samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
In addition to the monetary policy decisions and revisions to regulations that govern the activity of the banking sector, other important decisions include: (i) approval of the policy and measures for increasing the use of the national currency in the activity of banks; (ii) approval of the policy for the oversight of payment and settlement systems;(iii) approval of the accounting policy in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards; and, approval of the Medium-term Development Strategy of the Bank of Albania for 2019–2021. The strategy upheld the existing mission, vision, and values and updated the list of duties for fulfilling them. Beyond the realisation of the legal objectives of the Bank, the Supervisory Council has monitored continuously the governance of the institution and has worked towards its improvement. As the body responsible for the financial reporting and internal audit system, the Council has been informed regularly, by internal and external audit functions, on the compliance with the legislation and other acts that govern the activity of the institution. The Council has been informed also about the institution’s management policies and the use of financial assets for the realisation of the operational activity of the Bank of Albania. Information was presented regularly on the financial position and result of the Bank of Albania and the international reserve management. The internal audit has been monitored through the Audit Committee, established in 2015.

BIS Review 124/2008  17
During the Storting’s deliberations on Norges Bank’s activities, the following comment was made: “… Norges Bank had offered immediate support at a moment when it was less important to be the Bank’s director and more important to keep a cool head and a warm heart.” Norges Bank’s heart beat for the monetary system. Cold reason dictated that if the turbulence in the banking system was allowed to spread, the country’s economy would suffer a heavy blow. The year 1905 is regarded as a milestone in Norway’s history. But in the history of the monetary system, the year is almost a non-event, although Norges Bank noted some unrest through summer and autumn. There was a risk of war, and as the population braced for what might come, Norwegian banknotes, rather than gold, were in demand. In other words, the Norwegian currency was regarded as safe, reflecting the progress achieved in Norway in the shadow of the union with Sweden. When the union was dissolved, Norway stood on solid foundations with well-developed social institutions. Among these were a central bank of Norway and a monetary system that inspired confidence at home and abroad. With the German occupation of Norway in 1940, disorder returned to the monetary system. The occupying power needed money and could in practice simply commandeer the banknote printing press to meet its needs. But one thing was not seized – Norway’s gold reserves.

Like the privatisation of the distribution system, the facility at Arlanda is a part of the Riksbank’s efforts to streamline cash handling. The 19 Riksbank offices that conducted these operations 10 years ago will have been reduced to one by 2013. In the same period, the number of personnel will have been reduced from around 300 to approximately 10 people. 7  Payment Security Report Sweden 2008, VISA Europe. 8  I am talking about the Observatory for Payment Card Security (Observatoire de la sécurité des cartes de paiement) which since 2004 produces an annual report that gives an objective account of the state of the card industry in France. BIS Review 7/2010  5  The Riksbank also recently evaluated the use of cash in Sweden and concluded that the current Swedish banknote and coin series is becoming outdated. There is a need to further develop the security details. It may also be sensible to make the relatively heavy Swedish coins lighter. Another problem is that the level of coin circulation is low. A few years ago, every Swedish household had an average of SEK 850 in coins stored in a bowl, jar or money box. It is hardly likely that this figure is lower today. Partly on the basis of this evaluation, the Riksbank has decided that the 50-öre coin is no longer needed. It will therefore be withdrawn during the autumn and öre will thereafter only exist as a virtual arithmetical unit. I think it feels rather strange to imagine this virtual öre.
Ravi Menon: A competent, trusted, and clean financial centre Welcome address by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the WMI (Wealth Management Institute) Connection, Singapore, 27 October 2011. *  *  *  Mr Ng Kok Song, Chairman of the Wealth Management Institute, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good evening. I am delighted to join you tonight, to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the Wealth Management Institute (WMI). And I want to add a special word of congratulations to the 258 graduates who have recently completed WMI programmes ranging from the Master of Science in Wealth Management to the Advanced Wealth Management Programme. Explosive growth in Asian wealth Across the world, we are seeing strong growth in the creation of wealth.   Globally, the wealth held by high net worth individuals1 has increased by 63 percent over the last ten years.2    As at end-2010, there were nearly 11 million high net worth individuals, compared to 7 million ten years ago. Wealth is growing most rapidly in the Asia-Pacific region, accounting for more than half of the increase in global wealth last year.   There are 3.3 million high net worth individuals in the Asia-Pacific, 18 percent more than the pre-crisis peak. In fact, there are now more high net worth individuals in the Asia Pacific than in Europe and almost as many as in North America.

