samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Indeed, more organisations are pursuing strategic changes on multiple fronts to embrace ESG, create more empowerment and build a stronger sense of purpose and responsibility for their employees. So as we consider the theme of today's conference, "Building a workforce fit for the future", we would do well to remember two things: The future of work is not one that we can predict with precision. We can get the general direction of travel right, but how forces shaping life and work in the foreseeable future unfolds are not always clear or predictable. Second, cultural aspects of the future workforce matter and we need to pay closer attention to how we identify, capture and express culture factors in our workforce strategies. Therefore, alongside the specific consideration of how to build future skills, future talent strategies must also seek to: empower the workforce; preserve a strong focus on standards that can stand the test of time; and create greater agility to meet changing business and employee needs. Allow me to briefly touch on these in turn. Empowering the workforce First, empowering the workforce. The World Economic Forum estimates that by 2025, half of all employees will need reskilling. For those in existing roles, more than 40% of their skills will need to change to remain relevant. Malaysia faces a similar set of challenges. 85% of companies surveyed by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation acknowledge the need to reskill their employees1.

Two new specialist bancassurance players have established operations in Singapore, and contributed significantly to this trend. Increasing resilience Amidst these new opportunities, more than ever, we now need to strengthen the resilience of the insurance industry. The MAS has for some time, been working with the insurance and reinsurance industry to raise standards of corporate governance, internal controls and professionalism. Many of our companies are already at international best practice standards. However, as in all countries, practices vary, and we aim to have all our insurers to attain best practice standards by 2005 if not earlier. 2  BIS Review 44/2002  Risk-based supervision In 1998, MAS embarked on a strategic change in our regulatory philosophy. We moved from a bottomup, audit-based inspection approach to a top-down, risk-based supervisory approach. This approach, being prospective in nature, is well suited to today's world of new and increased risks. Risk-based supervision evaluates the major risks faced by an institution and assesses how well these risks are being mitigated. This will help both regulators and companies to identify and, importantly, to pre-empt problems. Well-managed institutions will be given greater flexibility, while less well-managed ones will be subject to closer scrutiny. Singapore's risk-based supervisory framework for insurers The basic framework for risk-based supervision of insurers in Singapore has been set up. MAS is now developing risk profiles for each Singapore-based insurer. We have devised a five-step "supervisory ladder of intervention", and will use it to classify insurers according to their risk rating.
After every major economic crisis, in which policymakers needed to react with the toolkit available at the time, academia came out with new insightful developments that later became part of the available toolkit. This is the evolutionary process by which our profession grows. Precisely for that reason, these bridges between academia and policymaking -like the conference we are kicking off- are so important and choosing the right topic at the right time is critical. In these opening remarks, I want to take the time to first review the main empirical and theoretical developments on the role of household and firm heterogeneity in macroeconomics, with a special focus on economic policy in the current macroeconomic context. I will then briefly review the current trends in Central Banking, including the Central Bank of Chile, toward the use of more disaggregated models of the economy. To finalize I will walk you through the main contents of the conference, including the main takeaways from the research papers to be presented. 3. Heterogeneity in macroeconomics Heterogeneity is not something new in macroeconomics. We can trace it down to Francois Quesnay during the 18th century. Quesnay conceived the economy as the interaction of three groups of agents: landowners; workers; and merchants, who differed in how productive they were for the economy. Quesnay proposed to design tax policies that obtain more revenue from taxing the least productive agents or sectors, so to minimize the distortions in the production of sectors with more productive workers.

