samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
In November 2021 the NGFS published an important report on climate-related litigation[15] which seeks to raise awareness about the growing source of litigation risk for public and private actors not convincingly supporting the climate change transition. Understanding the risks arising from climate-related litigation is clearly crucial for central banks and supervisory authorities, and the NGFS is continuing to monitor this field carefully. It plans to publish a further report next year with an update on the many developments since 2021. I hope I am leaving you with the right impression. The ECB is not an environmental activist, but rather a prudent realist. It is our job to point out risks, whether they are macroeconomic, macroprudential, microprudential or related to litigation, and to ensure that the financial sector takes them duly into account. Before I finish, let’s turn back to the brave fight of Vanuatu. You cannot blame Vanuatu’s president for seeking to defend the rights of countries most exposed to the ongoing climate and environmental crisis. Nor can we blame him for wanting to impose obligations on those most responsible for driving the crisis. Vanuatu’s mission is a stark example what the fight against the climate crisis is about. It underpins the task we have on our side. Europe has realistically no other choice than to deliver on the objectives of the Paris Agreement. If we waiver, the costs will only increase both in a moral and financial sense. Speaking as a  European citizen, I would like us to be ready for the challenge ahead.

But banks will need to be careful that this process is handled with tact and sensitivity. Otherwise, they may be open to accusations from sections of the community that they are neglecting their social responsibility by curtailing or increasing the cost of basic banking services to the economically disadvantaged. This was certainly the accusation made against the Australian banks after deregulation there. A further aspect is that the possibility of higher and more extensive charges for banking services will make it all the more important for the banks to deliver sufficient information to their customers about these charges. Let me clarify at this point the HKMA’s attitude to ethical matters and particularly the issue of “fairness” to customers. Our main responsibility under the Banking Ordinance is to promote the general stability and effective working of the banking system. In common with banking regulators in other countries, we interpret this to mean that our principal concern should be to determine that individual banks are financially sound and prudently managed. The aim is to reduce the risk of bank failure that would result in depositors losing money and threaten the stability of the banking system as a whole. We concentrate therefore on checking that the banks have adequate capital and liquidity and effective management and internal controls. However, this is not all that we do.
structured investment vehicles and conduits), so no further capital requirements were necessary for the banks. Credits were issued on the basis of ever-increasing housing prices, so the mortgage was backing enough to relax the lending standards. As often occurs when the storm hits, the situation reversed and a credit contraction followed (figure 8). Also, the real-estate bubble created a demand for homes as financial assets. These loans were sold to agents that neglected the risk evaluation process, hence the contamination to the whole financial system. The "originate and distribute" model crashed, risk-rating institutions were unable to properly rate complex securities, while the executive compensation structure also encouraged the search for returns. Lending to risky borrowers that fail to repay is certainly costly, but it can hardly unleash a crisis of the magnitude we are seeing today. The problem is aggravated by the way the  3  This point has been made more intensively in Buiter (2008). For a vision involving other mechanisms, see Muellbauer (2007). 4  According to Barajas et al. (2008) only 20% of the booms en in crisis. BIS Review 124/2008  3  banks got rid of these loans, how they were rated, the derivatives that were created to reduce the risk and pretend they had been transferred away. There are also doubts whether the derivatives markets' operation was as transparent as it should have been or if it was manipulated.

Alternatively, an issuer could sell a bond with a negative coupon rate by providing that, in the absence of timely payment of interest, the omitted interest payment will be deducted from the principal due at maturity. In this case the bond would be redeemed for less than par, depending on the number of unpaid coupons and the magnitude of the (negative) coupon rate. These alternatives have different tax implications, as discussed in a recent report by the Danish mortgage bankers. 6 As one can imagine, these alternatives require a great deal of coordination and legal work to implement. One legal issue is whether, in the case in which bonds are to be redeemed for less than par, the bonds qualify to be used as collateral in various central bank or private arrangements that require collateral; another is whether the decrease in the par value of the bond might trigger a default that would require a writer of credit default swap protection to make payment to the holder of the swap. These and similar operational problems (including the difficulty of modifying security depositories and clearing and settlement systems to manage the calculations and transfers associated with negative rates) can presumably be solved in time. However, they represent expensive transition costs for those people and institutions that must deal with them as rates move from positive to negative. 3. Economic frictions  There are many zero interest rate conventions in society: negative nominal rates, but not negative real rates, reverse the incentives to exploit these conventions.
Moreover, because we’ve experienced such a variety of different types of stress, overall risk may be lower. But this recent history also suggests that we need to maintain a degree of humility and caution about our capacity to anticipate the nature and dynamics of future stresses to the financial system. How strong and resilient is the U.S. financial system today? Our sense is that the system is quite strong and resilient relative to the recent past. The major financial institutions at the core of the system are profitable and well capitalized. The total risk-based capital ratio for the ten largest U.S.-owned bank holding companies has averaged more than 12 percent over the past two years, a slight increase relative to prevailing levels since the mid-1990s. At year-end 2003, nearly every bank in the country met the regulatory standards to be considered “well capitalized”, with fewer than 100 - representing less than 1 percent of banking industry assets - failing to meet these standards. While risk-based capital ratios do not always provide an accurate picture of true capital strength, especially for the larger and more complex institutions, these statistics are nonetheless broadly indicative of a very strong underlying capital position of the industry. BIS Review 33/2004  1  Robust capitalization is important because capital, along with earnings, provides the first line of defense against losses. Counterparties and customers are less likely to lose confidence and pull back from a well-capitalized institution in the wake of a large loss or other negative event.

