samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Let me expand on these aspects. The normal operation of markets and financial intermediaries requires the availability of a broad spectrum of assets with sufficient liquidity and bounded counterparty risk, including so-called “safe assets”. This is even more the case in turbulent times, as investors tend to react to increases in uncertainty by turning to assets with a lower level of perceived risk. As Holmstrom and Tirole1 put it, a safe asset is an instrument that allows wealth to be transferred from one point in time to another without any nominal loss. If you allow me the metaphor, the supply of a broad enough set of assets is the infrastructure in an electricity grid. A large enough infrastructure is needed to ensure the grid’s smooth functioning, in  1  Holmstrom, B. and J. Tirole, “Private and Public Supply of Liquidity”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 106, No 1 (February 1998), pp. 1-40 (40 pages). 4/8  particular, to allow it to withstand episodes of high demand. If not, the system is prone to disruptions and even blackouts. There is a wide consensus regarding the existence of a secular shortage of safe assets at global level. To put it simply, there is not much highly-rated paper available once holdings in monetary policy portfolios are discounted. This phenomenon has become more acute since the outbreak of the European sovereign debt crisis, given that some eurodenominated sovereigns have seen their ratings downgraded, in part due to the persistence of an incomplete EMU.

Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) remains the world’s foremost economic integration project of recent times. And after 20 years, there can be no question that the euro is perceived by the public as a success. In the latest Eurobarometer surveys, euro area citizens have declared the highest level of support for the euro yet recorded. Europe has proved itself to be innovative and decisive, although sometimes the necessary steps have only been taken under the pressure of extreme circumstances, such as the ones we experienced during the last sovereign debt crisis. That said, some bold advances have been made towards the completion of EMU over the past decade. Let me highlight two of these. First, the two main pillars of the Banking Union that are now in place and operational: the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism. Second, the creation of the European Stability Mechanism, which played a significant role in the solution of the crisis, and the ongoing reform of which is expected to strengthen this institution’s capacity not only to combat but also to prevent crises. It is further envisaged that it will act as a common backstop for the Single Resolution Fund (SRF), filling a fundamental gap in the euro area’s institutional architecture. Despite these, and other, significant achievements, it is fair to acknowledge that the framework still lacks some fundamental pieces. In particular, as regards its ability to withstand a severe crisis. Let me flag some institutional elements that, in my view, rank highest among those needed.
Covered bonds are well suited for pension portfolios and other assets with a long time horizon. Further ahead, there should therefore be good possibilities for Norwegian banks to procure long-term funding. Since residential mortgages usually feature a long maturity, bonds should also have a long maturity. Before the financial crisis, mortgage-backed covered bonds were normally issued with a maturity of five to ten years in European countries. 13 But this source of funding also has its limitations. The larger the share of borrowing that has first claim on banks’ assets is, the higher the risk becomes for other lenders and for depositors with savings above the guaranteed amount. The risk for the Norwegian Banks’ Guarantee Fund may increase if covered bonds become too dominant. The Basel rules require capital for banks’ assets, but do not stipulate how the assets are to be financed or their liquidity. It is now being considered whether common requirements should be introduced as to the amount of liquid assets a bank must hold to survive a stress situation over a period of for example 30 days without drawing on loans in the central bank. In addition, there will be funding stability requirements. 14 The Basel Committee is expected to make concrete proposals in the course of the year. One of the first countries that introduced stricter requirements is the UK, where banks are required to apply a stress situation with a duration of three months.