A PCC structure would facilitate multiple issuances in one vehicle with its segregation of assets and liabilities, and is sometimes preferred by issuers for its efficiency in cost and operations. b. Second, we understand speed to market is a crucial factor for issuers as it provides certainty for their reinsurance structure. We will work closely with issuers to explore the potential of further streamlining the licensing requirements and process in Singapore. c. Third, we recognise that structuring ILS requires specialised roles beyond the conventional pool of debt capital market teams, such as loss reserve specialists and capital market advisory teams. MAS will explore support for the setting up of specialist teams in Singapore, to facilitate knowledge transfer to the local market. To raise the industry’s skills in this area, there are plans to incorporate catastrophe modelling for catastrophe bonds in existing training programs. d. Fourth, the need for quality data. Data is key for catastrophe risk quantification and the design of risk transfer tools like ILS. We know that there is room to improve data quality in this region and have embarked on the Natural Catastrophe Data Analytics Exchange since April 2017 to bridge the data gap. High resolution data, obtained through innovative technology and new methodologies, can complement other traditional sources of industry data, and support the underwriting of traditional insurance products and structuring of ILS.
At the same time, there are a few factors that suggest that there is a relatively low likelihood of growth ending up substantially above the forecast. Three considerations seem important for assessing the degree of upside risk to growth. First, the upside from housing is likely limited compared to what one might expect under more normal conditions. We have seen an impressive recovery of multi-family housing starts over the past few years. In contrast, starts of single-family homes remain at low levels despite the fact that home prices have risen substantially over the past two years and mortgage rates have remained low. A contributing factor is that mortgage lenders continue to be extremely risk averse, and mortgage credit to those with lower credit scores is still significantly constrained. There is little on the horizon that would lead me to believe that this situation will change in a material way any time soon. Second, because motor vehicle sales are now close to their pre-recession levels, the future growth impetus from this cyclical sector probably will also be restrained. Finally, growth in the rest of the world has slowed and the dollar has appreciated somewhat. This will limit the growth in U.S. exports, and suggests that the trade  2  2  See Table 1.2 in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Monthly Energy Review, October 2014. BIS central bankers’ speeches  sector is unlikely to be a strong wind at the back of the U.S. economy over the next year or two.

An improved corporate insolvency regime facilitates the rehabilitation of viable firms and speeds up the exit of non-viable ones. This would boost banks’ profitability as a result of reduced provisioning needs, while it would also generate gain of output for the real economy arising from more efficient allocation of resources. The authorities have launched a comprehensive review of the judicial system, which is expected to result in a reform that would benefit the banking sector and the overall economy. As I said earlier, the APP has had some positive effects on our economy. However, we need to be vigilant to identify any arising risks from liquidity flows. Accordingly, the Central Bank of Malta, through its participation with the Malta Financial Services Authority on the Joint Financial Stability Board, is monitoring credit developments for any undue credit growth that could potentially lead to the formation of asset bubbles. Should it be required, we will take offsetting macro-prudential measures to safeguard financial stability and maintain the resilience of the financial sector. Given the limited depth of our capital market, the APP has somewhat tightened investment options for the Maltese investor. In this context we need to diversify our capital market further, with securities that are sufficiently backed by assets, such that the integrity of our capital market and the stability of our investors’ base remain intact.
The difference between the levels of inflation experienced by different groups in society was not that large when inflation was low, amounting to about one quarter of a percentage point as shown by the ECB's research1. The gap between the inflation rates for households on higher and lower incomes had widened in the euro area though to 1.9 percentage points by September 2022. Calculations for January 2023 by the Bruegel 2 think tank indicate that it had reached two or three percentage points in many European countries, and as much as five or even seven in countries where inflation was 20%. Such differences can aggravate inequality and have substantial distributional effects. It is low-income households that face higher rates of inflation, but they typically have smaller financial buffers and hold their savings on bank accounts with low interest rates, which are less protected against inflation. This makes it vital that governments target their support measures as accurately as possible. 3/8  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  The consequences of high inflation for public finances High inflation also affects the public finances, as the relationship works through numerous channels and in both directions3. Some of those channels are direct consequences of policy measures to alleviate the impact of high inflation, especially higher energy prices. Bruegel estimates4 that countries in the European Union allocated a total of 657 billion euros to cutting energy taxes and supporting households and firms between September 2021 and January 2023.

