samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
That be as it may, like in many other developing countries the financial sector in Zambia still faces a number of challenges. The Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) Report of 2002 highlighted a number of these including limited access to financial services by the rural and peri-urban population and doubtful sustainability of financial services in Zambia. In light of these findings, and in recognition of the strategic importance of the development of the financial sector in contributing to sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction, the Government of the republic of Zambia developed and launched the Financial Sector Development Plan (FSDP) in 2004. The FSDP is a comprehensive five year strategy to build and strengthen the financial sector infrastructure to enable it to support economic diversification and sustainable growth. In addition, and in furtherance of the objectives of the FSDP, the BoZ Strategic Plan for 2008 – 2011 has made financial inclusion as one of its key strategic objectives. Under the FSDP two important studies, the FinScope™ Surveys of 2005 and 2007, on the demand for and supply of financial services in Zambia have been completed. These studies have augmented the earlier findings of the FSAP with respect to the key developmental challenges for the financial sector in Zambia.

At the same time, the SSM will develop its own more detailed supervision manual, which lays down the supervisory approach to be taken by the SSM including on off-site and on-site reviews, risk assessments and model validations. The ECB and the EBA are cooperating closely to ensure that these two projects are fully consistent. Here again, the existence of the SSM will greatly facilitate the work of the EBA, as all SSM members will naturally converge in their supervisory practices. Third, the conduct of stress tests. The Council Regulation requests the SSM to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the banks that the ECB will supervise directly. This will have two main building blocks. First, a balance sheet assessment, which is a point-in-time evaluation of the asset side of banks’ balance sheets. Second, a forward-looking assessment of individual banks’ capital positions and provisioning levels in the form of a stress test. This stress test, and future stress tests undertaken as part of the SSM’s regular supervisory functions, will be conducted in close cooperation with the EBA, in particular regarding the design and timing of the exercises. European Systemic Risk Board As regards interactions with the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), the activities of the SSM will have a clear systemic dimension and so cooperation between the SSM and ESRB will be essential.
The financial industry should also address any negative perceptions by having an effective communication strategy and ensuring swift response time to SME customers, as these are vital in maintaining the integrity and public image of financial institutions. Moving forward, it is imperative and almost inevitable for financial industry to undertake measures to advance financial literacy and capabilities of SME customers. The commitment to better serve the SME segment would reinforce the critical role of the financial industry in supporting the Government’s development agenda in a well-functioning financial system. CGC has demonstrated that efforts to assist underserved SMEs can be achieved in a financially sustainable manner through its suite of innovative financial products and services. Financial institutions should also explore strategic partnerships with adjacent industries such as telcos and fintechs to reduce market gaps and reliance on Government subsidies for the SMEs. Importantly, the financing ecosystem needs to be complemented with a comprehensive SME development ecosystem to nurture and elevate our SMEs towards greater size and competition. I hope today’s recognition and appreciation of FIs and CGC customers would spur both parties to become more innovative, resilient and progressive. My heartfelt congratulations to all the winners and may you continue to inspire and set benchmarks on SME financing landscape. 3/3  BIS central bankers' speeches

Distinguished participants, recent industry estimates indicate that Islamic finance is set to continue growing at an annual rate of about 15%. The increased trade between the subSaharan region and Islamic nations in the Middle East only reinforces our view that partnerships among the corporate players between the two regions will foster more developments in the area of Islamic finance. Ladies and gentlemen, the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) recognizes that the limited access to financial services and low number of products available to the different sectors of the economy has hindered the development potential of Zambia’s economy. There is need therefore, to revitalize the financial sector so that it meets the challenges of accelerated and sustained investments in key sectors of the economy. This can only be achieved where the financial system is able to improve its allocative efficiencies by providing appropriately designed products and services to all segments of the population like the Muslim community. Recent developments in the financial sector world-wide offer some encouragement that working together could extend the range and reach of financial services that are available to our people. Still a lot remains to be done to extend financial services to the majority of our people, particularly those that are economically active and to foster ongoing sustainability of our financial institutions. It is against this background that Bank of Zambia accepted your invitation to present the keynote address as a way of marking our commitment to ensuring that the financial system caters for all segments of the population.
Previous work by the Committee, embodied in a March 1996 report, recognized that settlement risk depends not only on the payments system infrastructure, but also on the way market participants use this infrastructure and manage their internal processes. A follow-up report was issued one week ago that applauded the progress made, while noting that there were further opportunities for private sector initiatives in reducing settlement risk. The central banks, of course, are ready to work closely with the private sector in achieving this goal. Closing Preventing future banking crises poses difficult issues for policymakers. Given the indispensable role that banks play in a nation’s economic well-being, all governments have found it important that financial institutions be subject to regulation or oversight. It is important to understand from the start, however, that there are limits to the supervisory process. Supervisors have limited ability, for example, to detect fraud. Most important, in a market-oriented banking system, bank directors and management must have the ability to set the bank’s overall course, to seek a BIS Review 64/1998  -6-  reasonable profit, and to innovate and experiment with new banking activities and products. In other words, supervision can not be so heavy-handed as to stifle competition and innovation. As such, the supervisory process has an inherent tension between the freedom banks need in order to earn reasonable profits and the latitude to take such large risks that their future could be endangered.

