks in this area. The goals, methods and instruments of monetary policy have thus undergone profound changes. Nevertheless, the principles that have guided our activity over the past century have been remarkably enduring, and this is exemplified by the history of the National Bank. Pursuit of stability From the outset, the National Bank recognised that its role as the national note-issuing institution would extend far beyond the harmonisation of payment systems. The first steps were difficult. During the First World War, the SNB actively participated in financing military expenditures through its loans. This undisciplined lending policy pushed up inflation, thereby contributing to the social unrest of 1918. This sparked a broad debate on the SNB’s responsibility for the massive price rise. These events, along with the subsequent tragedy of German hyperinflation, left a strong mark on the National Bank. It must have been at that time that the SNB fully realised the complexity of its task.

This has been a controversial issue in the international debate in recent years. In the light of the events of the autumn, this issue will probably become topical again. 8  BIS Review 2/2008
Even though users do not cover costs directly, the costs involved in using these schemes are high, making these solutions an expensive alternative for banks. Eventually, banks’ customers foot the bill one way or another. Cheaper alternatives are on their way. The new solutions could also result in faster payments. National payment card schemes, such as BankAxept in Norway, might provide an alternative to the international card schemes, including access to the new services. New regulations have been introduced to lower the costs related to international cards. A new EU regulation also provides for direct bank-to-bank payments, bypassing the card schemes entirely. Technological innovation has given us not only new methods of payment, but also new forms of money – so-called e-money. E-money is electronic money issued by non-bank entities, but in existing currencies. Paypal customers can make payments through their Paypal account. Facebook has recently applied for a Europe-wide e-money licence. If large providers offer an attractive, user-friendly solution, this method of payment could become widespread. A key issue related to e-money is the question of consumer trust. E-money is a claim on the issuing company. E-money is not backed by a deposit insurance scheme or any authority. Other companies are offering new forms of money – often in the form of a new currency – on closed platforms such as social networks and online games. Examples of such platform currencies are Amazon Coins, the virtual currency used in the online game World of Warcraft and Chinese Q Coins.

Jean-Pierre Roth: Switzerland – a platform for global business Summary of a speech by Mr Jean-Pierre Roth, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements, at the Forum de l'Economie vaudoise, Lausanne, 14 September 2007. The complete speech can be found in French on the Swiss National Bank’s website (www.snb.ch). *  *  *  Within the past ten years, Switzerland has become a genuine platform for global economic operations. From here, the international markets are being worked systematically, and an ever-growing part of our economic performance is now attributable to investment activity abroad. This is a welcome development since it allows us to keep high value-added jobs in Switzerland. However, it also involves some risk because the international mobility of production has increased. Consequently, the general conditions which help to keep Switzerland attractive as a business location must be maintained. This platform for global economic operations has given us a role outside the European Union and the euro area. Thus we have chosen to face the challenge of globalisation instead of the challenge of European integration. Our path may be demanding, but it is also promising! BIS Review 101/2007  1
Thomas Jordan: Global economic outlook and economic developments in Switzerland Introductory remarks by Mr Thomas Jordan, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the Media News Conference of the Swiss National Bank, Berne, 12 December 2013. *  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen Welcome to the Swiss National Bank’s news conference. I would like to begin today by explaining the SNB’s monetary policy decision before moving on to present our assessment of the economic situation and monetary conditions. My colleague, Jean-Pierre Danthine, will then talk to you about developments in connection with financial stability and banknotes. Finally, my colleague, Fritz Zurbrügg, will look at the current situation on the financial markets, as well as at the management of our currency reserves and interest rate benchmark reforms. As always, we will conclude with a question and answer session. I will now start with our monetary policy decision. As you will have no doubt expected, the SNB is maintaining its minimum exchange rate of CHF 1.20 per euro. The Swiss franc is still high. With the three-month Libor already practically at zero, the minimum exchange rate continues to be the right tool for ensuring appropriate monetary conditions in Switzerland. If the Swiss franc were to appreciate, this would have significant consequences for the Swiss economy. On the one hand, an appreciation would lead to a further decline in import prices and a renewed threat of deflation.

