samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Women are now also part of the increased mobility of talent that is able to relocate to different parts of the country or to venture abroad. Increasingly, women are now rising to senior and key top management positions in both private corporations and in government, although we are still less than where we should be. The changing corporate cultures, the shift away from hierarchical structures, in fact, are to the advantage for women professionals. We have seen these changes taking place in international corporations, where the previous power structures have resulted in limited opportunities for women. Changes in corporate cultures towards more collegial environment have inculcated organisational values and behaviours that have been more conducive for increased opportunities for women. Let me turn to the implications of an environment of constant change and transformation. Indeed, as we go forward, we can expect this pace of change to intensify. To succeed in this ever changing environment, there needs to be an awareness and an understanding of the nature of these changes and its radical implications and consequences. Survival in the modern economy requires the adoption of new approaches and strategies. Approaches that have brought previous successes will no longer become relevant. It will require radically different ways of doing things. Prospering on a short-term business trend without developing capabilities and competitive positions will risk the future of any business. The new environment requires strategies that aim to secure durability and sustainability. This new environment will be characterised by increasing competitive pressures.

As trustees of wealth bestowed upon us by Allah, we are entrusted to ensure that waqf meets its intended objectives. If properly developed, managed and utilised, we can harness its potential as a highly effective platform for sustainable economic growth, one that creates sustainable and perpetual benefits for all, especially our future generation. It is time to put strategies and plans into action. 4/4  BIS central bankers' speeches
But it does also entail a number of risks. It was the new technology that provided the driving force behind companies such as WorldCom and Enron, just as it was the supply of capital from the deregulated financial system that enabled them to grow as they did. But these were not the only enterprises that exploited the new technology and benefited from the free capital market. It was the euphoria and even hysteria about many companies that led to the formation of a stock-market bubble. According to some measurements, the average levels that share prices reached in relation to more fundamental values in the late 1990s were higher than ever before. So it is hardly surprising that the falling trend in recent years has involved such large losses around the world. Share prices tend to return sooner or later to values that are a better reflection of fundamental factors. A closer look at the recent stock-market bubble reveals a number of more specific features that call for special reflection. It looks as though share prices for IT and technology oriented companies were driven primarily by new and rather inexperienced investors, cheered on by managements in need of capital to cover current spending as well as by analysts from banks and investment companies that handled the share issues. Media around the world also seem to have lent their voice to this tendency. Seen in this wider perspective, events in recent years raise a number of questions that I now want to consider briefly.

The reform initiatives have also focused on enhancing capital and liquidity standards, reinforced by moves to strengthen the macro-prudential orientation of regulation to complement micro-prudential supervision to manage the risks arising from the interdependencies within the financial system. Whilst the breadth of regulatory changes being considered collectively endeavor to strengthen financial system resilience, the key challenge for policymakers and regulators going forward is also to achieve inclusive and more sustainable growth, whilst ensuring financial stability. Whilst Islamic finance has benefited from a well-developed, more competitive and well regulated eco-system, it needs to build on and reinforce the solid foundations that has been achieved in this decade. As the industry transitions into a new era of growth and development in this post-crisis world, the competitive financial landscape is being redrawn by the evolving international regulatory reforms, changing operating models, rising consumer expectations and increased competition. In this more challenging environment, the success of sustaining the momentum of Islamic finance as a transformative agent for the economy, will hinge on the ability to keep raising the bar in the pursuit of an effective functioning and sound Islamic financial system. Post-crisis, the increased emphasis for inclusive and sustainable products as well as responsible corporate behavior provides clear potential for Islamic financial players to demonstrate leadership by capitalizing on core value propositions of Islamic financial intermediation.
The 2% target is meant to act as a cushion against that risk. That cushion is not available at the moment in the euro area. If this situation persists, it could prove dangerous in a very uncertain economic environment. To sum up, the situation today calls for a very careful assessment in the balance of risks. Precisely because deflation is hard to reverse, even small probabilities should not be neglected and they should be fully factored into policymaking. Let me now turn to one of the tools recently used by many central banks in the world to respond to very low inflation: forward guidance. Central banks have been communicating for a long time about their vision for the future as well as their concerns and intentions. Forward guidance, however, brings something more. First, it implies some degree of commitment on the course of future actions. And, second, it broadens the scope of communication. Central banks try and specify how they will behave in the future, – what is called in the jargon their “reaction function”. The presumption is that this reaction will be different from that which could be expected when looking at their past behaviour or commonly accepted (Taylor) rules. Forward guidance raises several questions. First, how specific should it be? There is an obvious dilemma. If the commitment is unconditional, it will be very efficient in influencing short-term future expected rates, hence the shape of the yield curve, and, ultimately, long-term rates.

