samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
In that context, the Treasury’s announcement of a clear timetable for the clarification of its new fiscal rules, as well as its preparedness to submit its policy plans to the independent, external scrutiny of the Office for Budget Responsibility is to be welcomed. These considerations also point to the importance of distinguishing between the Bank’s financial stability operation implemented yesterday, and the Bank’s conduct of monetary policy by the MPC. I sought to emphasise that distinction earlier. So to conclude, let me sum up by describing where we stand. I speak here as an individual. I do not represent the views of the MPC as a whole. And, of course, my assessment this evening is conditional on the situation as it stands today. We live in rapidly moving times. As events unfold, assessments need to be updated. But, at present, on the basis of the fiscal easing announced last week, the macroeconomic policy environment looks set to rebalance. Taken in conjunction with the macroeconomic impact of ensuing market developments, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the fiscal easing announced last week will prompt a significant and necessary monetary policy response in November. The views expressed in this speech are not necessarily those of the Bank of England or the Monetary Policy Committee. I would particularly like to thank Saba Alam, Bob Hills and Jack Meaning for their help in preparing this speech.

Page 1  Recent developments in the economy and markets − speech by Huw Pill Given at Institute of Directors NI Annual Dinner, Holywood, County Down  Page 2  Published on 29 September 2022  Speech Good evening everyone. It is a great pleasure to speak at tonight’s annual dinner of the Institute of Directors in Northern Ireland. I owe thanks to Gordon Milligan and his IoD colleagues for their kind invitation. I would also like to thank my colleagues Frances Hill and Gillian Anderson from the Bank of England’s Belfast Agency for putting together such a great agenda for my Northern Ireland visit. Many of you will know them as contacts of the Agency, feeding information about business developments and your own firms’ situation into the Bank’s decision making processes. Let me take this opportunity to thank you for all the time and effort you take to provide those insights. My colleagues on the MPC – as well as in other parts of the Bank – find this information invaluable in getting a timely read on the economy. At a time when we are faced with uncertainty on many dimensions, that timely read can strongly influence our thinking, our analysis and, ultimately, our policy decisions. The Bank’s Belfast Agency was set up in the late 1990s to ensure that developments in Northern Ireland were fully embodied in the Bank’s economic assessment.
Being invested in the company and at the same time exercising active ownership is therefore a possible alternative to exclusion. The ethical guidelines introduced in 2004 also contained guidelines for Norges Bank’s exercise of ownership rights. Ownership rights were to be used to promote a long-term financial return. And since then, the mandate has been based on the assumption that a long-term return is dependent on sustainable developments and well-functioning markets. This is particularly applicable to a large, diversified fund with a long-term perspective such as the GPFG. The fund’s long-term return will reflect global value creation. Responsible investment in practice is today a key part of the investment management mandate issued by the Ministry of Finance to Norges Bank. Responsible investment is to a large extent about promoting well-functioning markets and influencing the fund’s investee companies. Norges Bank complies with international standards and contributes to their further development. Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) votes at shareholder meetings at almost all the companies 5/6  BIS central bankers' speeches  in the GPFG’s portfolio and is in regular dialogue with close to 1000 of the companies in which we are most heavily invested. As provided for in the management mandate, NBIM will in some cases divest from a company. In line with the mandate, Norges Bank performs this task independently. The Ministry of Finance is not involved in individual investments or the exercise of ownership rights.