Furthermore, developments in the global economy are likely to remain uncertain. In this environment, the minimum exchange rate continues to be essential in ensuring appropriate monetary conditions in Switzerland. The guiding principle for our decisions is the SNB’s mandate to ensure price stability while taking due account of the development of the economy. The financial crisis also showed us, however, that price stability alone is not sufficient to ensure that the financial sector remains stable. In this connection, the situation on mortgage and real estate markets – which are showing considerable momentum – has been cause for concern for quite some time now. Also, mortgage lending is still growing faster than GDP, with the result that aggregate debt is increasing further. The countercyclical capital buffer is a new tool with which the resilience of banks can be strengthened and imbalances on mortgage and real estate markets can be addressed. My colleague, Jean-Pierre Danthine, will now give you our assessment of the risks for financial stability. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3
Mugur Isărescu: The Transatlantic renaissance – Romania as a faithful partner and ambitious player Opening speech by Mr Mugur Isărescu, Governor of the National Bank of Romania, at the Conference “The Transatlantic Renaissance: Romania as a Faithful Partner and Ambitious Player”, Bucharest, 9 December 2013. *  *  *  Prime Minister Ponta, Mr. Kennedy, Your Excellences, Ladies and gentlemen, It is a great pleasure for the National Bank of Romania, and an honor for me and the board members, to welcome such a distinguished audience. I salute the presence of Victor Ponta, Prime Minister of Romania, who will be the keynote speaker today and that of Craig Kennedy, the President of German Marshall Fund of the United States. Allow me to greet their Excellences, members of the diplomatic corps, as well as the other notable guests who represent an important array of successful domains of activity. A special welcome to Mircea Geoană, President of Aspen Institute Romania and his team of young, talented and hardworking professionals. Today’s gathering has a challenging topic: “The Transatlantic Renaissance: Romania as a Faithful Partner and Ambitious Player”. Here, at the National Bank of Romania, we take pride in having always been a forum for debating, in an open and profound manner, the themes and trends defining our age. Thus, it is the perfect venue to host such a conference as this one, which encourages individuals to reflect on ideals and ideas that define good society through leadership, dialogue, entrepreneurship and regional stability.

Financial crises are even costlier in emerging economies than in industrialized countries, as their ability to bear such costs is severely constrained by spillovers between the banking system and sovereigns and the related vicious circle of escalating risk premia. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  The crisis has also revealed that effective policy remedies have a transnational perspective. In the European Union the idea of a Banking Union emerged as a solution to break the above-mentioned vicious circle, thus putting a stop to financial fragmentation and helping restore the normal capital flow from the core EU countries to the periphery. In addition, the Banking Union has the merit of removing the contradiction between the pan-European nature of banking activity and keeping banking supervisory and resolution tasks at the national level. In this context, Romania’s membership in the Banking Union comes as a natural choice, given that euro area banks hold three fourths of the total assets of the Romanian banking system and two thirds of its capital. As was the case with EU membership, the national interest may be better served in the banking sector by relinquishing some of the national policy prerogatives. In the context of such a high financial integration, preserving the banking supervisory powers at national level would only entail suboptimal results, due to the limited access to information on parent banks and the lack of a cross-border perspective.
In addition, the Fed has been conducting large-scale repo operations and purchasing sizable quantities of U.S. Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities to support market functioning at a time of extraordinary volatility in markets.8 These actions averted a potential shutdown in the availability of credit, which would have made the current economic crisis even more severe. Although functioning in financial markets has improved since March, the Federal Reserve has indicated that it will continue to increase asset holdings to sustain smooth market functioning, thereby fostering effective transmission of monetary policy to broader financial conditions.9 In addition to stabilizing financial markets, the Federal Reserve has instituted a number of programs to support the flow of credit to households, businesses, and state and local governments. These actions will enable them to continue to do their work, both now and when normal life resumes.10 Taken together, these programs have helped restore the functioning of financial markets, foster favorable financial conditions, and support the continued flow of credit to businesses and households. Conclusion I'll conclude with this: This pandemic and this recession form a pivotal moment for the Federal Reserve. We are seeing signs that the economy has started to recover. Still, the economic outlook remains highly uncertain and it's going to take considerable time to restore the economy to its full potential. But rest assured, we are committed to using our full range of tools to support the economy and bring about a full and robust recovery.

