samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kenneth Clarke, described them in the House of Commons on Wednesday of last week. As he said then "if EMU can be made to work it would eradicate exchange rate movements which can disrupt trade and have disrupted trade in our recent history. EMU would also reduce transaction costs, making it easier for smaller businesses to enter into and compete in the European market. The members of a strong euro zone could also expect to enjoy lower interest rates . . . countries with a history of devaluation or bursts of inflation pay a lasting premium in terms of higher interest rates, as we in Britain know only too well!" And in his response to the debate Gordon Brown, the Shadow Chancellor, said that he was in principle in favour of a single currency for the United Kingdom. So the attractions of EMU are well understood in Britain. They were in the minds of the architects of the Maastricht Treaty five years ago. But those architects also knew that the advantages would only be accessible to those countries whose economies were equipped to accept the disciplines which go alongside. If that were not true, then the EU would have discovered the economic equivalent of alchemy. We are convinced that if a single currency is to be a success, then all the participants must be satisfied that they can survive within the EMU disciplines in the long term, as well as the short.

Pablo Hernández de Cos: Graduation Ceremony - Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros Speech by Mr Pablo Hernández de Cos, Governor of the Bank of Spain and Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, at the Class 2020/2021 graduation ceremony, Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros (CEMFI), 1 July 2021. * * * Good afternoon class of 2021. Good afternoon dear colleagues and friends. It is a pleasure for me to participate in this graduation ceremony together with Juan José Fernández Muñoz, Coordinator of Studies and Programs of Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo, Samuel Bentolila, Director of the Master’s Programme, and Rafael Repullo, Director of CEMFI. I would especially like to thank Juan José Fernández Muñoz for being here today. The partnership with Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo, dating back to 2006, has been instrumental in improving our ability to attract excellent students and the quality of our graduate programme, and I am very grateful for this. The Master’s programme of the class graduating today was severely disrupted by the COVID19 pandemic. In early March 2020, just before the end of the second term of the programme, all teaching activities were moved online. During the summer of 2020 CEMFI made all the necessary investments and established a set of safety protocols to be able to go back to onsite teaching. These efforts paid off handsomely. Most courses this year were taught on-site, with a minimal incidence of COVID-19 and, fortunately, no serious cases at all.
Table 2: Baseline results on CET1 ratios (column 1) and lending (columns 2-4)  (1)  Mortgage lending flows (%) (2)  Credit card lending flows (%) (3)  0.066  -1.290  -2.530**  -14.310*  (0.867) Yes Yes Yes 794 0.324  (0.481) Yes Yes Yes 212 0.081  (0.013) Yes No Yes 75 0.336  (0.070) Yes Yes Yes 228 0.084  CET1 ratio (%)  Post-Covid x Dummy if below bottom quartile effective surplus Bank controls Bank FE Time FE No. of observations R2 (Within)  Non govt. guaranteed PNFC lending flows (%) (4)  Notes: ***/**/* indicate significance at the 1%, 5%, and 10% level respectively. P-values reported in brackets are based on bank clustered standard errors. All columns contain bank and time fixed effects, except column (3) which contains only time fixed effects  14  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches and @BoE_PressOffice  14

Third, putting our money where our mouth is: MAS committed $ million under the Financial Sector Technology & Innovation or FSTI Scheme: to attract financial institutions to set up their innovation labs in Singapore; to catalyse innovative solutions by financial institutions or FinTech firms; and to fund industry-wide infrastructure for inter-operability and seamless services. Five years have passed, and we have made good progress towards our vision of a Smart Financial Centre. Singapore is consistently ranked among the top three or five FinTech hubs in the world. We now host 40 innovation labs set up by global banks and insurers, compared to hardly any five years ago. These labs have embarked on close to 500 innovation projects. Two examples, just to give a flavour: DBS’ AI chatbot “JIM” that reviews resumes, collects applicants’ responses to pre-screening questions, and conducts psychometric profiling of candidates; and BNP Paribas’s digital advisory platform “BeAdvised” that provides recommendations to wealth management clients customised to their portfolio preferences. The innovation labs we have funded, have created 180 high value jobs. Approximately 60% of these jobs are held by Singaporeans. More than that, there is valuable learning and capability transfer, helping to build our local talent pool and pipeline for future leadership roles. Beyond the innovation labs, financial institutions have been employing many more people across a wide range of tech areas such as cloud computing, data science, blockchain/DLT, customer journey design, digital marketing and cybersecurity as they 2/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  undergo digital transformation.
After separating its retail activity in a ring-fenced bank, the group will need to meet several sets of prudential requirements; those for the ring-fenced bank, those for the group and those for any entities sitting outside the ring-fence. That means the PRA needs to set requirements – covering capital, liquidity, governance, and so on – for more entities within each banking group. More legal entities means more bank boards. The PRA will review the effectiveness of boards and how the different boards in a group interact with each other. We will supervise the transactions and interdependencies between members of the group, including any dedicated entities set up to provide services to ring-fenced banks, to ensure these are consistent with the objectives of ring-fencing. 7  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  7  We will be transparent in how we undertake our ring-fencing responsibilities. The PRA has recently set out its approach to supervision, including in respect of ring-fenced banks.7 We will also publish an annual assessment of ring-fencing. From next year, the PRA will report annually to Parliament on the steps the banks have taken to implement ring-fencing and their level of compliance. We will also assess the extent to which the new regime is meeting the aims set by Government. This complements the independent review of ring-fencing required by the legislation to be started before 2021.

