samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
To meet this expectation, an FSB steering group has coordinated working groups for each of the major IBOR benchmarks. The mandates of these groups are to identify alternative rates and to begin transitioning to them. In 2014 the Federal Reserve convened the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) to plan the transition away from U.S. dollar LIBOR.8 The ARRC conducted two public roundtables, published a written consultation, and created an advisory group of end users across market sectors. The ARRC’s criteria for U.S. dollar LIBOR’s replacement included methodological quality, accountability, governance, and ease of implementation. In the end, the ARRC recommended a new rate that the New York Fed had proposed in cooperation with the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research.9 The new rate is called the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR). The New York Fed has published SOFR every day since early April of last year. 10 SOFR measures the cost of overnight borrowings through repo transactions collateralized with U.S. Treasury securities, which is the deepest and most liquid money market in the U.S. It is based on actual transactions and takes in more transactions than any other Treasury repo rate available, recently around a trillion dollars each day. SOFR is relevant to the cost of borrowing for a wide array of market participants, was constructed to meet the best practices for benchmarks set out by IOSCO, and is built to accommodate future market evolution.

In major advanced economies, stimuli from fiscal policies diminished. Moreover, in the second quarter in particular, international economic growth suffered from the effects of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The destruction of production plants for important intermediate goods for the electronics industry led to substantial supply problems worldwide, which resulted in production losses. Finally, the concerns about fiscal problems in many advanced economies increased. In particular, the risk that the European sovereign debt crisis might escalate hung like a sword of Damocles over the outlook for the entire international economy. The debt crisis did indeed escalate in the second half of the year. While, initially, it was only the small peripheral states of the euro area that encountered problems because of their high levels of debt, the loss of confidence increasingly affected the larger economies of Europe as well. At the same time, there was growing concern about the stability of European banks. Given these developments, uncertainty in financial markets increased sharply in the second half of the year. At the same time, the demand for safe-haven investments soared. As we all know, these investments include those in the Swiss franc. The Swiss currency had already gained in value in the second quarter. However, between July and the beginning of August, it appreciated very substantially within a very short period. In August 2011, the Swiss franc reached an all-time high against both the euro and the US dollar, in both nominal and real terms.
Forward-looking partnerships such as these create “win-win” opportunities for everyone involved, and help the local economy grow and prosper. Monroe Community College (MCC) also stands out with its significant workforce development initiatives. In fact, earlier this year Vice President Joe Biden – who was back in Rochester recently to announce the creation of a new manufacturing photonics hub – presented the college as a model for developing meaningful collaborations with employers to create job-training programs that align with current employment opportunities. MCC has taken a uniquely data driven approach to the development of tools and programs that work to address the most pressing workforce development needs in the greater Rochester area, and to provide diverse learners with clear paths to sustaining meaningful careers. For instance, the MCC Corporate College program has designed and delivered more than 100 new noncredit courses and provided education and training to more than 2,000 individuals. Additionally, the college has partnered with 128 employers, including CooperVision and Thermo Fisher Scientific, to deliver customized training to their employees. The Corporate College takes an innovative approach in providing workforce learning and development solutions informed by current labor market data and expert analysis. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  There is increased awareness, both locally and nationally, of a growing skills gap within industries. Supporting middle-skill occupations has become a critical theme for many in the business community and within the workforce development community. In response to this issue, MCC announced a new collaboration with JPMorgan Chase called the Middle-Skills Bridge Program.

