samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Peter Pang: Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation retail bond issues Opening remarks by Mr Peter Pang, Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Executive Director of the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited, at the Signing Ceremony for the Retail Bond Issue under the HKMC's Retail Bond Issuance Programme, Hong Kong, 1 September 2006. *  *  *  Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, On behalf of the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation, I welcome you all to this signing ceremony for the new retail bond to be offered to the public next Monday. Five years ago, in October 2001, the HKMC introduced a mechanism to offer retail bonds through placing banks. This move received very warm welcome from both the banking sector and retail investors. So far, we have issued eight retail bonds for a total amount of $ billion. Two major factors are behind the success of the HKMC's retail bond issues. First it is our strong credit rating. In fact, our credit rating has recently been upgraded by S&P’s to AA with stable outlook and by Moody's to Aa3 with positive outlook. Secondly, the HKMC meets the needs of retail investors through continual product innovation. On this occasion, we again bring some new features to our retail bond issuance. Apart from issuing two-year notes in Hong Kong Dollar and in US Dollar, we are introducing a new 10-year Hong Kong Dollar Zero Coupon Bond.

Banks may therefore have less incentive to monitor credit risk properly and may provide too many loans to non-profitable business. Over time, such misallocation of financial resources would undermine overall productivity and depress growth and employment. The third challenge is that protracted monetary accommodation may fuel bubbles in house prices and other asset markets. As the crisis has painfully demonstrated, the bursting of such bubbles inflicts large costs for the real economy. In this context, a natural question is whether monetary policy should be used actively to contain asset price booms and bubbles – a response known as “leaning against the wind”. Thanks to our monetary policy strategy, implicitly we do this to some extent. We focus on the medium-term horizon and take account of monetary developments in assessing risks to price stability. Having said that, let us be clear that changes in policy interest rates are normally not the first best instrument for addressing financial imbalances. They should be considered only under very special circumstances, for example when a widespread rise in asset prices threatens price stability in the euro area as a whole. In the absence of such imbalances relevant from a euro area perspective, the appropriate tools to counter imbalances in the financial sector and possible asset price misalignments are at the country level. To avoid the build-up of excessive risks in the financial system or housing markets, national authorities have appropriate tax and supervisory instruments at their disposal.
Gent Sejko: Albania's economic and financial developments in 2022 Address by Mr Gent Sejko, Governor of the Bank of Albania, presenting the Annual Report 2022 to the Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Finance, Tirana, 31 May 2023. *** Honourable Chair, Honourable Members of the Committee, I am pleased to be back before the EF Committee to present the Annual Report of the Bank of Albania for 2022. I consider the presentation of this Report, as well as the today's hearing, fundamental for the Bank of Albania's accountability relationship with the Parliament. Dear ladies and gentlemen, Meeting our mission and legal duties, realising the commitments in view of the mediumterm development strategy, and complying with the recommendations left by the Parliament of Albania for 2022, have been important objectives guiding the activity of the Bank of Albania throughout 2022. The Albanian economy has faced a wave of complex and unprecedented shocks in recent years. These shocks have tested the sustainability of the economic and financial balances of Albania, triggering serious challenges to Albanian businesses and households, in turn requiring fast and coordinated reaction from public authorities. Though it is still early to provide a final analysis of consequences from the war in Ukraine, I am pleased to see that the Albanian economy has displayed a high resilience against these shocks. This resilience has been shown, first, in the maintenance of a positive economic growth rate, and second, but no less important, in the preservation of overall economic and financial stability in the country.