When drafting this objective, the Government was clear that maintaining core services should be a central pillar of the PRA’s safety and soundness objective, and not an additional obligation. This means the PRA will apply its existing supervisory approach to meeting our ring-fencing responsibilities. We will use this approach to focus on the biggest risks to ring-fenced banks and the integrity of their ring-fences. Ring-fencing expands the scope of the requirements with which ring-fenced banks need to comply, and that the PRA needs to supervise. But it would be a mistake to believe that the aim of ring-fencing was to create ‘bullet-proof’ banks to which the PRA could apply a lighter-touch model of supervision. Ring-fenced banks – like all financial firms – will take risks, and those risks need to be managed and mitigated by the banks. The PRA’s risk-based approach to supervision also means that the PRA will continue to focus on those banks which pose the greatest risks to the financial system. This would include banks which sit outside of the ring-fences of banking groups where they are important providers of critical economic functions such as lending to large corporates or intermediating in financial markets. And ring-fencing has brought about the creation of additional legal entities within our banking groups which will need to be supervised and meet prudential requirements on an individual basis. Previously, a universal bank could carry out all of its activities within a single legal entity, and face one set of prudential requirements.
In this context, the Bank of Albania: reduced the policy rate to a historical low of 0.5%, in March 2020, and established the needed operational conditions to supply with sufficient liquidity to banks; provided the necessary regulatory relief and instructed banks to help enterprises and 1/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  households in difficulties, through the placement of a short-term moratorium on credit instalments as well as in the form of a targeted credit restructuring; temporary forfeited the commissions applied by banks on the use of electronic payment platforms and the fees applied on the interbank transactions costs for the payment systems AIPS and AECH operated by the BoA; last, we suspended the distribution of profit from commercial banks for 2020 to enable the maintaining of capital adequacy of the banking system. The stimulating measures undertaken by the Bank of Albania were coordinated with an augmented fiscal stimulus. Fiscal stimuli were in the form of tax relief and direct transfers to households and enterprises, whose income were affected by the closure of the activity and in the form of sovereign guarantees on loans to enterprises, aimed at minimising the negative effect from income and preserving the liquid position in their balance sheets. The simulating macro-economic policies helped in containing the impact of the pandemic on the real and financial sectors of Albania, and succeeded in safeguarding the macroeconomic stability uncompromised. The economic contraction, fall of employment and the damage in the financial balances of enterprises resulted lower than our initial projections.

