samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Branch closure is free as of last month and bank opening and closing time has been free for almost a year now. We are working on the product side, both credit and funding, to allow banks to be more free to offer customers better services. For good governance, no matter what you do and what you write, unless you make people who contradict the rules pay a price, no rules will work. We have therefore in the last couple of years prosecuted about 90 people for 49,000 million baht involving really 1.7 trillion baht of assets. We have recently ruled that directors of banks must devote their attention to the banks and may not be directors of more than three other companies. Some directors have already conformed even though it would not be legally sanctionable until we explicitly inform them individually, which we have not done. We are beginning the process of follow up to fully enforce these rules soon. We have also indicated that we would like to see banks, which are now large complicated places to run, have their directors devote their time to particular functions of the bank. We are also going to begin checking on this, but for sure with Siam Commercial Bank which I visited last week in order to discuss with them personally on their risk control procedures now have a Compensation Committee, and that is a good development different from the time when I was the director of that bank on the behalf of the Ministry of Finance.

In terms of transparency of letting people see what banks are doing with their deposits or their investment, or generally what banks are doing to the country even if they have no money in the bank, because this may well be important to them, we are having some difficulties since the old law was drafted with secrecy sort of more predominantly in mind than other features. In the new law, we will have no real difficulties but we are still trying to go through the exercise of finding some enabling clause in the present laws to allow us to enforce the banks to announce their NPL, related lending, fines and penalties at the end of every month, and also to announce it ourselves for better impact. This will take some time because the lawyers in the central bank and those from outside helping us with various operations at the moment differ over our ability to do this. But we intend to do it as soon as we can rather than later. In the general area of governance, things are also moving. The electronic commerce law and the electronic signature law have just passed the Cabinet. Whether it will pass Parliament in its last year of its life depends on whether the Government wishes to rush a lot of legislation through or whether it will delay them for fear of losing the election. I am inclined to think that it will be the former, as the Government does need more positive results to enhance its electability.
Although we fully appreciated the benefits that Switzerland would draw from the creation of the euro in terms of increased transparency and lower transaction costs, we were also quite concerned about the possible risks. Three of these came to mind. First, we feared that the Swiss franc might be in for a bumpy ride. In the past, whenever the dollar was under attack, international investors turned their attention to the German mark and the Swiss franc. Their status as safe-haven currencies meant that at times of turbulences on foreign exchange markets they would move well beyond what economic fundamentals could justify. In fact, the Swiss franc often revealed a tendency to appreciate even more than the German mark, a phenomenon that was generally attributed to the relative narrowness of the Swiss financial markets. Now with the German mark gone, wouldn’t all attention focus almost exclusively on our currency? Would it not mean that in a dollar crisis the franc would have to bear even more of the adjustment than in the past? Even more frightful, what would happen if the euro itself were under attack? The last thing we needed was for the franc to become the first currency in the line of fire, or something like the lightening rod of the international monetary system. A second apprehension that we had was that it might become very difficult in the future to conduct an autonomous monetary policy. Switzerland, together with Liechtenstein, would now be totally surrounded by a single monetary zone.

If investors have doubts about the dollar, there is no need any longer to rush into the Swiss franc, the euro will do just fine. Second, the eurozone, although not quite to the extent of the United States, is largely a closed economy. Movements in the euro are far less devastating than movements of similar magnitude in the Swiss franc or in the German mark. The euro is much more capable than any other currency to take on the role of shock absorber against the U.S. dollar. The eurozone, in some ways, is the large closed economy that the world needed as the counterweight to the U.S. economy. Be it by intent or by chance, the new, two-headed international monetary system, far from being a freak of nature, is a harmonious and balanced construct that should benefit all small open economies, not least Switzerland. There is a third reason why the arrival of the euro has changed the landscape and should fundamentally prove beneficial to the stability of the international monetary system, and that is competition. Even though the U.S. monetary authorities do not have a mandate that is as specifically directed at price stability as the ECB does, investors now have a choice and can vote with their feet. Thus the pressure is on the United States to deliver price stability as well.
In this context, the ESRB is further analysing systemic risks posed by liquidity mismatch and leverage in investment funds. Moreover, the report identifies considerable interconnectedness between banks and shadow banks, particularly money market funds (MMFs). Approximately two-thirds of MMFs’ total assets are related to banks, mainly in the form of debt securities. This interconnectedness was a key consideration underpinning the ESRB’s recommendation that MMFs should have a fluctuating net asset value, rather than promising a constant one, and that they should be subject to enhanced disclosure and liquidity requirements.12  Macroprudential policy beyond banking More generally, the ESRB is analysing connections across different sectors and geographies of the financial system. This cross-cutting analysis informs the development and calibration of macroprudential policy beyond banking. In this way, targeted research enhances the quality of policymaking and thereby improves the resilience of the financial system. 2/4  BIS Central Banker's Speeches  The ESRB believes that the smooth functioning and systemic resilience of derivatives markets can be improved by requiring standardised over-the-counter contracts to be centrally cleared and traded on exchanges or electronic trading platforms, in line with the commitments made by the G20 in 2009. The EU’s first central clearing obligation came into effect in June this year for certain interest rate derivatives, and will gradually be extended to other transactions. The ESRB is monitoring the effects of this obligation on collateral demand and network structure, and will publish its findings in due course.13 The ESRB is also leading research into new macroprudential instruments beyond banking.