Dimson E., P. Marsh and M. Staunton (2002) Triumph of the Optimists: 101 Years of Global Investment Returns, Princeton University Press. 2 Dimson E., P. Marsh and M. Staunton “Long-Term Asset Returns” in Financial Market History, edited by D.  Chambers and E. Dimson. 3 The figures are annual figures and the percentage falls are therefore smaller than for measurements from the  peak to the trough on a monthly basis. 4 The Government Petroleum Fund, Annual Report 2002. Norges Bank. 5 See Discussion note 1/2017, International diversification for long-term investors, NBIM 6 Dimson E., P. Marsh and M. Staunton: Credit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2018. Dimson E., P.  Marsh and M. Staunton. Triumph of the Optimists: 101 Years of Global Investment Returns, Princeton University Press, 2002. 7 ibid. 8 Estimated market value in the fund’s benchmark index if the companies had not been excluded. 6/6  BIS central bankers' speeches
Ravi Menon: Powering the next stage of Singapore FinTech Speech by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the Singapore FinTech Festival “The Green Shoots Series – Leading Through a Crisis: Up Close and Personal with Mr Ravi Menon”, Singapore, 13 August 2020. * * *  Five years ago, we had a vision – to make Singapore a Smart Financial Centre. A financial centre where innovation is pervasive and technology is used widely – to increase efficiency; to create new opportunities; to manage risks better; and most importantly to improve people’s lives. A new buzzword was emerging on the scene – “FinTech”. We set our goal to become a leading global FinTech hub. At the core of our drive was a conviction that technology will fundamentally transform financial services … … that if our financial sector stood still, we would be swept away by the tides of technological changes. And the tides were coming in fast: digital and mobile payments; block chains; cloud computing; big data and analytics; AI and learning machines. Together with the industry, MAS set about creating a FinTech ecosystem that embraced both incumbents and insurgents. We wanted to facilitate the digital transformation of established financial institutions so that they can innovate and compete with the best. We also wanted to support FinTech firms outside the financial sector who were innovating new ways to provide financial services.

The relationship between the incumbents and insurgents has been sometimes competitive but often collaborative – and both have been good for the ecosystem. We adopted a multi-pronged strategy to build what is now regarded by many as one of the most vibrant FinTech ecosystems in the world. First, a conducive regulatory approach that facilitates innovation while managing risks: simplifying rules; selectively easing licensing criteria; providing guidance on new areas like cloud computing, robo-advisers, and digital tokens; adopting activity-based regulation right-sized to the risks posed, as in our Payment 1/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  Services Act; and allowing experimentation through regulatory sandboxes. Second, the digital infrastructure necessary for the adoption and proliferation of new technologies: a 24/7, real-time electronic payment system; a national digital identity and trusted data architecture that allows seamless online authentication and financial transactions; digital platforms to connect businesses, financial institutions, and FinTech firms: matching buyers and sellers through, for example, Business sans Borders; and matching problem statements and solutions through, for example, the API Exchange (or APIX); cross-border data and digital connectivity agreements and frameworks; and Project Ubin - a blockchain based prototype platform for cross-border payment and settlement in different currencies on the same network – faster and cheaper than conventional cross-border payment channels.
This is particularly important as the Riksbank has such a high degree of independence. This independence means that it is important to be able to evaluate how we are carrying out our duties. To make it possible to evaluate us, we must be open and clear in everything we do. But it is perhaps not as self-evident that the responsibility of public authority makes a number of other demands on our actions. This applies, for instance, to the forms for how we make our interest rate decisions and how we communicate our monetary policy intentions. The latter is usually called “signalling” in central bank language. I shall return to this. Transparency – being open and clear It was long common for central banks to be secretive and a little mysterious. One example, which today may sound fairly strange, is that the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, did not begin publishing the interest rate changes it had decided until 1994 1 . However, over the past fifteen years, central banks have in general become increasingly open and clear with regard to their actions and intentions. This applies both in inflation-targeting countries like Sweden and in countries that have not quantified a target, like the United States. Democratic reasons for transparency… There are several reasons for the increased openness and clarity, or transparency, as it is usually called. The most important one is probably that the central banks have become more independent in relation to the political system.

