samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Øystein Olsen: Managing Norway’s oil wealth Speech by Mr Øystein Olsen, Governor of Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), at the “Desemberkonferansen” oil and gas conference, Kristiansund, 3 December 2015. *  *  *  Accompanying charts can be found on the Norges Bank’s website: Charts (PDF). Please note that the text below may differ slightly from the actual presentation. In 1969, on the day before Christmas Eve, Norway as a nation received the gift of the century: we struck oil! The Ekofisk oil field was the largest subsea oil field ever discovered. The discovery of oil was the start of an extraordinary era for the Norwegian economy. Chart: OECD countries’ per capita GDP in 1971 When the first oil was brought to the surface in 1971, income levels in Norway were low compared with other western countries. Chart: OECD countries’ per capita GDP in 2014 The picture has reversed since then. We have gradually caught up with the wealthiest nations. Measured by GDP per capita, Norway now ranks at the very top. It was established at an early stage that Norway’s oil and gas resources belong to the Norwegian people. The tax system and framework conditions for the petroleum industry were designed so that the large revenues from this sector would accrue to the state. The stage was set for greater prosperity, with prospects for growth in both public and private consumption. The discovery of oil in the North Sea generated a wealth of opportunity for Norwegian business and industry.

Chart: Change in market value since January 1998 So far, our nation has earned a solid return on its financial assets. The cumulative return on the GPFG since its inception amounts to over NOK 2 600 billion, equivalent to about a third of total GPFG capital at the end of 2014. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  Chart: Lower yields Over a third of the GPFG is invested in bonds. Real yields on high-grade government bonds provide a basis for the rate of return that can be expected ahead. In recent years, those yields have been close to zero. Low bond yields reflect global economic conditions: Governments, businesses and households are seeking to save more, while demand for safe investments has increased. Central banks’ substantial asset purchases are pushing in the same direction. However, low yields may also reflect modest expectations of economic growth further ahead. There is no return without risk. The GPFG features a very long investment horizon and a sizeable capacity to bear short-term risk. This is why the chosen allocation to equities is relatively high. It is also the reason why the GPFG has moved into real estate. The authorities have asked Norges Bank to assess whether the allocation to real assets should be increased. Any increase in the allocation to real assets will probably be at the expense of bonds. Chart: Spending of petroleum revenues almost level with revenues Petroleum revenue spending over the fiscal budget has increased since the turn of the millennium.
I want to take this opportunity to commend our banks, particularly those participating in the Comprehensive Assessment, as this was a very challenging year. The changes I just mentioned coincided with the new requirements and rules under the Comprehensive Assessment. I recognize that these changes may impact profitability in the short-term, but sound governance sets the stage for sustainably higher returns in the longer term. Banks are now subject to the single rule book and this calls for increased awareness and focus to meet these new challenges. This will reduce the overall risk in the financial system both in Malta and elsewhere. Going forward, there are other challenges that will need to be addressed by our financial system in order to further mitigate certain risks. In the aftermath of the sovereign debt crisis there is a heightened recognition that a more diversified investment portfolio would reduce the risk exposure related to the bank-sovereign nexus. Looking into the future, further diversification of our sovereign debt market may be warranted. It would be advisable if, going forward, stable alternative options are identified to complement current practice. Long-term placements with certain international wealth funds, for example, would ensure that government securities can have a more diversified investor base and possibly reduce the government’s borrowing costs at the same time.