The value of the banknotes and coins in circulation has fallen from 9.6% of GDP in 1950 to 2.9% in 2010. So, the question is: Should cash be compared with the extinct Neanderthals or the surviving Crocodiles? But why is this of interest to the Riksbank? Well, a first obvious answer is because it is the Riksbank that issues banknotes and coins. Another, and more complicated, answer is because one of the tasks of the Riksbank is to promote a safe and efficient payment system. This may sound a little high-flown, but it means, among other things, that we should promote the development of safe and efficient payments. This is why we have a natural interest in cards and cash. Hence, we are interested in the evolution of the market for payments, and that is why I am standing before you today. What I intend to talk about today is why I believe that cash will continue to play an important role in our payment system for the foreseeable future (even though not 85 million years) and why cards and other technological developments will not be able to fully take the place of cash. Ironically, part of the explanation for this lies in the strong position that debit and credit cards hold on the Swedish market. As usual I would like to make clear that my speech is an expression of my own views and that it may not necessarily be shared by my colleagues in the Board of the Riksbank.
The Bank continues to promote London’s merits as a financial centre and, despite EMU, London remains the primary financial centre in Europe. The UK economy Let me conclude with some thoughts on the UK economy. With inflation below target and sterling so strong, whilst the MPC’s recent decision earlier this month to raise rates was expected by the market, it also attracted some criticism. But if the inflation target is to be met, the MPC cannot afford to ignore evidence of inflationary pressure emerging in the economy. Domestic demand is strong and the economy as a whole is growing above trend (at around 3%); a rate that is unsustainable unless, that is, UK productive capacity and the trend rate of growth have increased, such that the UK can enjoy a period of rapid non-inflationary growth similar to the US. The labour market is clearly tight with average earnings rising at close to 5%, even before the large jump in December’s data which we think may have been influenced by bonuses and Y2K payments. Increases through last year in the price of oil and other commodities are beginning to feed through the supply chain to producer prices. At the same time, increases in asset prices - share prices and housing - are fuelling consumption further, not least through the pick-up in mortgage equity withdrawal. Given the time it takes for interest rate changes to feed through to inflation, it is important for the MPC to be forward-looking and proactive in dealing with these threats.

This is also crucial. As these restructured loans, which were totally necessary, did not deplete banks, they were able to ramp up lending. Last year, the corporate loan portfolio expanded by 9.9%, which is nearly twice as much as in 2019. In turn, the Bank of Russia pursued a policy making it easier for banks to address these two tasks — restructure loans and issue new ones. We introduced regulatory relaxations to ensure that the volatility of various financial indicators in the market did not affect banks’ balance sheets. These measures included short-term easing providing more time to banks to adjust to the situation for them to avoid camouflaging problems and toxic assets. Looking at other nations, we know how all this might affect lending conditions. Incidentally, many banks did not even use these relaxations, which also confirms the stability of the system as a whole. Nonetheless, this provided them more comfort to continue restructuring and expand lending. In addition, we released buffers — capital cushions accumulated over previous years — for consumer and mortgage loans, which increased capital for lending. In our opinion, these measures were sufficient. What is the situation in the banking sector now? By the beginning of 2021, 75% of loan repayment holidays ended. In other words, restructured loans now pose objectively lower risks to banks’ financial standing. Moreover, the absolute majority of borrowers have managed to resume their scheduled repayments. This means that they really needed loan repayment holidays and easing for that period (which was not writing-off, but easing).
This allowed NOKIA to free up capital for the most profitable activities of the company. Today the company has more than 50,000 employees. At the end of last year, the market value of NOKIA was about NOK 1,700 billion, which is four times the market value of all the companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The economy needs creative destruction to develop. The tendency may have been for the Norwegian authorities to provide various types of support to businesses and industries that have existed for some time. When the government intervenes, the authorities tread a fine line between business development and conservation. It is thus important to tread carefully, so that capital and labour are not tied up in less profitable activity. The required rate of return and the need for restructuring in the business sector often conflict with the need for stability and security for the individual employee. Local communities may suffer. The answer is not to oppose restructuring. The best solution is to develop and take advantage of skills and expertise. This also requires extensive adaptability and labour mobility. The welfare state The restructuring that we are facing in the Norwegian public sector is hardly of less significance than the changes in the business sector. During the last decades the Norwegian welfare state has expanded BIS Review 14/2000  14  rapidly. Household income and consumption have also shown steady and strong growth. We have also witnessed a sharp expansion in the production of services in both the public and private sector.