Eddie Yue: Developing local-currency bond markets in Asia Statement by Mr Eddie Yue, Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Head of the Delegation of Hong Kong, at the 45th Asian Development Bank Annual Meeting, Manila, 4 May 2012. *  *  *  I would like to thank the Government of the Philippines for hosting the 45th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). I would also like to congratulate ADB on the successful conclusion of the Tenth Replenishment of the Asian Development Fund (ADF XI), which would provide critical resources to ADB to further its work in poverty reduction in Asia. The global economy has shown signs of improvement in 2012 following a marked slowdown amid the intensification of the euro zone debt crisis in the latter part of last year. Nevertheless, significant downside risks remain, with the euro zone debt crisis yet to be fully resolved and rising oil prices adding further uncertainty to the recovery outlook. Asia has remained resilient so far, in large part attributable to the reforms taken by regional economies over the years to strengthen economic fundamentals, improve fiscal discipline and enhance the resilience of their financial systems since the Asia financial crisis. Nevertheless, the region is not immune from the lingering fragility in the global environment. To date, the deleveraging by European banks has not caused significant short-term credit tightening in Asia, with banks in the region and elsewhere having stepped in to fill the gap left by European banks.
Ardian Fullani: Economic and financial developments in Albania Speech by Mr Ardian Fullani, Governor of the Bank of Albania, at the presentation of the Bank of Albania’s Annual Report 2009 to the Albanian Parliament on 29 April 2010, published on 30 April 2010. *  *  *  Honourable Ms. Chairwoman, Dear deputies, It is a privilege to present to you today the Bank of Albania’s Annual Report for 2009. This Report, the key conclusions of which will be briefly reviewed in my speech today, makes a thorough and transparent analysis of economic and financial developments in Albania, and provides an overview of the Bank of Albania’s work to meet its legal obligations and institutional commitments. The year 2009 was a challenging year for the Albanian economy in all its dimensions. In response to the global economic and financial crisis, the following were put to the test during this year:   The country’s macroeconomic balances;    Our financial system’s stability;    The business models and the private sector’s financial sustainability; and    The analytical and responsive capacities of macroeconomic policies. In a broader setting, the shock that hit the Albanian economy in 2009 put the flexibility of Albania’s economic development model and its capacity to respond to a thoroughly transformed global environment to test. The global crisis provided a quick impact on the economic activity at home.