Examples of such imbalances are highly volatile asset prices, fluctuations in the rate of price increases and a growing household debt ratio. Macroeconomic indicators accordingly play an important part not only in the assessment of future inflation but also in the analysis of payment system stability. Experience has shown that a balanced macroeconomic policy and stable prices reduce the risk of shocks that threaten financial stability. Analyses of these three aspects are presented twice a year in our Financial Market Report. The Riksbank is accountable for oversight and the Financial Supervisory Authority for supervision. This means that the Riksbank is primarily concerned with the development of a system or a market, while the FSA considers the situation in each institution as well as the system’s overall stability. But as the dividing line between these two functions is blurred in practice, it is important that these two authorities cooperate closely. Such cooperation is indeed a hallmark of our interaction, from senior management down to divisional staff. Note, therefore, that while oversight is an important Riksbank function, the direct supervision of Sweden’s financial system is not our concern. Our legislators have assigned the latter role to the Financial Supervisory Authority, which accordingly has the possibility of directly pointing to shortcomings in particular institutions. The Riksbank may nonetheless detect problems at an early stage because they are likely to leave their mark on the payment system, which is the Riksbank’s concern.
12.04.2021  The ECB monetary policy response to the pandemic crisis* 1st Ibero-American Central Bank Conference/Banco de España and IberoAmerican General Secretariat Pablo Hernández de Cos Governor of the Banco de España  *English translation of the original speech in Spanish  Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen (or good morning to those joining us from the other side of the Atlantic). It is a source of great personal satisfaction to welcome you to this 1st Ibero-American Central Bank Conference. For the Banco de España it is an honour to have jointly organised it with the Ibero-American General Secretariat, and I would first like to thank their SecretaryGeneral, Rebeca Grynspan, for her resolve in bringing this initiative to fruition. On 21 April the stage is set for the 27th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, an established forum for dialogue, coordination and cooperation at the highest level between the 22 countries making up the Ibero-American community. Within the framework of the Summit, this meeting today seeks to contribute to the debate relating to the functions proper to central banks. In this connection we will not be starting from scratch, as there is a long-standing tradition of dialogue and cooperation between the Latin American and Caribbean monetary authorities (a somewhat more extensive geographical area than the strictly Ibero-American space), pursued mainly under the auspices of CEMLA (the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies), which will be celebrating 70 years of existence in 2022.

Against this background, we stressed last March that we would use the flexibility of our PEPP to increase purchases in the following months, with the aim of preserving favourable financing conditions and thus preventing a tightening of these conditions that is inconsistent with countering the downward impact of the crisis on the inflation path. A fourth aspect worth highlighting is that of the complementarity of the ECB’s action to that taken by the fiscal and prudential authorities. We all concur that fiscal policy should be the first line of defence against this crisis. It has the most suitable instruments for mitigating the effects of the crisis on households and firms, in particular in a setting in which these effects are proving uneven and of uncertain duration. That said, the monetary policy decisions adopted by the ECB, and especially those relating to the PEPP, are particularly significant from this perspective. Indeed, they have provided the fiscal authorities with space to extend and maintain their support measures for the economy. Hence, net asset purchases under the PEPP in 2020 have risen to an amount equivalent to over 90% of the euro area countries’ net public financing needs that same 5  year (and almost 30% of gross needs), according to preliminary estimates. This is particularly important in countries such as Spain which, as I mentioned, has been particularly affected by the COVID-19 crisis and whose initial deficit and public debt levels were high.
It is held by depository institutions as bank reserves or by individuals in the form of paper currency. Demand for central bank money is driven by many fundamental factors, including the settlement  1/5  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  of both retail and wholesale transactions and its role as a store of value. In addition to these factors, which are likely familiar to any of you who have studied monetary economics, demand for the U.S. dollar is also driven by international factors owing to the role of the dollar in the global economy. In fact, while precise estimates are challenging to come by, available data suggests that more than half of all dollars in circulation may be held outside the United States. 5 As a result, innovation related to money provided by the Federal Reserve will have impacts that extend far beyond U.S. borders. A U.S. CBDC – a digital form of the U.S. dollar that is a direct liability of the Federal Reserve– has the potential to offer significant benefits. It could enable a payment system that is more efficient, provide a foundation for further technological innovation, and facilitate faster cross-border transactions. It could promote financial inclusion and equity by enabling access for a broad set of consumers and foster economic growth and stability. In order to fully realize benefits such as these, a digital dollar would need to be thoughtfully designed and implemented.