Fiscal policy and the Government Petroleum Fund have proved to be effective in terms of sheltering the mainland economy from more normal variations in oil revenues. A permanent change in the krone exchange rate will occur only if there is an increase in the use of oil revenues through a shift in expenditure growth. In this context, instruments other than those available to Norges Bank must be used to return the krone to its initial range. BIS Review 14/2000  8  Interest rates influence the exchange rate through two channels. The interest rate differential against other currencies has some effect on the exchange rate. The exchange rate is further influenced via the impact of interest rates on domestic price and cost trends. The isolated effect of the interest rate differential on the exchange rate may be of little consequence compared with other factors. According to Norges Bank’s calculations, the current interest rate differential against the euro area impacts the krone exhange rate in the order of 20 øre against the euro in the short term. On the other hand, the effect of the interest rate on the exchange rate through the channel of domestic demand and price and wage inflation may in many situations be considerable. The Norwegian economy may be exposed to shocks or disturbances that both reduce domestic activity and weaken the Norwegian krone. In response, interest rates should not be increased. An increase in interest rates will result in higher unemployment and mounting instability in the domestic economy and the exchange rate.
It would hardly be consistent for us on the one hand to be promoting greater competition and on the other to seek to determine or influence fees and charges. However, the public concern about the effects of deregulation, coupled with the recognition of the importance of banking services to people’s daily lives, suggest that we should be paying more attention than we have in the past to the question of consumer issues. This is the subject to which I should now like to turn. Consumer protection First, I think it needs to be understood that the changes now going on in banking services, including the restructuring of fees and charges, are not solely the result of interest rate deregulation. There are a number of factors – global as much as local – that are driving banks into refocusing their business. These include: increased competition from both within and outside the banking industry; pressure to increase shareholder value; the need to develop new income streams amid a shortage of conventional lending opportunities; and globalisation, which is inducing banks to specialise in forms of business in which they have a competitive advantage. These various factors are forcing banks to innovate - through new products and new technologies – in order to diversify their income. They are also forcing banks to become more cost-efficient: to scrutinise the profitability of their various services, and to rationalise cost structures.

However, the reactivation of credit activity remains a challenging goal, which would require encouragement of the final demand and generation of business plans valid for bank financing, reduction of real and perceived risk in the economy, review of development strategies and commercial banks’ lending policies, as well as reduction of cost and non-cost elements in lending. All these factors are envisaged to gradually improve throughout the year; however, they will remain far from the pre-crisis levels. Bank of Albania’s monetary policy will continue to be prudent, chiefly oriented towards achievement of inflation target. The recent upward inflation trend might have been motivated by temporary-action and limited-intensity supply factors. The Bank of Albania has envisaged  BIS Review 28/2010  1  that the exceeding of 4 percent inflation rate will be for a short period of time and will not be followed by steady inflationary pressures. Our projections show that consumer price inflation will fall gradually towards the 3 percent targeted rate during 2010. However, we remain committed to taking all appropriate steps to ensure this performance and meet our legal mandate for price stability in the economy. 2  BIS Review 28/2010
The environment in which monetary policy was now to be conducted was thus different than during ‘The Great Moderation’. We therefore needed to review the arsenal of measures that can be used in a crisis situation. Many measures during one week in March last year We are now back where we started in my story, that is to say in March last year. What we saw then was a very rapid and dramatic sequence of events. The stock markets began to decline as early as late February, when the coronavirus began to spread increasingly quickly outside of China. The WHO declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic on 11 March. On 12 March we saw the largest stock market fall in one day in Sweden so far, when the index fell by 11 per cent. This meant that the index had fallen by 30 per cent since 20 February. The fixed-income markets were also affected to an extremely large degree (see Figure 7). All bond rates rose to a varying extent. Investors’ new motto was ‘dash for cash’, as they abandoned unsafe assets in favour of safer ones with high liquidity. Corporate bonds market under scrutiny When Swedish companies have needed to finance themselves with loans, they have traditionally used bank loans. But in recent decades, there has been a structural transformation, which means that they increasingly finance themselves via interest-bearing securities (see Figure 8). At present, interest-bearing securities account for one third of their loan financing.

