samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
But corporate governance rose to prominence only in the last two decades, starting with the UK’s Cadbury Report in 1992. Since then, there has been a continuous stream of reforms in the UK to strengthen corporate governance, culminating in the UK Corporate Governance Code, which operates on a “comply or explain” principle. Corporate governance reforms in the US took a slightly different trajectory, leading to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Unlike the UK Code, Sarbanes-Oxley is enshrined in legislation and compliance is mandatory. 5. In Singapore, our corporate governance journey began in 2001, with the introduction of the Code of Corporate Governance. Since then, the Code has undergone two reviews to take into account changes in our corporate landscape as well as international developments. The most recent review was conducted by the private sector led Corporate Governance Council in 2010. MAS accepted all of the recommendations of the Council, with minor modifications, and issued a revised Code of Corporate Governance earlier this year. Key changes to the Code focused on strengthening Board independence, enhancing remuneration practices and disclosures, clarifying the Board’s responsibility in risk governance, and providing further guidance on companies’ engagement with shareholders. Going beyond the rules 6. Rules on corporate governance – mandatory or otherwise – have been considerably enhanced in most major jurisdictions. Yet, rules alone cannot assure us of high standards of practice. The recent financial crisis has exposed significant shortcomings in the governance of companies. We have seen monumental failures in risk management, a spate of accounting scandals and outright fraud.

Closer to home, SGX-listed companies have had their fair share of failures in corporate governance. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  7. The answer does not lie in even more rules. We must now focus on changing behaviour and building capabilities, to make the recent reforms meaningful. Let me highlight three areas: •  one, strengthening market discipline  •  two, building Board competencies  •  three, instilling the right values  Strengthening market discipline 8. Let me begin with market discipline – the process by which stakeholders apply effective scrutiny on a company. The key enabler for market discipline is disclosure. We have put in place, in the SGX listing rules, the necessary requirements for disclosure to be ongoing, timely, and accessible. But for disclosure to enable effective market discipline, it must also be meaningful. 9. Meaningful disclosure is especially important given that our Code is non-mandatory. We have adopted a “comply or explain” approach so that we can pitch the expectations at the level of best practice while allowing companies the flexibility to deviate from these expectations if their particular circumstances warrant it. But companies must explain publicly the reasons for any such deviations so that the market can judge. 10. Unfortunately, disclosures being made by companies deviating from the Code are often uninformative. Let me give an example.
See the following references: Bauer, M. and C. Neely (2013): “International Channels of the Fed’s Unconventional Monetary Policy”, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Working Paper 2012-12. Glick, R. and S. Leduc (2013): “The Effects of Unconventional and Conventional U.S. Monetary Policy on the Dollar”, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Working Paper 2013-11. Neely, C. (2010): “The Large-Scale Asset Purchases Had Large International Effects”, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Working Paper 2010-018C. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  because asset purchase programs are expected to be scaled back, thereby unleashing a new round of currency tensions. Against the background of currency fluctuations and weak global demand, the problem of global imbalances still lingers. In the debate on global adjustment, there have also been calls for countries with a current account surplus to let their currencies appreciate. For some observers, this includes Switzerland. Our country’s large current account surplus – so the argument goes – is a sure sign that the Swiss franc is too weak. The SNB should therefore abolish the minimum exchange rate and allow the Swiss franc to appreciate further. This in turn would allow the current account surplus to diminish, thereby contributing to global rebalancing.3 I would like to point out that such a critique is not based on a full understanding of Switzerland’s situation. For a comprehensive assessment of the Swiss current account and the Swiss franc, the following factors also need to be considered.