In particular, wages in the private sector rose by an average rate of 12.2% in 2022. Lastly, allow me to point out that progress was also recorded in 2022 in terms of improvement in the stability of both foreign and public sector's balance sheets. In more concrete terms, Albanian exports grew by 42% in 2022, driven by a growth in tourism income, which opened the way for the reduction in both the trade deficit and the current account deficit of the country. The latter dropped to 6% of GDP in 2022 from 7.8% of GDP in 2021. Along with the rapid increase in foreign direct investments and the stability of domestic financial markets, they paved the way for a strengthening of the lek exchange rate over the year. Also, the budget deficit of Albania, according to fiscal data, dropped to 3.7% of GDP in 2022 from 4.6% of GDP in 2021. Public debt was reduced to 64.6% of GDP in 2022 from 74.5% in 2021, while public debt was reduced to 64.6% of GDP from 74.5%. This improvement reflected both an increased effect of the nominal base of revenues and the fiscal consolidating stance implemented throughout 2022. Honourable Members of Parliament, The Bank of Albania is confident that the normalisation of monetary policy is the right monetary policy stance, in compliance with our legal obligations and for the purposes of safeguarding the macroeconomic balances of Albania and for the sustainable and longterm growth of society's welfare.
Today, on the basis of a Progress Report, we have reviewed the advances of the banking industry against the objectives set by the Eurosystem and we have identified the outstanding issues that need quickly to be addressed. A press release on this topic will be issued later on today. The Progress Report will be available on the ECB’s website shortly. 3  BIS Review 74/2000

Asset quality in the banking sector have continued to improve, with the net impaired financing ratio as at end September 2010 at 2% while the loan loss coverage ratio is at 90%. The more favourable economic conditions and the positive outlook have also resulted in strong profits being recorded by the industry. While these developments affirm the underlying strength of the financial sector, there needs to be greater vigilance on potential risks to the system. The first relates to the rising level of household sector indebtedness. Debt accumulation by the household sector has expanded rapidly, during the three year period leading up to 2009. Increasing at an annual rate of 9.3%, household debts now account for 73% of GDP. While the household balance sheets at the present remain healthy, household debt above prudent and sustainable levels would become an area of concern. In addition, history has shown that excessive risk-taking practices by banking institutions that involve indiscriminate lending practices with inadequate regard to the aggregate debt obligations of borrowers would contribute to financial instability with its consequences not only on the financial system but also on the economy. This recent global financial crisis has shown that such irresponsible lending practices contributed to the build up of excessive leverage among households, and that this in turn sowed the seeds for negative consequences on both the financial system and real economy. Banks and insurers are, therefore, expected to observe prudent underwriting standards and responsible behaviours in their lending activities.
This relates to a different type of criticism that argues that the negative interest rate has not had any effect or even been counter-productive. The grounds for this criticism appear to be that inflation has not attained the target despite the repo rate being negative. This is of course true, but the question one should ask is how things would have looked if the Riksbank had not cut the rate as much as it did. Of course we can never know for certain, but it is difficult to see any convincing reasons why inflation would have been the same as it is now, or even higher, if the repo rate had stayed at zero. And in this context the risks of a very strong krona appreciation that needed to be dealt with during the spring of 2015 should be recalled. Unclear arguments regarding exchange rate and welfare Before I continue, I would like to say something about one type of criticism that has been common recently. It appears to be based on the idea that the exchange rate can be regarded as a measure of welfare and argues that “Swedes have become poorer” when the krona is weak, and vice versa. As the Riksbank's expansionary monetary policy is assumed to be an important explanation for the weak krona, the Riksbank is thus considered to contribute to this increased poverty. This is then taken as justification for saying that monetary policy is wrong. I have some difficulty in understanding this linking of the exchange rate to welfare.