Dimitar Radev: Achieving the financial stability objective through macroprudential measures cannot be sustainable without understanding the financial cycle Opening remarks by Mr Dimitar Radev, Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, at the Conference "The Current Global and European Financial Cycle: Where Do We Stand and How Do We Move Forward? ", jointly organized by the Bulgarian National Bank and the Bank for International Settlements on the occasion of the 140th Anniversary of the Bulgarian National Bank, Sofia, 7-8 July 2019. * * * Dear colleagues, Distinguished guests, We are delighted to have you with us to participate and share in our joint BNB-BIS conference organized on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of the Bulgarian National Bank. I would like to extend my special thanks to the General Manager Agustín Carstens and the BIS for their support in organizing this event. This is only a latest example in decades of cooperation between our two institutions. The BNB is among the oldest central banks in the world, 13th by order of establishment1. Today’s conference, therefore, marks a long history of central banking in Bulgaria. Evolution of a central bank’s mandates A central bank is historically associated with the goal of keeping the national currency and prices stable. After the Great Depression of the 1930 s supervision has become a function entrusted to or taken away from central banks in cycles depending on crisis experiences. With respect to supervision as a central bank function, the 2007/2008 global crisis had two effects.
At the sector level, it is necessary to have an effective insolvency regime to ensure that nonviable companies can be wound up in an equitable manner before they have the chance to build up even further losses. However, liquidation should generally be a last resort and there should be an alternative to insolvency that allows distressed, but commercially viable, companies to survive as going concerns, thus preserving employment and productive capacity. This requires a framework that encourages negotiation and compromise between distressed borrowers and their creditors. The objective should be to agree a standstill on debt payments and a moratorium on legal proceedings to provide a breathing space during which negotiations on a debt restructuring can take place. In Hong Kong, the Association of Banks has issued non-statutory guidelines for the conduct of debt workouts. These are based on the so-called London Approach to workouts that was developed by the Bank of England. Other countries in the region have also used this as a model for dealing with corporate restructuring. The success of some of these schemes has yet to be proved, but I can say that the Hong Kong approach has generally worked well. The increase in the number of companies requiring financial assistance and the multiplicity of banks involved are however putting some strains on the system. Workouts are becoming more protracted and more difficult to arrange. This is partly because of the shortage of workout specialists already referred to, but also because banks do not always display the necessary spirit of cooperation.

The bad debt charge for our locally incorporated banks in respect of their Hong Kong business more than tripled in 1998, albeit from a low base. Non-performing loans (measured by those that have been classified as substandard, doubtful and loss) rose from around 2% at end-1997 to 7.3% at the end of last year. This is a sharp increase but it is important to put it into regional perspective. The equivalent figure for non-performing loans in Thailand at present is around 46%. The picture in Indonesia is even worse. Hong Kong has therefore fared better in respect of credit risk than its neighbours. It has no doubt been helped in this by the solid regulatory framework in Hong Kong and the infrastructure of business laws that makes it relatively easy to take and realize collateral and to put defaulting borrowers into liquidation. Banks are also free to carry on their business without political interference. I believe that Hong Kong has also benefited from its openness as a financial centre, though this can also have its drawbacks. Major international banks are allowed to play a full role in our banking system, including in many cases participating as full retail banks. This has allowed cross-fertilization of talent, systems and products between the local and foreign banks. Finally, another point in Hong Kong’s favour is that it had already gone through a banking crisis in the early 1980s, in which abuses such as connected lending had played a part.
We are the same people, speaking the same language and sharing the same customs, hence, there is no point for us to be held back by the absurd barriers of time. The completion of the new road and its stretch to the largest harbour in the country create the proper grounds to turn the Kukës town into an extraordinary transit point for passengers, goods, services, art and culture. Fourth, your district should make clever and great use of the presence of a university in this town. My call is just plain: invest in mobilizing a professional and specialized teaching team. Spend on education, on knowledge and the culture it produces. In this context, the local government could set financial stimuli. The final goal will be to establish a national educational centre, which serves to the local community living on both sides of the border. I honestly hope the future managers grow and be a product of this university. Fifth, I believe you should pay your utmost attention to the presentation and spreading out of information on the potentials your district has to offer. Pretending you possess something that is worth it is only one side of the coin. The other is how able you are to find buyers, to get them buy what you want to sell. In this context, the complete identification, regulation, presentation and promotion of these great potentials are of prime priority.