The results of this appropriate policy mix, which placed the burden of the response to the crisis on the shoulders of the SNB, can be seen in the remarkable accounts of the Swiss general government: public surpluses in both 2009 and 2010 (+0.8% and +0.2% relative to GDP, respectively) and a reduction of the debt level to less than 40% of GDP.11 One reason for the misperception is probably the view, propagated by the academic literature on the subject, that central bank interventions in foreign exchange markets are geared to achieving an exchange rate target and that they are generally unsuccessful at doing so. As has been repeatedly emphasised, this was not the objective for the SNB in 2009–2010.12 The SNB’s objective was to provide appropriate monetary conditions to the Swiss economy. A given exchange rate level in that context may be maintained for a limited time period, but it is subject to review as macroeconomic conditions evolve. And as the SNB’s experience in 2009 demonstrates (illustrated in Chart 7), influencing the exchange rate level temporarily is feasible and makes sense at the zero lower bound when the traditional monetary policy instrument is exhausted. III. Conclusion: how to judge whether interventions were successful? All actions by the SNB have to be considered in the light of its mandate. The primary goal is to ensure price stability, while taking due account of the overall economic situation. In this way monetary policy contributes to creating an environment that fosters prosperity and economic growth.
As creativity dissipates, so does the ability to connect related occurrences. In the next 20 years, we will need simultaneously to perform repeatable processes and to think innovatively. We will need to continue to build the routines and repeatable processes. Yet, we will also need to be sufficiently flexible to see around corners, to where new problems are  3  Remarks of the Honorable Edward M. Kennedy, U.S. Sentencing Commission, Symposium Proceedings: “Corporate Crime in America: Strengthening the ‘Good Citizen’ Corporation,” at 120 (1995). 4  George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah: In the Beginning, act 1, Selected Plays with Prefaces, vol. 2, at 7 (1949). 5  A survey sponsored by the Ethics Resource Center from 2011 “shows that employees in companies with effective, meaningful codes of conduct and programs... witness fewer incidents of misconduct, and are far more likely to report misconduct when observed.” Ethics Resource Center, supra note 2, at 2. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  emerging, and new risks to our franchises are developing. This is what it will take to be successful at the next level. 5. Attention at the top – developing protocols for escalation  I commend Fordham for focusing this symposium on compliance and governance. They are related and intertwined. The four items discussed all relate to compliance. My last item touches on governance. As I speak with chief ethics and compliance officers, a regular topic of conversation is conflict with the business leaders who own the risk.

Thomas C Baxter: Compliance – some thoughts about reaching the next level Remarks by Mr Thomas C Baxter, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, at the Fordham Journal of Corporate Counsel & Financial Law Symposium, Fordham Law School, New York City, 9 February 2015. *  *  *  These remarks are personal and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, or any component of the Federal Reserve System. Introduction Let me begin by thanking Professor Sean Griffith, the director of the Corporate Law Center, and Robert Lyons, editor of the Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law, for inviting me to participate in this symposium about corporate compliance and corporate governance. Let me also thank Fordham Law School for hosting the symposium. I would also like to recognize a colleague who is with us today. He is Martin Grant, who is the New York Fed’s chief ethics and compliance officer. I have had the privilege of working with Martin for the last 25 years, and much of what I have learned about compliance I have learned from him. In the space sometimes labeled compliance, we have come a very long way in a relatively short time. In about 20 years, compliance has transformed from a nice idea to an important component of most major corporations. This is especially true in the highly regulated industries, including the industry where I have made my career, financial services.
Our view is that the price pressures will be transient – demand will shift back from goods to services, global supply  The hard yards ‐ speech by Andrew Bailey | Bank of England  Page 3  chains are likely to repair themselves, and many commodity prices have demonstrated mean reverting tendencies over time. But, the pressures are very much still with us, and there is still we believe pass-through to retail prices to come, and manufacturers’ output prices are still rising rapidly. Added to that is the uncertainty around how the labour market puzzle resolves itself, and how that will affect employment and earnings. Meanwhile, just to remind, the recovery is weakening. A lot therefore turns on how effectively supply capacity is rebuilt and over what time, and how the labour market evolves. These are truly hard yards. For most of the rest of my time, I am going to turn to the setting of monetary policy. Monetary and fiscal policy have operated independently but consistently – unsurprisingly I would emphasise – to provide the bridge through Covid, supported I should add by the stability of the financial system and macroprudential policy. We have had to rely on asset purchases to do a lot of the work because of the proximity of interest rates to the lower bound. There is plenty of debate around QE, some parts of that debate are better founded than others.

As I mentioned earlier, we are seeing currently a much greater dispersion of wage settlements. What if this is the beginning of a more far-reaching structural change in the economy which alters relative pay across occupations? To be clear, I am making no prediction here, but rather asking the question in the context of monetary policy. The first thing to say is that such changes do happen. Since the 1980s, we have seen a structural increase in the pay gap between higher and lower earners. We have also seen more structural changes in retirement ages over a longer time. So, structural changes can happen. It is not the job of monetary policy to prevent such changes, but rather to ensure that they do not have negative consequences for monetary stability, such as dislodging inflation expectations. On this point, it is worth remembering that an important reason why we have a positive rather than zero inflation target is to enable such changes in relative earnings to happen in a world of downward nominal wage rigidities. I started by quoting Friedman and Schwartz, and so I will end by doing the same. They emphasised the need to distinguish a change in price (or wage) levels from a persistent increase in the rate of change[3]. In my view, drawing this distinction is a crucial issue that we will be dealing with for some time. And of course, since it involves predictions of the future, for policymakers the task will not be easy.
The RM151 million project is a milestone achievement, being the first large-scale commercial development project on a waqf land in the country. Another important aspect in professionalising waqf management is instilling good governance. It is unfortunate that management of waqf has had some governance challenges. Efforts must be directed at strengthening its governance and management. Adequate internal controls have to be put in place, including risk management, internal and external audits, and compliance systems. Its standards of disclosure and transparency need to be at par with those of modern finance or of endowments in advanced economies. For a start, waqf authorities should provide high-quality disclosure and reporting of waqf activities to instil trust and confidence among the contributors and wider stakeholders. Contributors want to know where their contributions are going and how they are being spent. In this regard, the Waqf Fund collaboration between Islamic banks and the State Islamic Religious Councils provides a good mechanism for the financial sector to lend its expertise and share best practices on good governance and transparency practices in managing fund. Under the initiative, the Code of Governance and Transparency of Waqf Fund will be issued by AIBIM. This will act as guidance for more efficient and effective management of waqf and with higher governance and transparency practices, thus bringing waqf to the next level. Conclusion Waqf has played a significant socioeconomic role throughout history. Exciting potential lies within waqf, even today.

Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula: Technological developments in Zambia and the surrounding region Official opening speech by Dr Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula, Deputy Governor – Administration, Bank of Zambia, at the SADC Central Banks IT Forum 2008 Annual Conference, Livingstone, 3-7 March 2008. *  *  *  Protocol • The Chairman of the SADC ICT Forum, Mr Paulo Maculuve • The ICT Directors from the SADC Central Banks • Mrs. Esselina Macome (Dr), General Manager and Board Member, Banco de Moçambique • The ICT members of staff from SADC Central Banks represented here • Other members of staff from SADC Central Bank represented here • Representatives of Hardware and Software Suppliers • Members of the Press • Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen On behalf of the Bank of Zambia Governor, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to you all to the “SADC Central Banks IT forum 2008 Annual conference”. To our colleagues from outside Zambia, I wish to extend a special welcome to you to Zambia, and in particular to Livingstone, our tourist capital especially at this time of the year. Like the rest of Zambia, Livingstone is a city of tranquility with an easy-going African charm. Apart from the famous Victoria Falls, other tourist spots include the Mukuni Cultural Village a well stocked curio market, among the many other attractions. I therefore urge you to find time or indeed stay an extra day or more to sample this special menu that Livingstone can offer.
But, from experience, we know that some uninsured, unsecured liabilities are not as reliably loss absorbing in resolution as others and, in practice, it has been difficult to break into the senior class. In part this is due to an absence of legal powers to facilitate this – and the BRRD addresses that problem. But in part it is because of the potential adverse consequences of taking resolution action within a class which includes liabilities that it is difficult to bail-in and where, although we have the power to exercise discretion in exceptional circumstances, it is undesirable and legally risky to rely on this discretion. Just as we require G-SIBs to maintain high-quality, long-dated capital instruments that can reliably absorb losses in a going-concern in order to reduce the probability that they fail, so too we should require G-SIBs to maintain high-quality, long-dated liabilities that can reliably absorb losses in a gone-concern, in order to reduce the probability that they fail in a disorderly way. So, which liabilities are sufficiently reliably loss absorbing in resolution to count towards a firm’s GLAC? Well, any liability that meets the following conditions: •  First, it must be sufficiently likely that the liability will actually be there when the firm enters resolution. The BRRD requires that, in order to count toward MREL, liabilities must have a residual maturity of at least 12 months. •  Second, the liability must be within the scope of the relevant authority’s resolution tools.

•  Early termination: For resolution to work effectively, resolution authorities need to ensure that counterparties do not use entry into resolution of a firm as grounds for closing out derivatives and other contracts. Disorderly close out could generate exactly the adverse impact of failure on the broader system that resolution is intended to avoid. For that reason, powers to apply a stay on contract terminations and cross defaults are part of the Key Attributes. This power is included in the BRRD, along with to apply a stay power in recognition so that resolution actions taken by non-EU resolution authorities can be enforced within the EU. There are also provisions in the BRRD that will give resolution authorities the power to impose requirements that where EU firms are operating outside the EU, in the absence of a recognition power in the host regime, their financial contracts include terms that ensure the actions of the home resolution authority are enforceable 3. 2  BRRD article 32. 3  BRRD article 55. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  •  Bail-in: So to the bail-in where again the KAs and the BRRD are aligned 4. The most important thing to note here is that bail-in must respect the creditor hierarchy. Under BRRD, a small number of liabilities are excluded from bail-in – for example those with an original maturity of less than seven days, and in exceptional circumstances some additional liabilities may be excluded – for example in order to maintain continuity in critical functions.