We will, in any event, reassess the value of each portfolio component before making the transfer to the special purpose vehicle. The lowest valuation will be applied. To secure initial financing for the operation, we will obtain US dollars through a Dollar-SwissFranc swap with the Federal Reserve. Thereafter, we will turn to the market for refinancing. The SNB will therefore not incur any currency risk. Since the entire operation will be effected in US dollars, it will not affect the National Bank's monetary policy in any way. Reasons for operation This operation is nevertheless unprecedented with regard to the reasons for it. In carrying it out, we are making a contribution to an essential element of the Swiss financial system, at a time when financial markets have been in turmoil for some months now. A better functioning of the financial markets – in particular the banking sector – is essential so that our country will be able to weather the economic difficulties resulting from the anticipated global economic slowdown in the months ahead. It is therefore preferable that we go ahead with this operation now, in an orderly fashion, despite the fact that the markets have regained a certain degree of optimism in the past few days – rather than at a later point under potentially more adverse conditions. The Federal Council and the Swiss Federal Banking Commission have been kept abreast of the preparations underway and our negotiations with UBS. BIS Review 125/2008  1
The banks’ credit assessment procedure is not a static process. The major Swedish banks currently have well-functioning organisations, methods and systems for assessing loans and managing credit risk. Developments in financial theory and rapid advances in IT over the past decade have created new and improved conditions in this field, and the banks have made good use of this. As a borrower it is important to be aware that the individualisation in the modern credit granting process has also been taken up in the shaping of the new capital adequacy rules, where it will be possible to price loans more fairly. Why do we have capital adequacy rules? As the banks play such a central role in the payment system, and the costs of disturbances in the system and in the credit market would be very large and have to be borne not only by the borrowers and lenders, but by society as a whole, the banks have long been subject to scrutiny and oversight with regard to their risk-taking. Since 1988 we have had an international agreement, the Basel Accord on capital adequacy rules. This involves, in simple terms, regulations as to how much capital a bank must hold with regard to different borrower groups for each hundred krona it lends out. It is much more costly for the banks to finance themselves by holding their own capital than through borrowing, just as for other companies.

For this reason, it is in my opinion important that a review is made of the total complex of regulations governing the functioning of the housing market, in order to allow it to function better. From the Riksbank’s point of view, a higher potential growth means that demand in Sweden can be higher at the same time as price stability can be maintained. The credit granting process If the housing market can become more flexible, it will enable new construction where housing is most needed. These new investments will need to be financed. It is therefore important to be aware of the professionalisation of the credit granting process that has occurred within the financial institutions following the bank crisis. This is reinforced by the new capital adequacy rules that are being worked out. The modern credit granting process focuses more on the individual borrower’s cash flows. This individualisation means that the interest paid will to a greater extent reflect the market’s valuation of the profitability of the individual object, e.g. a particular property. Does the banks’ setting of interest rates vary between different borrowers and credit objects? How is credit granted today? How do the banks assess a loan application? I shall not explain these processes in detail, but outline the most important elements. Credit granting is part of the banks’ core business. It involves mediating savings to borrowers. As managers of our savings, the banks have always needed to be able to assess, measure and manage the risks inherent in these operations.
At the same time, we stated that we cannot specify an exact goal for employment because “the maximum level of employment is largely determined by nonmonetary factors that affect the structure and dynamics of the labor market” and that “change over time and may not be directly measurable.”7] In the aviary of monetary policy makers, I am considered a “hawk.” I respect the fact that the Congress of the United States has given the Federal Reserve a dual mandate of conducting monetary policy so as to have full employment and simultaneously maintain stable prices. I believe monetary policy is the principal determinant of long-term price stability. But I have long maintained that monetary policy is but one gear in the complicated gearbox that drives job creation. Education and other structural aspects of our economy condition the nation’s job-creating capacity; fiscal and regulatory policy, in turn, condition both the structure and dynamics of employment. I was delighted that the full committee recognized this and made it part of its official credo. In a world driven by rapid technological change and globalization, job-creating capital will flow not only to countries that conduct sound monetary policy but to places with the most welcoming, competitive tax and regulatory systems. This was underscored in a recent Harvard Business School (HBS) survey authored by Jan Rivkin and Michael Porter, two widely admired scholars on national competitiveness and economic development.

Lars Heikensten: Challenges for the Swedish fixed income market Speech by Mr Lars Heikensten, First Deputy Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank, at the RäntEvent, Modern Museum, Stockholm, 8 May 2001. *  *  *  The Swedish fixed income market has undergone a fantastic development over the past 20 years. This refers to both the volumes traded and the level of sophistication. However, the journey here has by no means been a simple one. At times, both profitability and activity have been quite low. Today the market is facing new challenges. Profitability appears to have fallen and with it both the number of players and the volumes traded. The risks are now also covered to a greater extent by Swedish players trading in, for instance, the German market. The Swedish fixed income market has thus lost ground, relative to other countries. It also appears to have lagged behind in the sense of technology. A year or so ago there was an attempt to introduce a new instrument, a Swedish fixed income future, with the aim of increasing the market's powers of attraction. This attempt did not live up to expectations, however. Today we are gathered here partly because of a new initiative, a platform for electronic fixed income trading. Let me start by saying a few words about the way I see the role of the Riksbank in this context. Our fundamental objectives are to safeguard price stability and promote a safe and efficient payment system.
That will create an incentive to price risk. We also need to be alive to artificial but potent incentives to take too much risk. What I have in mind here, for example, are the regimes or practices under which long-term asset managers (life companies and pension funds) end up targeting or even guaranteeing high nominal returns or, a separable issue, investing as herds. For example, it is said that public sector pension funds in the USA aim to achieve returns of around 8%.22 This kind of thing, which I would guess has global effects, distorts the appetite for risk in our capital markets, especially when current and expected policy rates are low. We need to get to the bottom of whether this materially fuels the Search for Yield, which is being talked about again by market participants in ways that remind me of 2003/04, when the markets reignited astonishingly quickly after the dotcom and telco debt blood bath. Separately, we need to have a richer understanding of the effects of relative-return performance measures on the dynamics of crucial debt and equity markets. These seem like badly neglected issues, of little interest to microregulators of fund managers or securities markets but, possibly of profound system-wide significance. My objective today is no more than to call for research on this. 21  See FSB (2011) “Shadow Banking: Scoping the Issues.