A network of seminars and fora has been set up, in which practical advice and information are provided at expert level with regard to the adjustments required for EU membership in EMU-related areas of legislation, statistics and payment systems. Moreover, the Eurosystem provides technical assistance in all relevant areas of central banking. These activities are likely to be developed further and should make it easier for the accession countries to carefully prepare for the adoption of the acquis communautaire, which is indispensable for the successful enlargement of the European Union. Finally, I should like briefly to touch upon the status of preparations for the Eurosystem’s information campaign on euro banknotes and coins. As I already mentioned during our previous dialogue, this campaign is designed to allow European citizens to familiarise themselves with the new banknotes and coins at an early stage. The campaign is also directed towards people in other countries, albeit to a lesser degree. Its main focus will be on the visual appearance of the euro banknotes and coins, their security features, their denominations and the changeover modalities. Special attention will be paid to the needs of vulnerable citizens. In the meantime, the preparatory work on the information campaign has progressed further and should, according to our current planning, be finalised in April. It goes without saying that the ECB would appreciate the opportunity to present the main features of the campaign to your Committee in due course. 3  BIS Review 25/2000
In fact, if you could tell me that we could just stay here for the next 20 or 30 years, I would be very happy with that. So, things are going pretty well. What’s driving the economy? I think in the local economy in Queens, it’s very dependent on transportation, very high level of transportation employment, in part because of La Guardia and JFK. Those industries are doing quite well. Tourism is important to this region, so New York City has really benefited from tourism. And the fact that people want to live in cities now as opposed to live in suburbs or more rural areas is also helping a lot. In terms of actual employment in this area, you have the transportation component. Healthcare is also very, very important. A lot of uncertainties on that front. Maybe we’ll get some resolution of some of those uncertainties today. Also business and professional services is a very important driver of growth in this area. Dr. Olajide Oladipo: Thank you. From your perspective, which sector do you think is actually propelling the growth? President Dudley: Well, I think – one thing that’s been really good for New York City over the last few years, it’s become much more diversified as an economy. In the old days, New York City was sort of rise and fall, depending on how the financial services industry was doing, especially the securities industry. And what’s happened in the last few years is the securities industry employment has been pretty flat.

And so that means that there will probably be a little bit less good returns in the fixed income market compared to the last 8 years. We’ve had a bull market in fixed income really going back to 1982. My first house I ever bought, mortgage rates at the time were 17%. They’re now around 4%. I got financing from the seller. I got a 12% mortgage. I thought it was a really good deal. So now mortgage rates are around 4%. We’ve had a very, very long bull market in fixed income. People are debating now whether this is the end of that bull market or it’s going to go on for a little bit further. So, we’ll see. 6 / 15  BIS central bankers' speeches  Dr. Olajide Oladipo: Thank you. If you look at the global economy, it’s looking buoyant now. Also the national economy, which is the United States economy, is looking buoyant now. I wanted to ask you, looking at the United States, which region do you think is growing at the moment? President Dudley: I would answer that question, which region is growing at the moment, in two ways. Regionally, in terms of the geography of the United States, it’s really the South and West, and this has been a pattern for a long time, that there has been sort of a migration to – when they invented air conditioning, they made the South a lot more attractive to people.
The theme of today’s seminar – “Strategies for the Development of Islamic Capital Markets” – is most timely and relevant to Hong Kong as we are about to introduce an enhanced legal framework as a first step to promote the sustainable development of Islamic finance and we are eager to learn the other key components to form a coherent strategy. We very much look forward to the insightful views of the distinguished speakers on the latest developments of the global Islamic capital markets, the prospects and opportunities that lie ahead, and further ideas to bring Islamic capital markets to the mainstream. Growing importance of Islamic finance in the global financial scene 4. Being an international financial centre, it is important for Hong Kong to embrace Islamic finance given its rising prominence in the global financial arena. The size of the global Islamic capital markets has expanded more than 10-fold since its early phase of development in the 1980s, reaching an estimated $ trillion at the end of 2012.1 With this critical mass, Islamic finance has become an integral part of the global financial system not only catering for the needs of Muslims, but also attracting other investors and fund raisers, regardless of race and religion. Reflecting the deepening sophistication of this market, we are seeing an increasing variety of products and services, ranging from Islamic banking products and sukuk, to Islamic equities, Islamic funds and takaful. 5. This remarkable market deepening process has not been retarded by the challenging financial landscape.