If a firm is easily resolvable as described, then the authorities may care less about the potential for recovery. That could be a matter left for the shareholders. The more difficult a resolution would be, the more interest the authorities have in removing any barriers to resolvability in advance. Failure is usually more problematic for banks than for other commercial firms. When a bank is known to be in trouble, its customers may withdraw funds quickly, creating a liquidity run that might spillover to similar institutions. That places an emphasis on speed of action. In 2009 the UK government introduced permanent legislation that enables banks to be resolved by the authorities, and designated the Bank of England as the UK resolution authority. For the EU as a whole, the Banking Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) took effect at the start of 2015, and brings European legislation on recovery and resolution into line with the FSB’s international standards. It requires there to be a resolution authority in every EU country and, amongst other things, specifies how decisions are made to put banks into resolution, how resolutions may be conducted, and what tools should be available to resolution authorities. But there is not yet a special resolution process for insurers. That remains on the wish-list for now. Effective resolution can be greatly enhanced if the authorities have prepared for the event, with the assistance of the firms concerned. The larger and more complex a firm, the more complex and challenging such planning is likely to be.
From 2006, growth is expected to slow gradually to, and eventually somewhat below, the level of growth in potential output. In Inflation Report 3/04, the output gap is projected to become clearly positive in the course of 2005 and to remain positive until the end of the projection period. Inflation is projected to show a marked increase over the next year. In the short run, the depreciation of the krone in 2003 will continue to exert upward pressure on imported consumer goods. We also assume that the pronounced fall in prices for some goods and services last autumn will to some extent be reversed. In the somewhat longer term, inflation will show a more gradual rise. Higher resource utilisation in the Norwegian economy will lead to somewhat higher wage growth and will also make it possible for enterprises to increase their operating margins. However, inflation will still be restrained by low external price impulses. The positive contributions from the exchange rate depreciation in 2003 will unwind in the course of spring 2005. The contribution from the exchange rate to inflation will then gradually become slightly negative. There are prospects that inflation will reach the inflation target towards the end of the projection period. There is uncertainty surrounding the projections. The projections are partly based on our analysis of relationships in the economy, the exchange rate assumption and the forward interest rate assumption. We can give some indication of the uncertainty surrounding the projections on the basis of historical deviations between projected and actual price developments.

This could in turn result in lower demand and lower commodity prices. High oil prices have mixed effects on the Norwegian economy. Lower demand abroad will have a negative impact on parts of the Norwegian economy. At the same time, domestic demand is normally stimulated by higher petroleum investment. The balance in the Norwegian foreign exchange market will not be affected to any appreciable extent. So far, the effects of high oil prices on developments in the real economy have been relatively limited. Credit developments in the past year have given ambiguous signals to our interest-rate setting. Growth in household debt is high. Enterprises have been reducing their debt for some time, but developments over the past months may suggest that this trend has been reversed. Norwegian enterprises and households borrow primarily at variable rates. Loans with no form of fixed rate agreement account for over 80 per cent of the value of loans to the household and enterprise sector. The current interest rate level is very low. Long-term investments cannot be made based on the assumption that this interest rate level will persist. According to money market expectations, the interest rate will eventually stabilise at close to 5½ per cent. This interest rate, plus a premium for banks’ margins, provides a more realistic indication of the interest rate level that will apply over the loan’s life than the variable interest rates prevailing today. Growth in the Norwegian economy is now solid. It appears that growth will also be high in 2005.
House prices and financial stability Households have been increasing their borrowing at a rapid rate for a fairly long time now. The rise in household debt has been accompanied by a fast upswing in prices in the house market. There have been no clear signs to date that this development has begun to moderate in earnest. In all likelihood, there is a limit to how long it can continue. The Riksbank’s assessment is also that the rate of increase will slow down in the coming years as interest rates rise. Developments in the property market, chiefly as regards commercial properties but also housing, play an important part in the Riksbank’s analysis of factors that affect the stability of the financial system. A central question when judging whether house price developments have the potential to pose a threat to financial stability is the extent to which they can be assumed to be driven by exaggerated optimism and speculation. If such driving forces are significant then there is a risk that households could have difficulty meeting their interest payments when interest rates rise; further, the downward adjustment in prices could be very dramatic when the lack of realism in estimates finally becomes evident. The combination of households’ payment difficulties and sharp falls in collateral values could potentially cause problems for the banks. However, this is unlikely to happen in Sweden for several reasons.

One is that house price developments in the country as a whole – as indicated by the analyses in the Financial Stability Report we published about a month ago – seem to be explained pretty well by normal underlying factors. These include of course the interest rate level, which for a relatively long period has been low. At the end of 1996, when house prices began to rise again after the crisis years, the average nominal mortgage rate for households was around 9 per cent. Today, it is approximately 4 per cent. Furthermore, households’ disposable incomes have grown firmly during this period. Another factor, of course, is the developments on the supply side, where construction of new homes has been very modest. This fell dramatically in conjunction with the crisis in the 1990s and has only begun to pick up in recent years. So it appears that the upswing in house prices has not been driven by general overoptimism among households and lenders. It might also be worth mentioning here that one reason why the elements of pure speculation probably are small is that Swedish households, unlike those in some other countries, mainly buy homes to live in and not as an investment. The risk of speculative price formation increases in countries where it is common to buy-to-let, with the investor waiting for the home to rise in value before realising a capital gain.