Muhammad bin Ibrahim: Issues surrounding intellectual property Welcoming remarks by Mr Muhammad bin Ibrahim, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the Intellectual Property Financing Conference 2014, Kuala Lumpur, 23 September 2014. *  *  *  It gives me great pleasure to welcome you today to the 2014 Intellectual Property (IP) Financing Conference – themed “IP Potentials in Financial Landscape Evolution”. I would like to thank the Malaysian Intellectual Property Corporation and the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers for co-organising this event with Bank Negara Malaysia. We are also grateful to Secretary General Dato’ Sri Alias bin Haji Ahmad for joining us today to deliver the keynote address and officiate the conference. In the age of the information economy, the importance of intellectual property as a key enabler of productivity and economic growth has become significantly more pronounced as intangibles make up an increasing proportion of business investments. This conference was carefully designed to raise issues surrounding IP. Many issues and questions require resolutions and insights. How do we achieve strong and effective IP protection that will encourage companies to bring new innovations to the market? How do we unlock the value of IP within businesses and encourage the financial system to make better use of this value in financing decisions? How do we start to develop a more transparent market for IP assets? These are some of the issues and questions that the Conference should explore to optimise the full potential of IP in Malaysia.
Some might say that the PRA acts as though “all policyholders are equal, but some are more equal than others”. But in my view there is no need to obfuscate in this manner and we should be quite clear that while the regulatory standard set in Solvency II is uniform, we do not in supervision attempt to cover all policyholders equally. It is in my view entirely appropriate that we should direct more of our resources towards policyholders who will suffer greater financial hardship if their policies do not pay out as promised, or those for whom there is the greatest asymmetry of information between company and customer, or who face the highest possibility of being unable to replace cover if it is lost. For example, five million households have life insurance and two million have personal pensions. Some of the oldest and most vulnerable people in our society are reliant upon income provided by insurers under very long-term annuity contracts, into which they have invested their life savings. While the FSCS plays a vital role, the financial harm caused by the failure of an insurer in this space would be considerable and it is quite right that the PRA devotes significant resources to supervision of this sector, and that we have a very low appetite for any firm being unable to honour its promises.

Others, particularly those working in general insurance, are more sanguine - for instance John Parry of Lloyd’s of London told the TSC that “in terms of Solvency II…damaging competitiveness or returns on capital, no, we have not seen that”. Written submissions from the industry to the TSC generally reveal two themes. First, having just consumed this sizeable piece of new regulation, the industry has no desire whatsoever to sit back down at the regulatory table and consume another, radically different, meal. By my reckoning, only one submission to the TSC calls for a fundamental change of regime. And second, that while the PRA has done a reasonable job in steering everyone across the implementation line, it has in the view of some parts of the industry been over-zealous in places. I’ll comment on each of these themes in turn. Solvency II indigestion  I very much agree that having another big meal at this stage would be most unwise. However, I acknowledge that the size and variety of the Solvency II meal has left all of us facing some degree of indigestion. When faced with live market conditions and commercial realities, some aspects of the regime have been found wanting. So I agree with most industry commentators that it is in nobody’s best interests – not firms, policyholders or regulators – to make wholesale changes. But that does not mean that we cannot make a series of tweaks and improvements to the overall system, by way of a digestif.
Each country can then choose whether or not to publish the results of the assessment. A summary of the assessment is included in the IMF's annual assessment of member countries' economies. Dependence and complexity are increasing While the markets have thus (hopefully, I should perhaps add) become more robust, our use of them has grown. Households and companies have become operators on the financial markets, mainly because these offer better and cheaper services than those traditionally offered via the banks. An increasing percentage of the investments made are financed on the market through shares and bonds in other countries than the USA. This has become possible because households' savings are to an increasing degree channelled into shares and mutual funds. We use the financial markets much more than we did just ten years ago. This means that we have good reason to be concerned over their functioning. It has also meant that questions regarding financial stability have acquired greater importance on the international political agenda. At the same time as use of the markets has grown, new instruments are being traded that are increasingly complicated in structure and their risk content has become more difficult to assess. Various forms of derivative have been developed, for instance, to spread risks more efficiently. This in itself creates conditions for reducing the vulnerability of the banks as well as the financing costs of the investments. Essentially, this development benefits long-term growth. In recent years, the use of credit risk derivatives and securitisation has increased, for instance.