It has been described as the world’s first set of professional standards written for private banks by private banks. I am pleased that the group which formulated the Code has now organised itself as the Private Banking Industry Group, or “PBIG”. Besides overseeing the implementation of the Code, the PBIG will look at initiatives to grow the private banking industry in a sustainable manner and to enhance Singapore’s reputation as international responsible wealth management centre. It is co-chaired by the Chairman of Citi Private Bank Deepak Sharma and MAS Assistant Managing Director, Ng Nam Sin, signifying an industry-MAS collaborative effort. Another laudable example of industry-MAS collaboration is the Governance and Compliance Standing Committee under the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS). This Committee has been working closely with the industry and MAS to promote compliance with AML/CFT measures. They have organised seminars to raise awareness, conducted training programmes, and issued industry guidelines to level up AML/CFT standards. Conclusion Let me sum up. First, competence. The wealth management industry is growing rapidly amidst a tight labour market. Standards must not slip. We must maintain strong competencies. Let us commit to all new entrants to the industry going through the requisite industry certification before admission. Next, trust. The global financial crisis has given the financial industry a bad name. This need not be the case. We must bring back to the centre of finance the notion of ethics – doing the right thing for customers, dealing fairly, and acting with integrity at all times.
A bank can use the most sophisticated measurement tools in the world, but if it is poorly governed, it will be vulnerable to financial and operational weaknesses. The Basel Committee recognised this when it developed the qualifications that banks must meet in order to adopt the most advanced approaches under the first pillar of Basel II. The first pillar aligns minimum capital requirements more closely with banks’ actual underlying risks. Qualifying banks may also rely partly on their own measures of those risks, which will help to create economic incentives to improve those measures. This presumes, of course, that qualifying banks meet rigorous criteria related to the governance of their risk management frameworks. While much attention has been focused on the more complex quantitative aspects of the new framework, I believe the most important qualifying criteria are those that address how the bank’s risk management framework is governed. Effective risk controls are essential to the successful implementation of the new capital framework. Under Basel II, the board of directors is expected to establish the institution’s risk tolerances, policies, and code of conduct, and to ensure that a sufficiently strong risk control framework is in place. Senior management, in turn, is responsible for implementing the risk control framework set forth by the board. In addition, the framework sets out clear responsibilities for auditors and other quality control functions to ensure that a bank’s risk control framework is subject to effective independent review, oversight and validation.

-  Persons filling key roles should be expected to have the necessary skills and experience to carry out their tasks appropriately. The supervisor has a role in assessing the qualifications and integrity of these key personnel through fit and proper tests. 2  BIS Review 38/2005  -  Depending on the size and complexity of the bank, appropriate structures and control mechanisms such as strong internal audit, external audit and the oversight function of the board (directly or through supporting committees such as audit committees, risk committees, compensation committees etc) support the effective operation of a supervised bank. -  Other elements, such as the appointment of independent board members who can exercise objective judgement, are usually recognised as good practice. Basel II and corporate governance Let me turn now to the Basel II capital framework. I am asked to speak about Basel II quite frequently, but while I am often requested to talk about the mechanics and the impact of the new framework, I am seldom asked about its corporate governance aspects. This is unfortunate because, in my view, Basel II is fundamentally about better risk management anchored in sound corporate governance. With that in mind, I would like to focus now on three areas where I believe Basel II will contribute to more effective corporate governance. I will refer to these as the three C’s: controls, culture and clarity. Controls The first “C” is controls.
In trying to draw attention to this area, I have often said that while billions of dollars are spent in building highways and airports as part of the physical infrastructure, in order to move people around efficiently and safely, there is by comparison very little money spent in building the financial highways and airports to move money around efficiently and safely. As a result, the money does not move, at least not as much as one would like to see. Consequently, effective financial intermediation domestically and across economies in the region is inhibited, notwithstanding the rather attractive returns offered by the prosperity of this region. Financial markets remain fragmented along with geographical fragmentation of the region, and there is a lack of liquidity because the regional critical mass has not yet been formed. 55. Another common complaint about Asian financial markets is the inefficiency of settlement and clearing processes for money and financial products. As a result, the tendency is for many of the Asian economies to make use of established clearing and settlement systems in Europe and America. For example, Asian trading of Euro-yen paper has to be cleared and settled in European time. There is of course no logical answer to the question why trading of Asian paper by Asians cannot be settled and cleared in Asian time. I am often reminded that the Eurodollar and Eurobond market took off when Euroclear was established in the late 1960s.