The easing of monetary conditions keeps the short-term financial market interest rates low, encouraging the activity and decreasing the related liquidity trading premia. By lowering the financing costs, the Bank of Albania aims to increase consumer loans and investments in the economy. This transmission mechanism promotes the aggregate demand, and under current circumstances, creates appropriate conditions for meeting the medium-term inflation target. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3
I think that the ring fence as proposed by the Independent Commission on Banking is a better way to achieve sensible and safe separation of functions within a bank while not causing great disruption to the overall financial system. Interestingly, the argument against narrow banking from the “big” equity school is that narrow banking exports all of the risk in the financial system to so-called shadow banks, thereby making them a danger to the system 4. Again, this amounts to an argument that unmanageable risk should be kept in banks which must therefore attract substantial equity funding. It’s not a winner I’m afraid. This brings me right back to the argument for what we are doing today, namely to strengthen the loss absorbency, risk management, governance, supervision and resolvability of the banks we do have. I do not accept the proposition that we can only abandon all hope of understanding the risks in banks. Likewise, I do not agree that large banks are unsupervisable and ungovernable. And, I do not concur with the view that large banks can never be resolved, thus leaving too big to fail always with us, and with the answer then to either require a lot of equity funding or to hope that the shadow banking system does not cause risks that threaten the whole system. Let me finish by focussing on resolution and supervision.

The remaining challenge then is whether the authorities will have the nerve to follow through and carry out a resolution. This is the charge that comes from opponents, namely that it will be “bottled”. I don’t see this as likely to be an issue, because if resolution is a credible route to take, as it will be, why would the authorities want to put the cost somewhere else? 3  John Kay “Should we have ‘Narrow Banking’?” The Future of Finance, LSE Report, 2010  4  Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig: “The Bankers New Clothes: What’s wrong with Banking and what to do about it”. P271  5  Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig: “The Bankers New Clothes: What’s wrong with Banking and what to do about it”. P74–78  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  Now for supervision and whether it too can function effectively. Make no mistake, in many countries supervision failed badly in the run-up to the crisis. Prudential supervision of banks is all about understanding the risks firms take, the effectiveness of the controls in risk management, using the framework of rules and regulations to create the right incentives to control risks appropriately, and where necessary intervening directly to require actions to be taken that would otherwise lead the firm to a potentially unsafe or unusual position.
The European banking sector is particularly affected, as investors fear losses from write-downs on government bonds. The ensuing loss of confidence in the banking system is resulting once again in a sharp fall in activity on the interbank market, which in turn is leading to higher refinancing costs and liquidity bottlenecks. Meanwhile, the European banks themselves are holding back economic activity with their restrictive lending practices. Weak economic activity is further hampering efforts by the affected nations to restructure their budgets. All of these developments have caused a steep rise in credit risk premia in financial markets. In response to this serious situation, euro area countries have adopted additional measures to strengthen fiscal discipline in a sustainable way and to restore confidence in the European banking sector and the financial markets. The actual implementation of these measures is essential if the financial markets are to be convinced in the long term. On the whole, we expect that the international environment will probably remain fraught with considerable uncertainty for some time to come; the risks to financial stability will remain correspondingly high. Situation of Swiss big banks The deterioration in the global economic environment has not left the Swiss big banks unscathed. In the second half of 2011, their profitability suffered from the volatile financial market situation as well as from low customer activity levels. Against this backdrop and given the enhanced regulatory requirements, UBS and Credit Suisse have announced that they will be significantly reducing their risk exposure for the next few years.