But this carries risks to central bank credibility if circumstances change and no longer warrant sticking to the commitment. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  On the other hand, if guidance is conditional, it will have less impact and introduce volatility as markets permanently reassess the economic situation and assess the probability that the central bank will change its policy. Second, if central banks opt for conditional forward guidance, should it be “time contingent” – with time or dates references for future actions – or “state contingent” – dependent on the situation of the economy? Time contingent forward guidance runs the risk of being undermined by changes in the economic situation. “State contingent” forward guidance may appear better. Experience shows, however, that it is also more complex to manage especially when choosing the “triggers” or “thresholds” attached to commitments for the future. Partly as a result of the crisis, major structural changes are taking place in most advanced economies. Overall, the relationship between major macroeconomic variables are becoming unstable which makes it difficult to calibrate monetary policy on a limited number of parameters, such as, for instance, the unemployment rate. Nowhere are these changes more profound than in the euro area, where structural change is taking place at an accelerated pace as a result of the crisis and adjustment policies undertaken in Member States. We have taken stock of all these experiences and lessons in devising our approach to forward guidance in the euro area.
From the beginning of this year to the middle of August, over $ billion of one and two-year money were raised through the issue of debt paper in Hong Kong. The issuers were the multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Nordic Investment Bank, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Council of Europe, etc. We welcomed these multilateral issuers making use of, and therefore helping to develop, the debt market in Hong Kong. But the real borrowers behind these Hong Kong dollar debt issues were predominantly the hedge funds, providing, through swaps arranged by intermediaries, attractive US dollar funding at below LIBOR to the multilateral institutions. To use less jargon, as I said the hedge funds have been borrowing and sitting on large amounts of Hong Kong dollars. They of course do so for a purpose. But since I am talking about facts I do not wish to venture a guess here. All I would like to point out is that the cost of running a $ billion position, with an interest rate premium over the US dollar that had been driven up to about 5 percentage points, is over $ million a day. And I would only add that the hedge funds are not exactly in the habit of throwing money away for nothing and that they do not seem to have been using the money to buy up Hong Kong stocks.

And as if this was not blatant enough, all this occurred in a climate of malicious rumors about the RMB and the Hong Kong dollar, glorified by publications from the so-called in-house currency strategies and analysts, and by the usual “reliable information from authoritative sources”. Well, it did not quite work out the way they intended. They miscalculated on two counts. First, they did not factor in the need for the HKSAR Government funding this year’s budget deficit, unexpected at the time when the budget was drawn up, through a drawdown of foreign reserves. And so the currency board adjustment mechanism involving sharply higher BIS Review 85/1998  -4-  interest rates was not triggered. Second, they did not realize that the HKSAR Government was far from the sitting duck they thought we were. Committed to the free market as we may be, we took the view that free markets do not mean that markets can be freely manipulated. They need to be fair markets as well. We have a responsibility to tackle market manipulation and avoid serious market dislocations developing. So after much agonizing we acted on two fronts. First, we intervened in the stock and futures markets to deter market manipulation, by making sure that the manipulation did not pay off. Second, we followed this action through with various measures to strengthen our monetary and financial systems. On the monetary side, we introduced technical measures to modify our currency board arrangements of our linked exchange rate system to make it less susceptible to manipulation.
Since the end of February the national currencies are no longer legal tender, the major exertion by society is over and life is beginning to return to normal in the euro countries. For Sweden, however, a changeover of banknotes and coins still lies ahead, if we were to say "yes" in a referendum on full membership of the monetary union. It is therefore important that all of us in various sectors of society take a look at how the changeover has worked in the different countries and learn from this. Today I intend to begin by discussing what experiences Sweden could learn from the cash changeover. After that, I shall say a few words about the timetable for a potential Swedish full participation in the third stage of EMU. The cash changeover in the EMU countries The overall picture painted by the ECB, the European Commission, embassies, central banks and media with regard to the euro introduction is that it has gone smoothly, and above all quickly. Only a few days into 2002 the euro was being used in most cash transactions and only a few of the problems that had been feared actually arose. On the other hand, other, rather more unexpected problems arose in the aftermath of the cash changeover, because of the rapid pace at which it occurred. I shall mention some factors here, both positive and negative, which have affected the outcome of the introduction of the euro.