The banking industry itself is required to carry out a process of re-assessment of its development objectives and models for the future, so as to ensure consistent and stable profits. In this regard, the managing structures of the banks are expected to undertake a  BIS Review 139/2009  5  process with the purpose of: a) re-assessing the development priorities; b) establishing a better balance regarding income sources and focus on cost control; c) enabling a higher specialization of their business and identify competitive priorities; d) achieving a better balance regarding the composition of their assets and liabilities according to the currency, maturity structure, etc. ; e) implementing more active policies to approach and maintain the public (customers) close to the institution; f) strengthening the internal audit structure and risks management and research capacities. Bank of Albania is now working with the goal that, within the needed time frame and after properly consulting with the financial industry, to support this process through the introduction of changes in the regulatory and supervisory framework. With this in mind, we shall aim at strengthening the internal mechanisms of the banking activity that incentivize its more controlled and balanced expansion, with adequate characteristics of liquidity and capitalization. At the same time, Bank of Albania shall assess the need for a new supervisory approach for the banks with systematic importance. The transparency of banking activity in its relationships with customers and public in general, shall remain at the centre of our supervisory activity.
The cost of clean technologies has decreased dramatically –both solar panels and batteries are around 80% cheaper than a decade ago, for instance – and the potential in terms of growth and job creation is also striking. In this regard, technology, society, regulation and public opinion are aligning to bring about a change towards a more sustainable economic model. Banks should, at the same time, nurture that change and exploit the business opportunities stemming from it. Nevertheless, we should be mindful of the potentially systemic implications that moving to a decarbonised economy entails, which could affect specific economic sectors. The official sector must assess this process carefully and drive its movement gradually if we wish to minimise any undesirable economic and social consequences. The goal is to achieve what has been dubbed “a fair transition”. Let me talk now about the supervisor’s side. What are we expecting from banks in relation to these risks? Well, in the short and medium term we would expect all banks to include the environmental dimension in their strategic approach, as well as in their risk analysis and monitoring. Banks must begin to fill data gaps, compiling all relevant information at least for new operations. From a methodological standpoint, banks should at least be able to understand the implications of environmental risk and how it may affect their business models, including it in their risk appetite frameworks, in a manner proportionate to their size and complexity.