We believe that the launch of the bulletin will help to raise product awareness and improve price transparency, thereby helping to promote the development of the retail bond market in Hong Kong. The bulletin is developed by the Central Moneymarkets Unit of the HKMA. We are delighted to have eight major banks, which are present here today, to be the price providers. Thanks to their support, indicative bid/offer prices of over 200 bonds of different currencies issued by both public and private sector entities will be available on bulletin. Investors may access the bulletin later today for bond information. The website address is https://www.cmu.org.hk. The bulletin also provides direct hyperlinks to the price providers’ websites to facilitate investors to approach the price providers for trading. Relevant transaction charges imposed by individual price providers are also posted on the bulletin. Retail investors can easily gain access to, and conclude trades with, the price providers in a convenient, secure and efficient manner. We are thankful to banks and potential users for their valuable comments during the development of the bulletin. We will monitor the usage and feedback to gauge whether there is scope for future expansion. We would welcome feedback from users and would endeavour to improve the bulletin on a continuous basis. Other banks interested to join as price providers are welcome to approach the HKMA for further information.
But two domestic transmission channels to consumption and investment will determine the size of the overall impact on our economy: •  the effects of credit constraints; and  •  impact on expectations and confidence. Credit constraints With their own funding rates increasing and a reduction in their ability to distribute risk through securitisation, there is now clear evidence that UK lenders have begun to tighten lending conditions for households and firms. The Bank’s Credit Conditions Survey (CCS) of major UK lenders has identified a change in behaviour since the summer. 6 Contrary to earlier expectations, lenders reported that the availability of secured credit to households had reduced noticeably over the three months to mid-December (Chart 6). Corporate credit availability was also reported to have been reduced significantly over the same period. A further reduction in the general availability of credit was expected over the next three months. The survey suggests that lenders are both raising the price of borrowing and reducing the range of people and firms they are prepared to lend to. There has been a pick up in the average spread of quoted mortgage rates over the appropriate funding rate in recent months (Chart 7). There has also been a fall in the number of mortgage products available for creditimpaired borrowers (Chart 8). The first impact of the tightening in secured credit conditions is being felt in the property markets and lower demand for assets but there will also be direct effects on activity.

This suggests that market participants’ misgivings about prevailing uncertainties have dissipated somewhat, which is likely not least of all a consequence of monetary policy measures by major central banks. In addition, some investors appear to expect that central banks will continue to pursue expansionary monetary policies for the foreseeable future, with low interest rates and an ample supply of liquidity. In Switzerland, interest rates remain at a very low level. The yield on ten-year Swiss Confederation bonds declined to a new low at the beginning of December, at 0.39%. No other government has ever recorded nominal ten-year financing costs at such a low level. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Money market rates also continue to be very low. Interest rates on the repo market are predominantly negative. At 1 basis point, the three-month Libor lies only just above zero. Based on Libor futures contracts, the interest rate expectations of market participants are that the low rate environment will continue for the foreseeable future. Management of foreign currency investments Our foreign currency purchases in early summer to enforce the minimum exchange rate have resulted in high inflows to the SNB’s foreign currency holdings. These holdings have increased by CHF 167 billion since the beginning of the year to CHF 425 billion at the end of November. This is a direct consequence of our monetary policy. In the event that foreign currency purchases are necessary to implement the minimum exchange rate, our foreign currency reserves increase, and the balance sheet expands.
In addition, the ECB has the right to issue debt certificates, and, if necessary, we could also decide to increase banks’ reserve requirements again. Reverting to the 2% reserve requirement ratio that prevailed until December 2011 would reduce excess reserves by approximately 100 billion euros. So, we are well equipped to cope with any issues arising from excess liquidity. There is a third concern which I would like to touch upon, and which I consider to be a serious one: the risk of moral hazard behaviour triggered by the non-standard measures. The large liquidity injections have avoided so far a disorderly deleveraging of the banking sector in the euro area as well as a dangerous credit crunch, but they have not removed the underlying causes of the turmoil. If governments and banks would stop or slow down their consolidation efforts and structural reforms, this would undermine the positive effects of the liquidity operations. Following the signs of improvement in the financial environment, it is therefore essential for banks to strengthen their resilience further, even by retaining earnings. The soundness of banks’ balance sheets will be a key factor in facilitating an appropriate provision of credit to the economy. Very low interest rates and ample liquidity conditions may be disincentives for banks to avoid recognising the loss by rolling over loans extended to borrowers who are unable to pay back the principal (the so-called “evergreening” of loans).