The most obvious example of the separation is precisely the one which occurred on 9 August 2007, when amid market tensions, it was decided both to maintain the rates unchanged and to intervene on a substantial scale to satisfy the banks’ demand for liquidity, with a € billion operation. And the same separation has been continued in all the months since then. That the decision to reduce interest rates in March to 1.5% was justified is, I believe, evident from the growth and inflation estimates published at that time. I remember the ECB staff projections were pointing to euro area GDP growth for 2009 and 2010 being equal to -2.7% and 0.0% and inflation of 0.5% and 1.1% respectively. Also taking into account the relevant horizon for monetary policy, between one and two years ahead, an interest rate of 2%  2  “Three questions on monetary policy easing”, University of Ancona, 6 March 2009 (available at www.ecb.europa.eu). BIS Review 82/2009  3  seemed excessive, also considering the downside risks to growth that the ECB’s Governing Council had signalled and that they duly manifested themselves. Indeed, the projections were again revised in early June, and the cut in the official interest rate to 1% decided in May is consistent with that revision. The objective of the decisions to supply liquidity to the banking system was not to “rescue the banks” but to ensure the continued functioning of the financial market, starting with its base, i.e. the money market.
Another consequence of the new economy - perhaps the least controversial - is the direct effect on inflation from the steep price fall for IT-related products, which are not a negligible item in the CPI basket. The falling prices are explained in turn by the very strong productivity growth and high rate of innovations in this product area. The result may be what is commonly known as a positive price shock, which in many respects resembles the effects of a marked price fall for some other specific CPI component. So far I have discussed the monetary policy implications solely in terms of a notional new economy’s consequences for supply. New techniques and strong productivity growth leave their mark on profit  3  BIS Review 18/2000  expectations and capital formation, for example, and thereby add to the forces that are raising potential growth. With rising share prices, however, increased household wealth adds to demand. This raises questions to do with dynamic aspects. One risk is that demand grows faster than supply despite an improvement in potential output. That could lead to stronger price pressure and accordingly motivate a tighter monetary stance in the traditional way. Another risk is that investment activity becomes unduly optimistic and leads to financial imbalances. This problem is more difficult to handle in monetary policy’s normal analytical framework, where undesirable changes in price pressure are parried with the interest rate.

(2017) ”Designing New Money The Policy Trilemma of Central Bank Digital Currency”. CBS Working Paper, June 2017, and Bordo, M. and Levin, A. (2017) ”Central Bank Digital Currency and the Future of Monetary Policy”. Economics Working Paper 17104 Hoover Institution. 29 The banks would still have access to central bank money as they have reserves at the Riksbank. 11 [15]  An e-krona system could work for the instant settlement of payments around the clock. We are also analysing the possibility of getting certain parts of it to work off-line. This could turn out to be important, not least in a crisis situation. In addition, there exists a risk for cyberattacks, which may increase in the future. I consider that Sweden’s preparedness will be weakened if, in a serious crisis or the event of war, we have not decided in advance how households and companies will pay for fuel, food and other necessities. Making it possible to make payments off-line may also be necessary to ensure that payments can be executed in all parts of the country. Any e-krona would also have to be designed bearing in mind that there are certain groups in society that presently experience problems with the disappearance of cash as, for various reasons, they find it difficult to use digital solutions. This may include older people, disabled people or people without access to bank cards for economic or other reasons.
In fact, the disconnection between the physical receipt of funds and the location of the financial institution may have a great impact on disintermediation among recipients. Assuming that receivers can exercise some control over the mode and location of receipt, the geographic proximity of a branch or the ability to pick up a remittance in an  2  BIS Review 16/2006  office (as required by Western Union) can determine an institution’s ability to compete in the remittance market of the Albania, not to mention the possibility of mobilizing savings from these new potential clients. Remittances can be a point entry for many remitters and their families to the formal financial system. Many emigrant families are either not familiarized with banks or have limited access with financial institutions. The Bank of Albania through its public communication strategy is aiming to bring the public closer to banking products and services, including transfers. No matter the small size of remittance amounts. Even those small shares left by recipient families in bank accounts could assist economic development as more funds will be available in banks to provide loan products to private sector. The same concern was initially expressed about public administration salaries. Now, this service is provided by the banking system, and we see the power of pooling small amounts.