ASEAN has one of the highest saving rate in the world at approximately 30% of GDP, or USD750 billion. Part of these savings could be recycled within the region and used to meet the investment needs of Myanmar. This includes the provision of sufficient housing, efficient public transportation and access to clean water and electricity. Central to this premise, is allowing the region’s financial resources to move more freely across borders. This is where financial integration will play a critical role, by opening new opportunities for trade and financial linkages and for our banking institutions to enhance their presence. Similar to the experiences of Malaysian banks in other ASEAN countries, it is our expectation that Maybank will play its part in the development and modernisation of Myanmar’s financial sector. This includes playing its expected role in promoting greater financial inclusion for the micro, small and medium enterprise segment, the most important component in developing an economy. Myanmar and Malaysia: Close and long-standing friendship The opening of Maybank’s Yangon branch is a testament of many things. It is a start of substantive bank linkages between our two countries. The flourishing socio-economic and commercial interlinkages between Malaysia and Myanmar is evidenced by the rise of crossborder trade and investment in recent years between the two economies. Malaysia’s total exports to Myanmar was over USD800 million in 2014, while imports stood at over USD160 million. Malaysia is also consistently one of the top 10 contributors to foreign direct investment in Myanmar.
A well-designed and balanced regulatory framework that commensurate and proportionate with the risks, structure and characteristics of the industry  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  is important to create an enabling market for MSB services. For example, in the case of Malaysia, an important strategy for keeping regulatory cost low is the introduction of the principal-agent arrangement. Under this arrangement, the principal provides support to the agent in the form of infrastructure, systems and control frameworks as well as ensuring compliance. This has preserved access and minimized dislocations for smaller players that were not able to meet higher regulatory expectations. Another important area is the need to have a strong and effective enforcement. Where an entity has failed to meet regulatory requirements, the consequences of regulatory sanctions must be clear and credibly enforced to deter abuses and instil a strong compliance culture. A strong incentive structure must be in place in which those who do not follow the rules are held accountable, and those that follow the rules are treated fairly, given the opportunities to further expand their scope of business and are not competitively disadvantaged. It should come as no surprise therefore that regulatory authorities are taking stronger enforcement actions – some of the strongest we have seen to date – against multi-national financial institutions for failures to implement effective AML/CFT controls. This reflects the desire of regulators to ensure that appropriate incentives are in fact in place to check abuse and safeguard financial channels from being used to advance criminal activity.

On that note, it gives me great pleasure to open the “Regional Conference on Money Services Business”. I wish you productive discussions over the next 2 and the half days. To our overseas guests, let me welcome you once again to Kuala Lumpur and I hope you will bring home pleasant memories of your brief stay here. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches
That said, much work still lies ahead to stimulate new intermediation mechanisms in order to diversify the funding of the economy when a single channel, such as the banking system, cannot adequately satisfy demand. The financing of small and medium-sized firms in the euro area is a case in point. In this regard, our new ABS purchase programme in the Eurosystem clearly aims to stimulate this nascent market in order to broaden the sources of  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  funding of medium-sized corporates that do not yet enjoy direct access to financial markets and to free space in banks’ balance sheets for financing the smaller SME’s . In an increasingly globalized world, the third session will try to reconcile central banking policy autonomy with international capital flows. Professor Hélène Rey will revisit her groundbreaking conjecture that, in spite of flexible exchange rates, the Mundell trilemma may actually boil down to a dilemma because of the Global Financial Cycle. True, globalization does not necessarily imply that spillovers cannot be limited. As an illustration, let me take the euro area: since our business cycle differs from that of the USA, the Eurosystem has been able to disconnect the whole yield curve from the expected rise in US interest rates. But the euro area is a large economy. By contrast, some emerging market economies (EMEs) have learnt the painful way how capital flows can destabilize their domestic financial systems.

This raises a series of questions such as: how to optimize the size and use of international reserves while combining them with multilateral tools? How to strengthen resilience and avoid financial protectionism which may hide behind macroprudential policies? Indeed EMEs have accumulated international reserves, developed local currency bond markets to avoid currency mismatches and resorted to macroprudential tools or even capital controls. Multilateral responses have also been enhanced. Here, I should mention the scaling up of global safety nets, including the diversification of IMF lending facilities, and closer cooperation between central banks, through extensive dialogue and the agreement on a number of international swap lines. Today’s Symposium will close with a Panel on the future of the policy mix that could help address many of the policy challenges mentioned earlier. In particular, while central banks have clearly played a pivotal role in the global policy mix in recent years, they cannot deal with all problems by themselves. In other words, questions asked to the Panel may include to what extent central banking can help governments buy time, and for how long they can bridge financing while waiting for structural reforms to bear fruit. Indeed, central banking cannot replace decisive structural reforms, which are necessary both for increasing aggregate supply and demand and enhancing our economies’ resilience to shocks. However, I shall not stand in for the Panel and will thus shortly conclude this introduction by welcoming in advance the fruitful sharing of experience to which all of you will contribute today.
Setting standards  Remarks given by Dave Ramsden, Deputy Governor for Markets and Banking ISO 20022 Conference, Bank of England 6 December 2018  With thanks to Carsten Jung, Amy Lee, Varun Paul, Neil Pearston, Cameron Penny, James Southgate and Tom Smith. 1  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  Welcome all to today’s ISO 20022 conference. ISO produces a lot of standards, but it’s those related to financial messaging, and in particular payments data which is what we’re here to talk about today. I’m going to open this event by talking a little more about why the Bank, along with Pay.UK and the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), is so keen to work with the payments industry to deliver this important change to create the conditions for the next generation of innovation in UK payments and internationally. To the Bank of England, data, and the ability to collect, process and interrogate them, is vital to its ongoing ability to deliver its mission. Careful analysis of economic data is a key input into the Monetary Policy Committee’s deliberations. The Bank collects large quantities of data from the firms it supervises; that lets us understand their businesses individually and collectively, and so underpins the decisions of the Financial Policy Committee and Prudential Regulation Authority. In my own area, Markets and Banking, financial market data are crucial for calibrating and managing our own operations and risk management.