Nina Stoyanova: Innovations Statement by Ms Nina Stoyanova, Deputy Governor and Head of the Banking Department of the Bulgarian National Bank, at the opening of the Financial Forum “Innovations”, organized by Association “Bank of the year”, Sofia, 9 June 2021. * * * Market developments today are driven by the new technologies. They provide a basis for increasingly diverse and innovative payment products. Digitalization of processes and services has led to development in the financial sector in Europe further stimulated by the policies of the European and national regulators. Payment services are getting more convenient, secure and accessible. Today, when consumers make on-line purchases, they expect the payments to be executed swiftly and smoothly, requiring no additional time or effort. The global pandemic increased the interest of different businesses to the payment sector. We witness a quick acceleration of digitalization in most of the spheres of life, such as work, shopping and administrative services. This has also generated a demand for alternative methods of payment. According to the latest public data, three out of four users worldwide have changed their method of payment owing to the Covid-19 crisis. Half of the consumers would opt to shop online, where possible. During the pandemic large part of consumers have tried for the first time a new shopping or payment method. Currently, we observe an enhanced activity of the innovative payment market players. These are FinTech companies that have proven themselves in other sectors but also the so-called “challenger banks”.
The BoZ also regulates the conduct of the banks to ensure that players in the sector have a level play-field in order to safeguard the interests of both investors and customers of the banks. It is against this background that one of the key functions of the Bank of Zambia is to regulate the activities of banks and financial institutions so as to promote safe, sound and efficient operations of financial institutions and the development of the financial system.   In 2004 the BoZ and the Government in consultation with other stakeholders, formulated the Financial Sector Development Plan (FSDP), which is a long term vision and development strategy aimed at addressing major constraints to the development of the financial sector.   Among the constraints that the FSDP seeks to address is high cost of banking services and unattractive interest rates, low savings, insufficient access to financial services by the vast majority especially in rural areas, insufficient access to credit, lack of long term credit, etc. The vision of the FSDP is to develop a stable, sound and market-based financial system which would support efficient mobilisation and allocation of resources necessary for economic diversification, sustainable growth and poverty reduction.   The FSDP, which is currently in its second phase of implementation, has three components, namely: –  Increasing Market infrastructure;  –  Increasing Competition; and  –  Access to Finance. Over the years, the number of financial institutions under the supervisory ambit of the BoZ has increased significantly.

It is essential to realise that for the most part, the financial system is not an end in itself but a means to an end and the measure of the success of the financial system must relate to its success in accomplishing broader societal functions. Innovations in the financial system that help it perform these tasks better and at lower cost almost surely lead to increased societal well-being, and to the extent that our GDP measures capture these benefits, in higher measured growth. Notwithstanding the benefits of innovation, it is important to note that the opening up to new activities and products, particularly the expansion of the credit portfolio, brings in a myriad of new risks associated with the new activities. Studies have shown that increasing financial innovation and deepening of financial markets brings with it challenges and risks, which if not well addressed, can threaten the health of the financial system and may cause havoc to the stability of a financial system. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  4.0  The role of the Bank of Zambia in promoting innovation and competition  The Bank of Zambia (BoZ) acknowledges that a stable, sound and efficient financial sector has to be underpinned by infrastructure development. The BoZ achieves this by creating an enabling environment through the legal and regulatory frameworks that promote financial systems stability and development.
Figure 14  CPI inflation forecast (1) (2)  Core inflation forecast (1) (2) (3)  (annual change, percent)  (annual change, percent)  5  5 5  5  4  4 4  4  MP Report Sep.20  3 2  3 3 2 2  MP Report Jun.20  1 0  MP Report Sep.20  18  19  20  21  22  MP Report Jun.20  1 1 0 0  18  19  20  21  22  (1) Plotted for 2018 is the annual changes in the CPI and CPI minus volatiles obtained by splicing the series with base 2013=100 with the monthly variations of the 2018=100 basket as from February 2018. See Box IV.1 of the March 2019 MP Report. (2) Gray area, as from the third quarter of 2020, shows forecast. (3) CPI minus volátiles. Sources: Central Bank of Chile and National Statistics Institute (INE). 19  3 2 1 0  Figure 15  MPR corridor (*) (percent)  3.5  3.5  3.0  3.0  2.5  2.5  2.0  2.0  1.5  1.5  1.0  1.0  0.5  0.5  0.0  0.0  20 Corridor  21 Confidence interval: 33%  FBS  22  EES  Confidence interval: 66% Forward  MPR (*) The corridor is constructed following the methodology in Box V.1 of the March 2020 MP Report.