Other key developments that took place during the last five years included: yearly state expenditure rising up to Rls 2.6 trillion; decline in public debt to Rls 167 billion (10.2 percent of GDP); annual current account surplus averaging $ billion and increase of more than Rls 550 billion in bank assets. According to the World Bank Group report, the Kingdom has been ranked eleventh in the world and first in the East region in terms of doing business and provision of competitive environment in 2010. The development witnessed by the Kingdom during previous years has been comprehensive and broad-based. Vast number of development projects to modernize infrastructure, and improve facilities to provide water, electricity, health and educational services have been approved. Therefore, it is expected that strong growth of the Saudi economy will continue unabated and this will expand the financial sector in general and the insurance sector in particular. Dear Audience, Insurance companies play a key role for the development and stability of public and private sectors by providing opportunities to individuals and firms to improve their risk profiles and obtain compensation for losses incurred. It is for this reason that SAMA has been keen in regulating the insurance sector in accordance with the national and international standards and practices. SAMA ensures that all companies operating in the insurance industry comply with such standards and practices and work according to prescribed rules and regulations.
These are all ways to use inflation targeting in a world of larger shocks. The key point is that they have required careful adaptation of the approach to monetary policy – evidence that the world doesn’t and should not stand still. In conclusion, I have pointed to four important areas where monetary policymaking is having to adapt. Our decision-making has become more multi-dimensional, with decisions on policy setting and the set of tools that should be available. We should always keep these decisions separate in terms of signalling. Second, the challenge currently is to raise the rate of inflation to target in the midst of a huge shock. This is just as important and underlines the symmetrical nature of our framework. Third, responding to a shock of this scale has led to debate around what it means to be an independent policymaker. This debate is misplaced – the focus must be and always is on the inflation target, the outcome. Last, central banks’ approach to inflation targeting has had to be adapted in the face of the much larger shocks we have been experiencing: But, that is in the nature of effective policymaking. Thank you. I am grateful to Andy Haldane, Andrew Hauser, Michael Saunders, Jan Vlieghe, Silvana Tenreyro, Ben Broadbent, Richard Harrison, Karen Jude, Nick McLaren and Laura Wallis for their assistance in helping me prepare these remarks. 3/3  BIS central bankers' speeches

In 2001, close to 30 000 persons resident in Sweden were employed in Norway for all or part of the year. Swedes who have registered as residents in Norway come in addition. An increased supply of labour from new EU member states to Norwegian enterprises will result in a higher-than-normal increase in potential output for a period. Many of the foreign workers work for a shorter period in Norway without being employed in a Norwegian enterprise. Examples include foreign contractors and self-employed in the construction industry who carry out various building projects in Norway, as well as others who carry out other types of projects. Aker Kværner, for example, has contracted 300 consultants based in India to work on the Ormen Lange project in northwest Norway. An increase in the use of these short-term contracts will appear as an increase in Norway’s service imports, and increases the supply of goods and services without drawing on domestic resources. The latest Directorate of Labour figures show that seasonally adjusted unemployment was 3.4 per cent in October. Statistics Norway’s Labour Force Survey (LFS), however, presents a somewhat weaker picture of unemployment. Registered unemployment is on the decline in all regions. The fall in unemployment has been relatively moderate in Region Inland, although this is partly because the level of unemployment was already low. As I mentioned earlier, the reports from Norges Bank’s regional network provide important information for Norges Bank’s analysis of the Norwegian economy.