India has acceded to the Treaty of Amity and Co-operation in Southeast Asia (TAC) and adopted the Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism, signalling its strong commitment to ensure peace and security in the region. India is now a dialogue partner with ASEAN at the Summit level. Last year, the leaders adopted the suggestion of Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee and signed the ASEAN-India Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation, an interim step towards an eventual ASEAN-India FTA. Both sides have agreed to start negotiations on trade in goods this year, including an ?early harvest programme? to boost trade in selected sectors. Singapore supports this far-sighted initiative and will work actively with India and other ASEAN members to fulfil this vision. The India-Singapore CECA Bilaterally, India and Singapore are already negotiating a Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement (CECA), which will be a firm basis for expanding the India-ASEAN relationship. The rewards are not only economic, but also strategic. Singapore naturally hopes to gain freer access to the Indian market. But the benefits extend well beyond this. Singapore wants to strengthen its economic ties with many different centres of prosperity and growth, and not be overly dependent on one or two major trading partners. A strong relationship with India will complement our rapidly growing links with China, and help us to realise the strategy of growing two external wings in the region, with the two emerging economic giants.
For Norway, these conditions include the oil price and economic developments among trading partners. These variables are treated as exogenous factors in our analysis. However, the uncertainty associated with the effect of monetary policy is of a different nature in that it relates to the functioning of the economy – and the effect of the policy rate in particular. Chart: Norway – Interest rates For the transmission mechanism of monetary policy to function normally, changes in the policy rate must pass through to the bank lending and deposit rates faced by households and enterprises. In Norway, the latest policy rate cuts have had a broad impact on banks’ interest rates. Lending and deposit rates for households are both approximately one percentage point lower now than when the key policy rate was reduced in December 2014, from a level of 1.5 percent. Rates facing enterprises have also fallen. Banks’ profitability and net interest income have remained solid in the same period. At the same time, given the current low interest rate level, we are navigating in uncharted waters. Banks’ response to changes in the policy rate may differ from their usual behaviour. Households 2/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  and enterprises may also respond differently to interest rate changes when interest rates are already at a low level. So far, there is no clear indication that historical relationships have collapsed, but nor do we have experience with such low interest rates over such a long period of time.

Øystein Olsen: The role of central banks – a Norwegian perspective Speech by Mr Øystein Olsen, Governor of Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), at the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), London, 1 November 2016. * * * The charts can be found at the Central Bank of Norway’s website. INTRODUCTION Let me begin by thanking the OMFIF for the opportunity to speak to you today about the monetary policy regime in Norway. Like other central banks, the central bank of Norway is facing new challenges in a post-crisis environment of persistently low interest rates and uncertainty. Today I want to focus on how Norges Bank is responding to those challenges. Inflation targeting was formally introduced as a framework for monetary policy in Norway 15 years ago. As in other inflation-targeting countries, our inflation targeting regime has become more flexible over time. The operational target of monetary policy in Norway is annual consumer price inflation of close to 2.5% over time. However, according to the mandate, interest rate setting should seek to achieve a reasonable balance between inflation and capacity utilisation. Monetary policy should also be robust, taking uncertainty into account and seeking to avoid adverse outcomes. I will reurn to this topic in the following. The reasoning behind the policy rate decision taken by Norges Bank’s Executive Board is published in our Monetary Policy Report. The evolution of inflation targeting in Norway reflects the practical experience we have gained since it was introduced. The trade-offs have been challenging at times.
This transition in MP regime has been more pronounced in Latin America. While in 1994 twelve countries in the region had in place an ER anchor, and four others had a monetary growth anchor, by 2004 only three countries remained with an ER anchor. The transition of policy frameworks during 1994-2004 led to a significant rise in the number of Latin American countries with a floating regime (from three to twelve countries) and an inflation targeting framework (from one to five countries). 2. Chile’s transition to its current monetary policy framework  The macroeconomic institutional and policy framework of Chile has been transformed radically in the last 25 years, from one that made stabilization an exceptional result to one that has facilitated achieving price stability. Chile’s current macroeconomic framework is based on four pillars: (i) an autonomous Central Bank with the explicit mandate of safeguarding stability of prices and payments; (ii) a low public-debt to GDP ratio and a fiscal policy rule anchored to a structural fiscal surplus; (iii) a robust financial system, with a dynamic, competitive, and well capitalized banking industry, appropriately regulated and supervised; and (iv) a full-fledged inflation targeting monetary framework, complemented by a floating ER regime. Substantial progress was made in CBC autonomy since the 1980s, when autonomy was very weak, even at lower levels than in the average emerging economy. The granting of legal independence in 1989 through constitutional law, led to a much improved position in the international ranking of central bank autonomy.