7  orientation of future monetary policy, (ii) The publication of the document The Financial Policy of the Central Bank of Chile, the first of its kind in the country, which presents the conceptual framework and institutional context in which financial policy is carried out to achieve the objective of safeguarding the normal functioning of internal and external payments. The first of these initiatives takes on special relevance in light of the similar exercise carried out by the US Federal Reserve, announced by its Governor last week. Meanwhile, the financial policy framework has been especially relevant in framing the Bank’s decisions in light of the various volatility episodes experienced in Chile since last November. From the agenda emanating from the Evaluation Panel’s report, I would also like to highlight the Constitutional and LOC Reform that entitles the Bank to acquire fiscal instruments in the secondary market to contain risks to financial stability, especially because of the broad understanding and support we received from this Senate during their discussion. As it was then pointed out, this power will allow the Bank to prepare itself to address future episodes of volatility in the markets that may jeopardize financial stability and, thus, the welfare of the population. As for the recommendations that are nearing completion, preparing a framework agreement with the Financial Market Commission (CMF) stands out, which includes specific areas and objectives of coordination, exchange, information utilization and confidentiality, and reciprocal technical assistance.
Since the summer of 2007, the total value of our £ notes in circulation has risen from £ to £ Again, I believe this is a pattern seen in the high denomination notes of other currencies. Chart 5 shows the same story, but this time expressing it in terms of the contribution of each denomination to overall growth. The yellow contribution shows the role of the £ This strikes me as pretty good prima facie evidence that there has been an increase in demand for banknotes as a store of value. BIS Review 162/2009  3  So far, I have told the story of trends in demand for banknotes over the last forty years in terms more of the macroeconomics of demand for notes as central bank money. Now I want to turn to the more micro elements of banknote use. The first thing to say here, as Chart 6 illustrates, is that over the last twenty years there has been a major change in the method of distributing banknotes to the public. At the start of the 1990s there were under 20,000 ATMs in the UK, whereas now the number is over 60,000. Since the beginning of the current decade, the major growth has been among the independent ATM deployers, as opposed to financial institution operated machines. 4  BIS Review 162/2009  And as Chart 7 shows, ATM withdrawals now account for around 70% of all cash acquisitions by individuals in the UK, compared with 25% in the early 1990s.

After all, I can assure you that in the current financial conditions we are not short of difficult challenges. The answer is simple. We should not forget that our job is to ensure that confidence in our currency is maintained – and crucial to that is satisfying the public’s demand for our notes. BIS Review 162/2009  9
Therefore, we must make use of all the tools available to us to bring it back to 3%, without adding unnecessary costs, of course. I want to be particularly emphatic in saying it: there are no easy solutions to this problem. Bringing inflation back to levels that do not affect the population severely, especially the most vulnerable, necessarily involves restoring the macroeconomic balances and, in this case, what is required is a reduction in the level of activity and demand. Monetary policy will continue to contribute to this necessary adjustment in an efficient and orderly manner. The coordination of macroeconomic policies is essential for this purpose, and in this sense the contribution of fiscal policy has been paramount. With yesterday's monetary policy meeting decision to raise the MPR we have brought it to a level that is near the maximum considered in this Report's central scenario. It is very high, but it is in line with the levels that inflation has reached and with the challenges we face in solving the problem. During the last few months, not only has inflation been high, but its expectations two-years ahead continue to be above the 3% target. This misalignment is a cause for concern because, as the inflationary phenomenon becomes more persistent, it makes stabilizing the price level more difficult and costly. Hence the need to move forward resolutely in order to prevent this problem from intensifying because, as we well know, it imposes great costs on the population.

Chile has been in a complex economic situation for a long time now, which is affecting broad sectors of the population and, especially, lower-income people. There is no doubt in my mind that none of you is comfortable with this situation and, of course, neither are we at the Central Bank. We have an annual inflation rate of 13% and we have been raising the interest rate by significant magnitudes for more than a year. This is not at all the position we would like to be in, and it continues to be a cause for deep concern and day-to-day work. However, we are confident that monetary policy decisions and their adequacy to local and international challenges will help inflation to start declining in the last quarter of this year, returning to the 3% target within the two-year policy horizon. We have our total and absolute commitment to its reduction and I am certain that we are going to achieve it. It is what the country needs and we are fully aware that it is the best contribution we can make to the present and future wellbeing of all Chileans. Thank you. 9  Figure 1 Inflation indicators (1) (2) (annual change, percent)  21 18  Total CPI Core CPI Volatiles CPI  15  15 12  Core goods excl.