They reinforce the case for preserving the flexibility to adjust policy in response to changing conditions. And they underscore the importance of being open about the greater level of uncertainty we face in understanding the forces at work on the trajectory of demand and inflation. Central banks, of course, need to be careful not to convey more certainty about what we know than we reasonably can know. Let me conclude by observing that a constellation of factors has aligned to produce the current combination of low world interest rates, low risk premia and large global imbalances. Most of these factors are outside the control of U.S. monetary policy, and we do not fully understand their implications for our economy and for policy. The process of global economic integration makes it ever more important that we work to improve our understanding of how this complex of global monetary arrangements affects our objectives. Thank you. 4  BIS Review 18/2006
The transposition of European Union Directive (PSD), which is considered as one of the most avant-garde pieces of legislation in this field, is a concrete initiative in this regard. The Bank of Albania, in collaboration with the experts of the World Bank and Bank of Italy, has prepared a draft-law, which will be subject to public discussions very soon. To support these initiatives, the Bank of Albania is analysing the possibility of innovative 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  developments in the systems we operate, such as: instant payment, which, based also on international experience, would reform the payment markets from the digitalisation point of view. ****** Dear participants, Given its very nature, this new dimension of payment systems development requires certainly broader cooperation by all the stakeholders. In this regard, the inter-institutional cooperation has resulted as very effective through the organisation and functioning of the National Payment Systems Committee. The Committee is a collegial advisory body, chaired by the Bank of Albania, and is making important steps forward toward reformation and modernisation of retail payment systems. Its vision for the future is “creating a contemporary and all-inclusive retail payments market,  supported by safe and efficient infrastructure, and a broad range of instruments and services that satisfy the needs of the users”. The realisation of this vision requires legal, regulatory and infrastructural developments.

This publication aims to enhance the knowledge and information about remittances in the Albanian market, and to convey messages in the context of needs for intervention and the potential of remittances for various actors in the economy. For all the issues addressed above, especially related with the commitment of various stakeholders in the modernisation of payment systems in Albania, I invite you to actively participate and contribute to this conference. Concluding, I would like to wish you fruitful conference proceedings and thank you for your participation and attention. 2/2  BIS central bankers' speeches
Such measures must also remain temporary in nature to avoid any further worsening of the structural deficit, and be aimed at items that generate a positive impact on long-term growth. In particular, projects conducted under the aegis of the NGEU European funds must contribute to sustaining activity in the short term. But, in turn, the guiding principles behind the selection of projects must look exclusively to maximising the effects of such projects on long-term growth. Lastly, the need to actively use budgetary policy to combat the economic consequences of the pandemic should not let us forget that Spanish public finances will emerge from this period heavily dented. It is pressing, in this respect, to design as soon as possible a detailed medium-term fiscal consolidation plan to be pursued as soon as the pandemic is behind us. By reducing the economy’s financial vulnerability, this plan should help place activity and employment on a sustained growth path and ease the costs of the crisis for the population groups most affected by it. Along with defining the specific annual objectives for the reduction of the structural budget deficit, the medium-term budgetary programme must set out the specific measures that will enable such objectives to be attained. A crucial factor in devising the programme should be the exhaustive examination of the revenue/expenditure structure, redefining it on the basis of the contribution of each of its different categories to the long-term growth of activity and employment.

Indeed, institutions such as the IMF, the OECD and the European Commission have testified as much in their forecasts. This would be the consequence of the conjunction of several factors. They include the relatively more unfavourable course of the pandemic in our country. Thus, for instance, at the height of the first wave, the number of daily deaths per 1,000,000 inhabitants stood at over 17 in Spain, compared with fewer than 14 in Italy, 9 in the Netherlands and 3 in Germany. Moreover, the second wave of the virus began in Spain almost two months before it did in the rest of the euro area. Compounding this was the effect of the greater stringency of the lockdown measures during the early stages of the pandemic in the spring. Lastly, the different structural aspects of the Spanish economy also come into play: the high temporary employment ratio in the labour market, the prevalence of SMEs in the productive system and the high weight of the so-called “social sectors” in GDP. These aspects make our economy particularly vulnerable to this shock. 7  While the temporary employment ratio in Spain averaged 25.2% over the past decade, it was below 14% in the other euro area countries. In 2019, moreover, 78% of firms in Spain had fewer than five employees, clearly higher than the figure of 69% for the euro area on average.
The one-cent euro coin is in fact equivalent to less than the Maltese five mils coin, a unit of such a low value that it is no longer in circulation. Property price inflation has finally started to slow down but the pace of construction activity has not – and there are no indications that it will this year. What are your forecasts? The Bank’s residential property price index indeed shows a marked deceleration from a peak of almost 20% in 2004 to 3% in the first quarter of this year. A major contributing factor is surely the marked increase in the supply of residential units, both in the shape of large up-market developments and of smaller apartment complexes. Given this situation of over supply, we expect property price inflation to remain low in 2007. At the same time, one should not overlook the fact that in a country where land is scarce and substitute locations do not represent a competitive alternative, property remains a popular component of investment portfolios because of the widespread anticipation of large capital gains. Developers, therefore, are willing, and indeed seem able, to hold on to vacant property in the expectation of a rebound in prices. This prevents prices from finding their true level. Reference is made in your Statement in the Bank’s Annual Report to the independence of the institution. Will this change with the entry into the euro area?