In this context, the largest retail payment system in the Republic of Macedonia established a Guarantee Scheme in 2017 which is in accordance with the regulation of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia that aims to effect the same-day settlement and thus, minimize the liquidity risk in the important payment system in case of a participant default. Furthermore, we also engaged in facilitating cross-  border payments in euro in 2017 by establishing a link between our RTGS payment system MIPS and TARGET2, which relies on the highly appreciated cooperation with Bank of Italy. And we do not stop here. Our recent efforts have been focused on building a Strategy for reducing the cash usage and thus, increasing the digitalization and cashless payments, which 2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  is a joint project of the central bank, the Ministry of Finance and the banking community. During the following three days, the lecturers will address all the above relevant developments in the payment market. The conference agenda includes a variety of interesting topics, including the European payment landscape and legislation with a special focus on PSD2, instant payments, T2 & T2S consolidation project, collateral management system, recent work of CPMI and latest trends in central bank oversight. This year’s agenda also covers themes related to cryptocurrencies, central bank digital currencies and distributed ledger technology and cyber resilience.
The first is the negative interest rate, which is currently –0.75%. This is charged on sight deposits held at the SNB by banks and other financial market participants. The second is our willingness to intervene in the foreign exchange market as necessary, while taking the overall currency situation into consideration. Our monetary policy is thus expansionary and aimed at easing pressure on the Swiss franc, thereby ensuring price stability in the medium term. Many feared a recession on the back of the discontinuation of the minimum exchange rate and the rapid appreciation of the Swiss franc. Yet our economy grew by 0.9% last year. This may not be a strong growth rate, but it is still a good sign. On the one hand, it reflects the flexibility and adaptability of Swiss companies and employees. On the other, the economy was also supported by our expansionary monetary policy. This contributed to the weakening of the Swiss franc over the course of the past year. It remains significantly overvalued, however. The slight increase in economic output in Switzerland is a positive development, particularly in view of the continued tentative recovery of the global economy. This hesitant recovery was accompanied by a collapse in commodity prices in 2015, in which both weak demand and increased oil production played a role. The drop in oil prices and the appreciation of the franc following the discontinuation of the minimum exchange rate pushed inflation in Switzerland into negative territory. Both factors produce a one-off downward adjustment in prices.

The Federal Council has rejected the initiative without a counterproposal. It maintains that a sovereign money system would be an experiment for which there are no comparable models in other countries, and would carry risks for the Swiss economy. The implementation of the sovereign money idea would entail a complete restructuring of today’s monetary system. This  4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  would give rise to great uncertainty, could jeopardise the financial centre and thus damage Switzerland as a whole. The Federal Council also fears that the sovereign money system would harm lending and restrict the SNB’s ability to conduct monetary policy. We share the Federal Council’s concerns. A feeling of disquiet about the existing financial system is not enough reason for a radical overhaul. It is also difficult to predict what impact such an experiment would have on Switzerland as a business location. Moreover, the SNB’s independence would be undermined if we had to distribute new money directly to the state or to private households. The SNB would become a political football and the fulfilment of our mandate would be hampered. Conclusion Let me conclude: the discontinuation of the minimum exchange rate did not plunge Switzerland into recession as many had feared. The economy actually grew slightly in 2015, despite appreciation of the Swiss franc and a hesitant recovery in the international economy. The main reason for this growth is that Swiss companies and employees actively exploited optimisation potential and showed great flexibility.