According to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, operational risk is the “risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems or from external events”. This definition is based on the underlying causes of operational risk at the broadest level and includes legal risk, but it excludes strategic and reputational risks. The Basel Committee has also asserted, “the most important types of operational risk involve breakdowns in internal controls and corporate governance.” That’s why Basel II aligns with a variety of other regulations and supporting frameworks for enhancing corporate governance. 'Management of operational risk is thus taken to mean the 'identification, assessment and / or measurement, monitoring and control of mitigation of this risk. While many of these risks are inherent and visible in day to day operations of banks, some components are applicable to supervisors and regulators. 4. The banking industry’s awareness of operational risk and efforts to manage it have accelerated in recent years, driven in part by an increasing desire to improve operating efficiency, reduce earnings volatility, rationalize the allocation of capital between competing businesses. It is not easy to get banks to identify and assess the operational risk inherent in all material products, activities, processes and systems and in particular to follow such practices when new products are introduced.
Following table illustrates the importance of the banking sector in three major accession countries [Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland]:  2  BIS Review 53/2003  Structure of Financial Sector 100%  90%  80%  70%  Credit Unions Other Pension funds IC&IF Insurance comp. Banks  60%  50%  40%  30%  20%  10%  0%  CR  HUN  POL  6  It is evident that the financial sector in Central European countries relies heavily on the banking sector, which represents approximately 80% of total assets of the whole financial sector. It could be also seen that despite the dominance of banks in all mentioned countries, the structure of other financial institutions differs significantly. This is the result of varying approaches to building these institutions. For instance, in the Czech Republic, we can see the smaller size of the investment business as a result of the quality of the capital markets, the lax regulation at the beginning of the transformation, and the subsequent and rather frequent occurrence of frauds in the past. The delayed start of pension reform has also contributed to this situation. The largest banking sector in the new member states is the Polish one, followed by the Czech and the Hungarian sectors. These three biggest countries account for more than 3/4 of the total new member states banking assets. The banking sector of all new member states is nevertheless very small in comparison with the EU market.

Urban Bäckström: Financial cycles Speech by Mr Urban Bäckström, Governor of Sveriges Riksbank, at the Philadelphia Fed Policy Forum on Crises, Contagion and Coordination: Issues for Policymakers in the Global Economy, Philadelphia, 22 November 2002. *  *  *  First I want to express my thanks to the organizers for inviting me to this very interesting conference. Let me especially thank Tony Santomero for everything he has done in his previous capacity in inspiring and assisting us at the Riksbank over the years as an academic adviser. I wish you, Tony, every success as president for the Philadelphia Fed and as an important policy maker here in the U.S. I think one can say that central bankers around the world have never before had such a central and well respected position as they have had during the past decade. Their task seemed to be well defined and the job to deliver price stability has worked rather well. Much of the mystique that typically surrounded central banks has gradually disappeared. Openness and transparency have become the key words of the day. Moreover, research concerning monetary policy has made good progress during the past decade. The world of central banking has indeed undergone positive changes. However, it would be most dangerous for us, central bankers, to just sit down and relax in the belief that all the important problems in the field of monetary policy have been resolved and need no further consideration.
Given the trends away from physical cash, which cannot be used in an increasingly digital economy, and, potentially, towards new forms of tokenised money, a digital pound may be needed in future to fulfil the same function. Second, to ensure that there can be competition and innovation in the development of new  Page 9  functionalities using tokenised money. Given the network externalities around money and the likely cost of developing robust and risk managed tokenised money like stablecoins, it is possible that the development of digital settlement assets will converge on a few large players who will dominate and perhaps control innovation in payment services. We have seen a similar dynamic in the emergence of large internet platforms and marketplaces. A digital pound would provide a digital settlement asset available to a wide variety of private sector innovators and developers of payment services. The first concern is primarily for central banks, charged with ensuring the stability of money in the economy. The second is more of a concern for government. And of course there are other motivations, such as financial inclusion and resilience. I do not have the time to go into those in detail today, and, in any event, I do not wish to pre-empt the report on the next steps for this work that we and the Treasury intend to issue soon.