The LEI has particular features: it is a unique identifier, requires annual verification, carries useful information about company structure, and is a globally recognised ISO standard. The Bank believes it has all the right ingredients to deliver much wider benefits for end users – raising efficiency, competition and productivity. Beyond the financial sector LEIs have the potential to be a transformative building block for the real economy.12 With the LEI as a critical building block, technology holds the promise of delivering efficiencies for end users of the financial system. Rapid identification will enable efficient know-your-customer (KYC) and on-boarding processes. Given the complexities of cross-border transactions, it could unlock substantial efficiencies for importers and exporters. And, it could one day enable a business to build up its own credit data file and use it to shop around for the best products, much like we do as individuals. Our work suggests that a widely recognised and unique digital identifier for all businesses is foundational to delivering that future vision. 11 Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, one of the key issues regulators had to tackle was the difficulty in unpicking the firm’s exposures, given the large number of distinct but interrelated legal entities that fell under the Lehman Brothers corporate umbrella. The LEI, a globally unique reference for each legal entity, recommended by the G20 and taken forward by the Financial Stability Board, was one solution to prevent recurrence of this problem.
In short, although there is no conclusive evidence that low or even negative rates have adversely affected the supply of bank credit to date, we cannot rule out the possibility that if rates remain at very low levels for a further – potentially extended – period, there could ultimately be certain negative consequences for the bank-based transmission of monetary policy. For this reason, the decisions adopted by the ECB Governing Council at its meeting of 12 September were accompanied by mitigating measures, such as the introduction of a two-tiered reserve remuneration system (to ensure that the negative deposit facility rate is not applied to part of the surplus liquidity held by banks). These measures are intended to soften the potential negative impact on banks’ profitability of the latest interest rate cut, and thus to ensure the effective transmission of monetary policy through this channel. Similarly, the reduction in the interest rate applicable to the third round of TLTRO operations and the increase in their maturities will cut the cost of banks’ liabilities. 2  See, for example, Rostagno, Altavilla, Carboni, Lemke, Motto, Saint-Guilhem and Yiangou (2019), forthcoming, or Hammermann et al. (2019), “Taking stock of the Eurosystem’s asset purchase programme after the end of net asset purchases”, ECB Economic Bulletin, 2/2019. 13/29  Lastly, allow me to refer briefly to the role of regulation.

The reward of an excellent work in an unknown domain is the 6900 students who have chosen to attend as an elective subject “Personal finance in your hands” published by the Bank of Albania. In cooperation with the Ministry of  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Education and Science, we are endeavouring to make this book available in every school and to each student with the ultimate goal for them to be educated financially and empowered to manage personal finance. Only in this academic year, high-school students in 36 districts of Albania chose this book as an elective subject, making us optimistic and forward-looking. We strongly believe that the today’s young generation will be the protagonists of tomorrow’s economic life. For this purpose, we need to make our utmost investment for their formation, in order to ensure not only their future, but also the country’s future. The youth are eager and capable to assimilate, process and convey information, habits, or new products in any field of life. They are the transmitters of innovation, the most energetic and progressive segment of the society. It is our moral, professional and institutional responsibility to invest for a qualitative education of the young generation. To us, enhancing financial literacy is crucial. A well-educated nation guarantees its country’s welfare and progress. Therefore, we have decided to choose the young generation as our strategic partner to realize this challenge. We believe in their idealism, positive energy and pure spirit.