The proposed legislation gives the SNB the authority to determine which banks and which bank functions are systemically important. Thirdly, the SNB should be given improved access to information that is necessary for macroprudential analysis. In this context, the Federal Council announced that it would look into ways in which the SNB could gain better access to information from banks in cases where FINMA does not have the requisite data available. To the extent that the existing legal basis does not provide adequately for this, the Federal Council intends to submit a proposal to Parliament in the near future. The SNB welcomes the progress made in the area of macroprudential policy in Switzerland. What is crucial now is that the appropriate measures are indeed implemented. This is all the more important in view of the fact that the risk of imbalances in the mortgage and real estate markets has increased over this past year. Moreover, owing to its focus on the minimum exchange rate, monetary policy is currently unable to react to potential imbalances in the mortgage market using the traditional instruments. We will therefore continue to work within the relevant committees towards a rapid implementation of an appropriate, streamlined macroprudential policy framework. The decision as to what framework will ultimately apply in Switzerland lies, however, with the policymakers. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3
Of course it is crucial for us all to pay continuing attention to raising efficiency and containing costs, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that emergence as a relatively high-salary, high-rent business centre is a symptom of success, not a reason for failure. I wish you all an enjoyable and fruitful conference. 3  BIS Review 135/1999

Hamad Al-Sayari: Housing finance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Speech by His Excellency Hamad Al-Sayari, Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, to the “Conference on Housing Finance in the Kingdom”, Riyadh, 17 January 2007. *  *  *  Dear Audience, It gives me a great pleasure to inaugurate the activities of the second day of the “Conference on Housing Finance in the Kingdom”. I would like to thank Euromoney and all other entities organizing this important and vital conference in the Kingdom at a time when we need, more than any time before, to shed more light on the issue of real estate finance, exchange views and benefit from the experiences of other nations in this area. Undoubtedly, this will contribute to developing the proper strategies and mechanisms to overcome the challenges of finance in this significant sector. Dear Audience, As everybody knows, the Saudi economy, in general, and the housing sector, in particular, have witnessed strong growth during the past years. The accelerated population growth rate in our country is considered among the highest growth rates in the world, calling for more financing needs for various development sectors, especially the housing sector. The government of Saudi Arabia, represented by the Real Estate Development Fund, has made, and continues to make, great efforts, under its development plans, in order to provide necessary finance to ensure the provision of appropriate housing for Saudi citizens, especially those of limited income.
Has the publication of regular forecasts, which are seen to bear a close relationship to the decision taking process, helped to make the policy decisions themselves more predictable? The test is whether markets are less likely to be surprised by interest rate changes, given full knowledge of all the relevant economic news. We ran some simple statistical tests on two measures of ‘market surprises’. One is based on the Reuters poll of economists. The surprise measure is the difference between the actual repo rate change and the mean expected repo rate change. The other surprise measure is a bit further out along the yield curve: changes in the implied three-month forward LIBOR rate.11 Both measures suggest that interest rate surprises have become significantly smaller in the post-2001 period than previously (Table 2 Panel C), consistent with improved policy predictability. But, intriguingly, there is also some tentative evidence that surprises in Inflation Report months tend to be relatively large.12 What are we to make of that? 11  More precisely, this is an implied 3-month Libor forward rate at a constant horizon of 3-months, where the constant horizon is calculated by linear interpolation of adjacent futures contracts. The results are largely invariant to using six or twelve month horizons. 12  This could, of course, be entirely driven by the expectation that there would be no move in non-Inflation Report months: in the extreme, if the distribution of surprises in those months is degenerate (i.e.

All economic players benefit from lower interest rates: households, when they purchase a property, companies when they invest, but also governments and hence taxpayers. In addition, the euro has helped consolidate the European single market, by eliminating currency fluctuations for corporates, simplifying day-to-day life for citizens and promoting capital market integration. Lastly, the economic size of the euro area and the stability of its currency have enabled the euro to play an important international role. Today, the euro accounts for 20% of international reserves, second only to the US dollar. An internationally recognised currency generates economic gains: financial markets are more attractive to domestic and foreign investors, more liquid, and thus more efficient. But it also carries a political weight: when Mario Draghi speaks at the G7 or G20, the whole world listens to Europe attentively, just as when Janet Yellen speaks for the United States. Page 4 sur 6 Overall, this list of benefits is impressive, particularly when you think that the euro is only 19 years old. More importantly, we have come this far despite the global financial crisis, which triggered the deepest recession in three generations and despite the euro area sovereign debt crisis a few years later. The robust economic recovery in the euro-area now enables us to pursue a path of gradual normalisation of our monetary policy.