In this regard, some of the domestic banks have launched special deposit schemes to attract such funds. Those who already hold lira deposits, bonds and similar assets do not need to do anything. Such assets will be automatically converted into euro when the changeover takes place, and free of any charges. For those who own Maltese lira and euro assets that represent income previously not declared for income tax purposes, the recently launched Special Registration Scheme represents a timely opportunity for such persons to regularize their holdings in terms of the law. In summary, therefore, I would say that there is no advantage to be gained by converting Maltese lira assets into euro before the changeover date. From that date onwards, there will be an ample supply of euro notes and coin to satisfy the needs of the public. More importantly, euro currency will be provided at the official conversion rate without any changes or commissions. Still on the euro, do you think that people are as worried about inflation as they were? According to the Eurobarometer poll taken in September 2006, some 70% of Maltese respondents said they feared the euro would give rise to inflation and over 80% were afraid of abuses and cheating on prices. This fear is largely based on sometimes inaccurate reports in the local media of what happened in some of the countries that introduced the euro in 2002.
36  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  36  Chart 16: Mark-ups and the slope of the Phillips curve Slope of Phillips curve  0.3  0.2  0.1 Estimated increase in global mark-ups 0.0 1.0  1.2  1.4  1.6  1.8  2.0  Mark-up level Sources: De Loecker and Eeckhout (2018), Galí (2008) model and Bank calculations. Notes: Parametrisation such that 𝛽 = 0.99, 𝜃 = 2/3, 𝛼 = 1/3, 𝜑 = 𝜎 =1. Chart 17: Global mark-ups and real interest rates Mark up  Per cent 3.5  1  3 1.2  2.5 2  1.4 1.5 1  1.6  0.5 0  1.8 1980  1984  1988  1992  1996  2000  2004  2008  2012  2016  Laubach & Williams estimate of US natural rate of interest (LHS) Global mark-up (inverted, RHS) Sources: Updated estimates from Laubach and Williams (2003) (available online), De Loecker and Eeckhout (2018) and Bank calculations. Notes: Estimate of US natural rate of interest shown here uses annual averages of quarterly Laubach and Williams estimates. We would like to thank Jan De Loecker and Jan Eeckhout for kindly sharing their series of global mark-ups.

Many banks have rightly developed codes of ethics or business principles, but have all their traders absorbed their meaning? A first step to restore trust in markets might be to rely on traders’ intuitive understanding of what makes a true market. Consideration should be given to developing principles of fair markets, codes of conduct for specific markets, and even regulatory obligations within this framework. There should be clear consequences including professional ostracism for failing to meet these standards. The basic point is that all market participants, large and small, should recognise that market integrity is essential to fair financial capitalism. Confidence in the integrity of those markets needs to be reinforced alongside genuine competition to ensure that the needs of end customers are properly and effectively served. Doing so will reinforce the City’s welldeserved reputation as the world’s leading financial centre, with the most effective and efficient markets. Third, reforming compensation Dominic Barton and Mark Wiseman (2014) have detailed the need for long-term thinking by concentrating on shareholder incentives. A related lesson of the crisis was that compensation schemes that delivered large bonuses for short-term returns encouraged individuals to take on too much long-term and tail risk. In short, the present was overvalued and the future heavily discounted. To align better incentives with the long-term interests of the firm – and, more broadly, society – major changes are underway. At the request of G20 Leaders, the FSB has developed the principles for sound compensation practices to align incentives with long-term risks.
Those techniques are tried and tested in the US, and are the basis for resolutions of regular commercial banks in many other countries. They do not involve taxpayer solvency support. I am doubtful, however, whether those established techniques would work for a complex investment bank or a global commercial bank. Universal banks are typically run on an integrated basis, across functions and regions, so that capital can be reallocated easily as opportunities shift around. It would be a nightmare to execute over a weekend a split of any of these groups, with multiple entities across scores of countries, into those parts providing services that must be sustained at all costs and a remainder that could be wound down as part of a resolution. Moreover, this is not just a matter of critical versus not-so-critical services. Even if, contrary to my doubts, it were possible to execute that separation in the midst of a crisis, winding down a complex trading book would be hugely hazardous, with very nasty spillovers to the rest of the financial system. Quite separately, P&A techniques might also fall short in handling the failure of mediumsized commercial banks in highly concentrated banking systems. Crudely, there may be few or even no potential buyers of the deposit book in such circumstances. That is the background to the so-called ‘bailin’ technique which, within the official sector, takes its inspiration from the way insolvency practitioners effect a capital restructuring of distressed but viable non-financial firms – for example, Chapter XI in the US.