For commercial banks, their ability to market additional value-added services, such as savings products, loans or other types of credit to remittance recipients, will require the achievement of a critical mass of customer acquisition, as well as a higher technology delivery mechanism, to bring down the average cost of the investment required to serve that client. Micro credit programs and qualitative improvements of banking infrastructure, concerted with introduction of new financial instruments will also help to attract more remittances. Promoting microfinance organizations as participants in remittances market, could offer certain advantages to the microfinance sector, to the government and to remittance recipients. The costs of this expansion would primarily fall to the regulatory and supervisory authorities. We already took an important step in bringing these institutions under the Bank of Albania supervision which we expect to improve their status in the market by enhancing the confidence of operating with them. Microfinance institutions are already providing small amount loans to the low income class. Their existing programs allow them to leverage their network and geographic reach to assist remittance senders and receivers in gaining access to low cost financial services, as well as access micro-saving and investment products. The third area of our efforts is to channel the workers’ remittances toward country’s development needs. The formalization is a necessary step but does not ensure the role of remittances as a developing instrument.
Denis Beau: What policy framework to help building innovation and growth into Europe’s capital market? Speech by Mr Denis Beau, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of France, at the AFME (The Association for Financial Markets in Europe) Annual Capital Markets Technology and Innovation Conference, Paris, 21 November 2019. * * * Ladies and Gentlemen, The past decades have clearly shown how innovation – in particular technological innovation – have brought new services, reduced barriers and contributed globally to progress and economic growth. However, innovation does not necessarily implies growth for everyone, everywhere. Innovation can weaken some actors, create imbalances and its long-term benefits for society may be, in some cases, uncertain. In addition, I would say that speaking solely about growth is not enough today, in the context in particular of climate change and lowering social mobility. Growth should be sustainable, inclusive and compatible with a necessary level of resilience. Here Central Bankers and Supervisors, in charge of financial stability, have a contribution to make. But what does that mean in the European context for the innovation and growth of our capital markets? My perspective on this rather complex issue is simple: we have to identify  clearly the challenges raised by innovation and be ready to adapt our policy framework if we want that innovation goes with sustainable, inclusive and resilient growth of the European financial market.

The employees of Norges Bank Investment Management can be proud of their expertise and their efforts on behalf of the fund, the Bank and the country. I am certain that they will do their utmost to succeed even better in the years to come. Thank you for your attention. 5/5  BIS central bankers' speeches
Only through a collaborative approach in the banking industry can “the whole be greater than the sum of its parts”, if I may echo the wise words of Aristotle. Transcending individual and institutional results for the collective good demands a special sort of person. A person who can surmount extreme inertia. A transformational leader. The foremost quality that distinguishes a transformational leader from others is the drive for more than just results. It is a leadership that is driven by virtue, with professionalism at the core. We should never forget that investment in human capital also means investment in future social capital. We should recognise that investments in social capital have long term consequences. The banking industry today stands strong and resilient because the generations before us had built a foundation of trust, nurtured over many years. Indeed, it takes many generations to build what we have today, but mere moments for this to crumble. It is now our turn to continue this legacy. Professionalism to my mind ought not to be a competitive advantage. Rather, it is the minimum expectation that should define the banking sector. Professionalism and trust are especially critical in an industry that is becoming highly complex. Exercising the right judgment calls and demonstrating the right behavioural traits, at all levels, demand more than just a competent banker. It needs the combination of competency, integrity and an unwavering sense of mission. In short, true professionalism. Closing remarks The presence of inertia in our lives is just one piece of the story.

Muhammad bin Ibrahim: Harnessing human capital investment and forward looking leadership Remarks by Mr Muhammad bin Ibrahim, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the launch of the Asian Banking School's Cambridge Summer School Programme, Kuala Lumpur, 18 April 2017. * * * I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Asian Banking School on the launch of the Cambridge Summer School programme. This is an exciting collaboration with Cambridge University, an institution synonymous with academic excellence and thought leadership. The advent of this programme represents yet another important milestone in the transformation journey on which we have collectively embarked, for both the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers and the Asian Banking School. Participants of this programme can look forward to being part of a landmark initiative that will provide vast opportunities to expand knowledge, experience and networks. Cambridge University is truly prestigious. Many ideas by scholars from this great institution have transformed entire professions, understanding and thinking. Some of the ideas resonate to this day. Over 300 years ago, Isaac Newton, a Cambridge University alumnus and one of the most brilliant scientists in generations, first introduced the law of inertia – “The tendency of an object to resist change”. While Newton’s principles referred to physical objects in motion, it is equally thought provoking when considered in other contexts, including the pace of change in the banking sector.