This can be seen in chart 5, which shows the example of interest rate differentials between Germany and Switzerland for three-month, two-year, five-year and ten-year maturities. While interest rates on the money and capital markets declined as a result of negative interest, mortgage rates did not decrease to the same extent. Indeed, for mortgages with longer terms, rates are slightly higher than they were at the beginning of the year. The main reason for this divergence is that a major part of bank refinancing costs consists of interest paid on savings deposits, which has not fallen below zero as did interest rates on the money market. Because interest on savings deposits is significantly higher than the money market interest rate, bank interest margins came under pressure after they had hedged the interest rate risk associated with their mortgage business, and some mortgage rates were increased. Fears that negative interest might contribute to a significant decline in mortgage rates and, in turn, to stronger growth in mortgage lending have so far proved unfounded. For investors, by contrast, the current low interest rate environment means that the challenges have increased. It is even more difficult for them to find yield-bearing investments. I should emphasise, however, that this investment predicament is an international phenomenon and not limited to the Swiss franc alone. Conclusion I will now come to my concluding remarks. Initial experience has shown that the interest rate instrument is also effective in negative territory.
Although we already have a number of supervisory agreements (MOUs) in place with most supervisory authorities of home supervisors to banks of importance in Brazil, which will help smoothening such issues, a real sense of the problems and the need of effective co-operation will only be truly felt at the moment of validations, that is, after the whole process begins. The legal and regulatory framework will, of course, have to undergo a number of modifications before the implementation of the New Accord. The greatest legal obstacle to the implementation of the New Accord is that, currently, Brazilian supervisors are not allowed to impose differentiated capital requirements for individual banks (at present, 11% must be applied across the board to all institutions). Changes of a smaller scale will also be needed in some regulations in order to allow for more effective supervisory discretion. No significant problems are envisaged with respect to the implementation of Pillar III as far as quantitative disclosure is concerned, given that Brazilian banks already comply with a reasonable amount of quantitative disclosure requirements. However, Brazilian banks will have to improve a lot in terms of qualitative disclosure, which is something they are not particularly accustomed to do. In terms of measuring economic capital, no doubt banks are usually more capable of correctly determining their own needs than the supervisor via regulatory capital. Nevertheless, for this to work properly, banks must develop the culture of using economic capital and employ appropriate internal models.

In this sense, the use of IRB imposes a dramatic change in the supervisory approach. The judgemental capacity of supervisors will play an increasingly important role in examinations, which is why adequate training to carry out the validation of models and capital adequacy assessments will be of fundamental significance. Supervisors still have a lot of work to be done in order to implement Basel II. We understand that it is important to disclose, as soon as possible, an overview of our implementation plans to the industry while we internally make all the studies necessary to support the numerous decisions to be made. The next steps include, for example, the evaluation of simpler alternatives for smaller institutions (non-bank and small banking institutions, the definition and disclosure of aspects of national discretion, the definition of eligibility criteria for IRB, and, finally, the release of an “Advanced regulation notice” - open to public/industry comments, and a Country Quantitative Impact Study considering revised aspects of national discretion.
Besides the credit channel, these include, in particular, the interest rate channel, exchange rate channel and asset price channel. Page 10/16  may be undesirable excesses in certain segments of the credit market. This poses a risk for financial stability. When using the interest rate tool in such a situation, central banks can face a conflict of interest between the objectives of price stability and financial stability. On the one hand, they have to keep interest rates at an appropriate level in order to guarantee price stability. On the other hand, they have to closely monitor the impact of this policy on the credit cycle and financial stability. In the case of the SNB, contributing to the stability of the financial system is part of its statutory mandate. Let me explain this point using the current situation in Switzerland. Internationally, interest rates have followed a downward trend for many years and are currently at low levels. 20 In the case of Switzerland, this development caused the interest rate differential against other countries to narrow. Along with occasionally strong capital inflows during the financial crisis, this fall in the interest rate differential has led to substantial Swiss franc appreciation and a highly valued Swiss franc (cf. slide 18). In order to ensure price stability in Switzerland and to create appropriate monetary policy conditions in this environment, the SNB has had to keep interest rates low for several years now (cf. slide 19). A higher interest rate level domestically would result in further appreciation of the Swiss franc.

The theme of the AFI Forum this year, “Driving Policies for Optimal Impact”, underlines the need for us to have a better understanding of the interactions between the objectives and effects of financial inclusion, financial stability and integrity, and consumer protection policies. This need has become more pronounced with the recent global developments. Global prudential standards have been significantly strengthened and are increasingly applied to financial institutions in developing countries. This has heightened the practical challenges faced in implementing these standards in a socio-economic setting where promoting inclusive opportunity is an important objective. The same is also true with stronger standards to combat money laundering to safeguard the integrity of the financial system. In building a  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  financial system that is resilient against crises and abuse, we cannot neglect the socioeconomic impact of policies pursued. Our efforts to build a stronger and more stable financial system would also work to strengthen linkages between finance and development and not to weaken it. Consumer protection regulation is also being significantly strengthened in many countries following the global financial crisis. This has been driven in large part by the recognition that an effective consumer protection framework serves not only to protect individuals from excessive risk; it also has an important role in protecting the financial system from systemic risk.