And at the other extreme are those who consider that the evidence available is not sufficiently conclusive as to do away with internal models, since, from their standpoint, the differences in RWAs would essentially be in response to the different levels of risk assumed under different business models. In our view at the Banco de España, risk sensitivity should continue to be at the heart of the capital framework: if a bank assumes more risk, more regulatory capital should be required of it. If this nexus were to disappear, there would then be a disconnect between the bank’s internal risk management and regulatory requirements; and perverse incentives might arise, potentially leading banks to take on greater risks than they could properly manage. That said, internal risk management models undoubtedly pose problems that need to be analysed and resolved. First, their growing complexity means there is a risk they may ultimately become black boxes accessible to only a handful of experts. Second, the elements integrated into models (such as probability of default or loss given default) are difficult to estimate, especially in certain cases characterised, for example, by the absence of sufficient data. And finally, given that the higher the risk calculated by the model, the greater the capital required, banks might be tempted to underestimate the risks in order to save on capital. To sum up, we believe it is necessary to continue to use the internal models, insofar as they provide for credible and consistent risk measurement.
The borrowing in the international markets by the financial institutions was also affected by increasing fiscal and current accounts deficits, arising due to wrong policies that created imbalances in the saving-consumption behavior of most important economic players in the economy, including the households. It is now a question, whether some of these issues could be addressed by a more powerful role of the monetary policy. Financial integration, among other things, has also contributed in the rapid expansion of the financial activity, and many financial institutions have become too big for a single country. This has occurred at a time when, for the same reason, the “de facto” power of regulation has shifted away from the local supervisors toward their host counterparties. Hence, despite a steady trend of convergence between financial legislation in many countries, there are still marked differences that, particularly at a crisis situation, create strong tensions between public authorities in different countries. A very strong effort by the public authorities in the world to address the abovementioned issues in order to improve the supervisory standards and superstructure is now underway. Both in the United States of America and in the European Union, the creation of special institutions is being envisaged, whose role will be to identify and control systemic risk through a different supervisory approach for financial institutions with systemic importance. At the same time, such financial institutions are expected to become subject of a more stringent regulatory framework in terms of capital and liquidity requirements, balance sheet composition and expansion, and governance relationships.

In general, in this process the Bank of Albania, shall consider the alternations that shall occur in the European standards, by supporting the strong collaboration with other central banks and supervisory authorities. In conclusion, let me point out that the ultimate goal of the new financial regulatory changes that is being identified in the international level is to provide the right incentives, which over time will ensure a more balanced, risk-averse and stable financial markets and institutions activity in the future. On a global and national level, such changes should be complemented by other more general economic measures that should enable an adjustment process to ensure a better alignment of asset and liabilities in the balance sheets of the various economic agents. All this should be achieved, as we still want the social benefits of economic and financial integration. This means the path ahead will witness a continuous and challenging effort to find and strike a new and more appropriate balance between risk appetite and more stable returns by the economic agents, and between short-term national concerns and long-term regional economic and political integration objectives. Once again, I wish to the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo, to its management and staff, a successful future! Thank you for your attention! 6  BIS Review 139/2009