Forward guidance on the path is today less important than commitment on our end objective First, in the current normalization phase, there is much less need and space for detailed forward guidance: we are no longer at the effective lower bound and  Page 5 sur 8 are coming back to our more normal reaction function—all the more so in the current uncertain environment. Accordingly, in our ECB July statement President Christine Lagarde emphasized optionality dependent on economic data, and taking decisions on a meeting-by-meeting basis. More importantly still, we strongly reiterated our commitment to our end objective of bringing inflation back to 2% in the medium-term, i.e. 2024 in our present forecasts. The more open we are about the path, the more committed we must be about the destination of the journey. Don’t get me wrong: market expectations of future policy rates remain a key driver of long-term interest rates, which are what matters most for investment and spending decisions. But forward-guidance—at least in the form of a commitment to an unconditional and/or prolonged path for the policy rate—is today an unadvisable way of steering market expectations. If you go to the hospital, it is certainly unpleasant not knowing how long you will stay there. But you certainly do not want a doctor who decides to keep you 7 days regardless of how your health evolves. Without question, you would rather have a firm commitment that he will cure you of your ailment! II.B.
On 6 October, a statement of government policy declared that there was almost total support for the hard currency policy and that the prospects of success were good. We all know what happened. Just over one month later, on 19 November, the Riksbank was forced to give up the fight and the krona was allowed to float, or perhaps I should say sink. As I have understood things with hindsight, there was no clear plan in place as to how monetary policy would be conducted from then on.1 And this was perhaps not so strange – with the exception of a couple of brief periods between the wars, Sweden had had a fixed exchange rate for the past 120 years. So it was probably difficult to think along new lines. The aim also seems to have been that Sweden would return to some form of fixed exchangerate system as soon as possible, and so the idea was to find some way of conducting monetary policy until then. Inflation targeting has worked well, but has been criticised Some countries, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom, had begun to apply a new type of monetary policy known as inflation targeting. This entailed setting a numerical target for inflation, which the central bank then tried to attain by using the policy rate to affect aggregate demand. Sweden also jumped onto this bandwagon and it proved to be a much more enduring solution than most people expected at the time.

147  2  BIS Review 34//2005  Financial markets and institutions have become more interdependent. The possibility of contagion across borders thereby increases. Cross-border capital flows have increased considerably in recent decades. Equity markets have moved more in tandem, particularly since the mid-1990s. This also applies to bond markets. Investors are increasingly spreading their investments across countries. They are both diversifying risk and seeking high returns. In parallel, governments, banks and companies are issuing more debt externally. The corresponding development in financial institutions, towards an increasing share of large cross-border banks, makes it essential to go beyond a purely national analytical focus. However, this can be a difficult task, as cross-border banks are complex and often part of an even more complex financial conglomerate. Examples:   The Iceland-based Kaupthing Group is present in 10 countries and the group’s total asset holdings at the end of 2004 were almost twice the size of Iceland’s GDP.   The Sweden-based Nordea Group has substantial market shares in all four Nordic countries. While Nordea’s home country is Sweden, Nordea has its largest market share in Finland.   The HSBC Group has 110 million customers world-wide.   Citigroup is present in about 100 countries and territories. The central bank has a special responsibility for analysing and monitoring the financial system. The examples of cross-border integration show how important it is to have a strong international focus in financial stability analysis. Generally, the increasing range of analytical challenges has forced central banks to be more innovative.