But a strong independence and plenty of room for manoeuvre entails freedom with responsibility – we have an important analytical and educational task to explain what we do and how this helps us attain our objectives. I want to start by going back in time around 350 years. The motive for our independence – creating long-term stability Every central bank reflects its time and its country, but some tasks are common to all of them through history, for instance, issuing means of payment in the domestic currency, and ensuring the means of payment can be used and retain its value. And this also applies to the world’s oldest central bank – the Riksbank. Monetary policy has always focused on maintaining the value of money. Historically, the Riksbank has tried to do so by having a nominal anchor. 2 The establishment of the Riksbank can be dated back to Stockholm banco, Sweden's first bank. This also became Europe’s first banknote-issuing bank. The value of the banknotes was based on it being possible to exchange them for coins. But when an abundance of banknotes were issued, the general public began to question their value and demanded to redeem them. The nominal anchor gave way. And a bank crash was unavoidable. Riksens ständers bank emerged from the ashes of this in 1668, becoming what we know now as the Riksbank, as an authority under the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament.
These 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  measures have substantially contributed to increasing the share of credit to the private sector in total credit, which rose by 24 percentage points (from 31.3% to 55.3%) over the last decade. As a non-bank source of investment financing, financial market financing- mainly bond issuance – has significantly increased since 2002 in response to new financing needs related to private and public enterprises investment programs. As a percentage of nonhydrocarbon GDP, the financing of public and private enterprises through bond issuance reached 3.5% in 2006, up from 1.5% in 2004. 2. Macroeconomic stability and recent strengthening of the financial stability framework  The return to macroeconomic stability in 2000 and the financial performance achieved between 2001 and 2008, allowed the domestic economy to weather the global crisis well. In particular, sustained accumulation of foreign reserves between 2000 and 2008 and early repayment of the external public debt in the mid-2000s put Algeria in a position of net creditor vis-à-vis the rest of the world. Its net external position reached 91% of GDP in 2013, in a context of continued prudent management of foreign reserves by the Bank of Algeria. This external financial stability is supported by Bank of Algeria’s active exchange rate management through its interventions in the interbank foreign exchange market aiming at stabilizing the real effective exchange rate of the dinar close to its medium term equilibrium level. In the first half of 2014, real effective exchange rate slightly appreciated, in a context of disinflation.

Moreover, the ratio of total credit to nonhydrocarbon GDP remained stable, whereas credit to the private sector/nonhydrocarbon GDP increased somewhat in 2013 to reach 23.45% (21.35% in 2011). In 2013, while pursuing their provisioning efforts, banks consolidated their financial soundness indicators. Solvency ratios remain high, much higher than required under the prevailing regulation and in line with the recommended level under Basel III. The banking sector soundness is anchored to high capital adequacy ratios and high profitability and liquidity. The solvency ratios are in line with those of comparable emerging market economies. In 2013, an assessment of the banking sector carried out by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank has helped define further directions in deepening banking sector reforms and strengthening banking system stability in Algeria. Effective implementation has started in the first quarter of 2014 with the enactment by the Council on Money and Credit of three regulations related to the solvency ratios, large exposures and participations, and loans classification and provisioning. The minimum Tier 1 capital ratio has now been set at 9.5%, higher than recommended by the Basel Committee, and the regulatory capital ratio has been set at 12%. Moreover, as regards the strengthening of the capacity in assessing the banking sector risk, Bank of Algeria will rely, as of the beginning of 2015, on the effective use of the new stress test model, and on the generalization of the bank rating system.