If so, the level of indebtedness in the corporate and household sectors should not comprise such a great threat to economic activity in the coming years as many have feared, including the Riksbank in a number of Inflation Reports. In Sweden, the decline in economic activity has not affected capacity utilisation and unemployment to the same extent as in previous cases in the economy. This means that the upward turn will be from a relatively high level of resource utilisation in the economy. Low interest rates, a weak krona and a very expansive fiscal policy have been contributing factors here. One consequence of the high level of resource utilisation could be the unexpectedly high inflation rate registered recently. Earlier price increases on certain product groups are assumed to be temporary, which would mean that inflation should fall this year. However, price rises in the services sector, for instance, probably reflect higher labour costs. A number of my colleagues have expressed concern over future inflation and I must say that I share their concern. The fact that the international upturn in economic activity is taking place after a very brief and moderate decline means that the economic upturn is not expected to be as strong as earlier upturns. For Sweden, this means that exports are increasing, but that growth is primarily expected to come from domestic demand, in particular in the services sector.
These included funds transfer, bill payment, card and loan repayment, purchase of share application and reload of mobile prepaid applications, which was valued at RM37 billion on average per year. So the usage of ATM for e-payment purposes was underutilised and the industry should do more to improve this situation. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  ATMs to cater to those that have not adopted online banking 92% (or 18.4 million) of the total adult population in Malaysia has banking accounts and of these, the internet banking population accounts for about 74% (13.7 million) of bank account holders. Whilst 74% of the bank account holders have internet banking access but only 43% (5.9 million) of the internet banking subscribers are active users in conducting financial transactions. Still a long way to go to encourage users to adopt electronic means in conducting their banking transactions. In this regard, we have to do more to reach critical mass where the public are familiar with or comfortable in using internet banking to conduct their financial transactions. To achieve this aim, banks should continuously increase their efforts to educate their customers and businesses on the safety of online banking practices and provide incentives to them to migrate away from cheques and cash. MEPS’ initiative on widening the ATM network would also provide convenient access points across the country to enable those who have not yet adopt online banking to migrate to cashless banking services. In particular, the target groups are the SMEs and microenterprises.

Muhammad bin Ibrahim: Development and deployment of Malaysia’s ATM network Speech by Mr Muhammad bin Ibrahim, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the launch of MEPS (Malaysian Electronic Payment System) ATM Initiative, Kuala Lumpur, 21 October 2013. *  *  *  Pooling of resources through MEPS The launching of MEPS’ ATMs marks an important milestone as this will be the first time that MEPS, a non-bank entity owned by the banking industry, is deploying ATMs, instead of by individual banks. This initiative is indeed a welcomed move as it facilitates the pooling of resources by the banking industry for a common objective of developing and deploying industry-wide banking infrastructure. It promotes efficiency and cost effectiveness. Widening the ATM network through shared resources will also benefit the public by having more convenient points of access to banking products and services. MEPS had in the past a history of coordinating industry-wide infrastructure development efforts. An outstanding achievement was made when it coordinated the industry-wide migration of the ATM cards from magnetic stripe to chip-based technology in 2001 to eradicate the numerous fraud involving magnetic stripe technology. This move was a significant strategy for the country, as Malaysia was amongst the first, to adopt a chip-based technology to reduce fraud and boost public confidence in the use of the ATM and payment cards. MEPS should continue to perform this role, as builder of payment infrastructure for the banking industry.
At the same time, the adjustment of low-quality mortgage credits continues to deepen, adding to the decline in housing demand. So far, the economy has absorbed both the housing correction and the worsening of credits fairly well. Although more stringent criteria have been introduced regarding approval of loans to more risky clients, effects on other borrowers’ categories have been very limited. Meanwhile, private consumption has lost some strength, affected by housing prices correction and the high prices of gasoline. Still, the strength in the labor and stock markets continue to support it. As a result, a soft landing and increased dynamism in coming quarters seem more likely, in a time where the inventory correction cycle is coming to an end and the manufacturing industry is beginning to pick up. The risk remains, however, that the household sector adjustment will have deeper effects on private consumption and will extend the low growth period. Surprisingly, despite the strong correction in the housing market, employment in the construction sector has declined modestly and the unemployment rate has remained at 4.5%. In the euro zone, growth has been accelerating. The widespread dynamism of the German economy stands out, benefiting from increased efficiency and competitiveness thanks to major reforms implemented in recent years. Growth is driven by exports and investment, but private consumption also plays a part. In contrast, Italy is slowing down, while France grows, but not as strongly as Germany.

This is a “belt and suspenders” approach to capital regulation. The leverage ratio will help contain the buildup of excessive leverage in the system, serving as a backstop to the risk-based regime and safeguarding against banks’ attempts to “game” the risk-based requirements. Equally critically, the risk-based framework helps ensure that banks do not game the leverage ratio. Let’s not forget that simple measures like a leverage ratio have been in place in the past and did not alone prevent banking failures. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Risk-weighting is difficult but vitally important. Therefore the Basel Committee is in the process of reviewing the risk-weighting regime of the capital framework to ensure that it is as simple and comparable as can be while still capturing the risk profile of banks’ varied asset portfolios. Complexity is a byproduct of the desire, among regulators and banks, for risk sensitivity. Risk measurement will never be perfect. Simplicity, however, can sometimes come at a cost. Ignoring risk does not make it disappear. Without measuring risk properly, we may allow it to build up undetected. Operating only with a non-risk-based leverage ratio creates incentives to shed safe assets and to increase the riskiness of asset portfolios; to forgo risk-reducing hedging strategies because they could result in higher capital requirements; and to engage in off-balance sheet activities and other sophisticated structures that expose a bank to contingent risks. This is likely to increase the aggregate risk in the economy and thereby create global financial stability concerns.
News conference  Berne, 15 June 2017 Thomas Jordan  Introductory remarks by Thomas Jordan  Ladies and gentlemen It is a pleasure for me to welcome you to the Swiss National Bank’s news conference. I will begin by explaining our monetary policy decision and our assessment of the economic situation. I will then hand over to Fritz Zurbrügg, who will present this year’s Financial Stability Report. After that, Andréa Maechler will review developments on the financial markets. Finally, we will – as ever – be pleased to take your questions. Monetary policy decision  Let me begin with our monetary policy decision and the inflation forecast. We are maintaining our expansionary monetary policy, with the aim of stabilising price developments and supporting economic activity. Interest on sight deposits at the SNB is to remain at –0.75% and the target range for the three-month Libor is unchanged at between –1.25% and –0.25%. We will remain active in the foreign exchange market as necessary, while taking the overall currency situation into consideration. The negative interest rate and our willingness to intervene in the foreign exchange market are intended to make Swiss franc investments less attractive, thereby easing pressure on the currency. The Swiss franc is still significantly overvalued. The new conditional inflation forecast differs little from that of March. We continue to anticipate an inflation rate of 0.3% for the current year. For 2018, the forecast has fallen slightly to 0.3%, from 0.4% in the previous quarter.

For 2019, we now expect inflation of  Page 1/4  Berne, 15 June 2017 Thomas Jordan  News conference  1.0%, compared to 1.1% last quarter. The conditional inflation forecast is based on the assumption that the three-month Libor remains at –0.75% over the entire forecast horizon. Global economic outlook  I would now like to turn to economic developments abroad, as these have a considerable bearing on the inflation and economic outlook in Switzerland. In line with our expectations, the global economy has strengthened further in recent months. Global GDP growth in the first quarter was more robust than in previous quarters. This is due in large part to an encouraging upturn in emerging economies. In the euro area, too, economic recovery has gained strength. Owing to the stronger economic growth, the labour market situation in advanced economies has improved further; with full employment now almost reached in the US, Japan, the UK and Germany. Across the euro area, unemployment has declined again. Despite these positive developments in the real economy, inflation remains modest in most advanced economies. Against this background, monetary policy in Japan and the euro area in particular is likely to remain very expansionary. In the US, monetary conditions are expected to gradually normalise. In our new baseline scenario for the global economy, we anticipate that economic developments will remain favourable. For 2017, economic growth looks set to be its strongest in six years.