Today, several Turkish banks are interested in expanding their operations to the Middle East, considering the growth potential in commercial relations and considerable amount of  BIS Review 101/2010  3  liquidity in the region. Besides, the Middle East is one of the world’s fastest growing markets in the banking and capital sector. Islamic finance is yet another venue through which financial links across the countries in the region may be strengthened. The global crisis has given an opportunity to Islamic financial institutions to prove their potential. As their products limit the excessive leverage and the disruptive financial innovations, they have confirmed their products’ advantages to ensure macroeconomic stability. This may lead the way for Islamic financial institutions to further expand and improve. Islamic banks support GDP growth through the use of funds they collect exclusively for the financing of real sector, rather than investing in nonproductive financial assets. This understanding will not only contribute to the potential growth of the Islamic banks, but also help to maintain a sound structure of the financial system. I believe that such a forward-looking and constructive vision will contribute the financial stability to a great extent going forward. One crucial prerequisite for closer commercial links within the region is the existence of strong, efficient and effective payment system. In the last twenty years, rapid technological progress, decrease in restrictions and globalization of financial markets have led to a rise in financial activities and a rapid growth in the volume of domestic and cross-border payments.
The interest rate works through different channels, such as the house price channel. A lower key policy rate may lead to higher house prices via lower lending rates. This may, in turn, have a positive impact on consumption. If the ability to borrow against home equity is reduced, the house price channel will become weaker. Monetary policy, for its part, can be one of several factors that lead to a build-up of financial imbalances. History has shown that long periods of low interest rates can increase the risk that debt and asset prices reach unsustainable levels. Expectations of low interest rates may become entrenched among banks and borrowers when interest rates remain low for a long period. This may result in rapidly rising house prices. With low interest rates and rising house prices, banks may apply more lenient credit terms. We have also witnessed that low interest rates can prompt financial market participants to search for higher yields from alternative and often risky assets. Macroprudential regulation and monetary policy will often pull in the same direction. If the economy is booming, with rising inflation prospects and the risk of a build-up of financial imbalances, a tightening of monetary policy and capital requirements can underpin both objectives at the same time. Likewise, a pronounced downturn with increased banks losses can be addressed by lowering both the key policy rate and capital requirements. But in some situations, it may be appropriate to reduce the key policy rate at the same time as the capital requirements are tightened.

In fact, such an EU fund would be better diversified than the national funds are today, which all else equal would enable it to charge lower fees or hold a bigger risk-adjusted buffer. In the event of really large banks or several large banks failing, there could be an established system of committed drawing rights, where the EU fund has the right to raise funds through national governments’ ability to raise tax. Regarding liquidity support, the ECB would be given the role as lender of last resort. To convince national governments to commit such guarantees would of course demand very strict and well thought-out rules governing what actions the EU fund should be allowed to take in the case of a bank failure. These rules could be inspired by the US FDIC’s very strict mandate to always choose the least cost solution. Among other things, this would in some cases mean allowing shareholders as well as uninsured depositors and debt holders to lose their money. Since to my knowledge most EU countries lack the rules on how to handle large bank failures, it would also be very positive from a contingency planning and moral hazard point of view. With a strong legal framework, the EU would be able to let investors in even the biggest banks take full financial responsibility.
Gent Sejko: The importance of studying technological and demographic developments disrupting labour, finance and markets Welcome remarks by Mr Gent Sejko, Governor of the Bank of Albania, at the 13th SEE Economic Research Workshop, Tirana, 5 December 2019. * * * Dear Ambassador Maître, Dear guests and speakers from academia, central banks and research institutions, Dear participants, It is a great pleasure for me to open the proceedings of the 13th SEE Economic Research Workshop, in which we present and open for discussion research projects undertaken by the Bank of Albania in the current year, and have the opportunity to get feedback from colleagues from academia, central banks and research institutions worldwide. This is a very important event for the Bank of Albania, since all the projects that will be discussed during the two days of the workshop are designed to help the analysis, decision making and implementation in the areas of monetary policy and financial stability as well as other central bank aspects. Based on this careful formal analysis, our policies have been successful in preserving monetary, macroeconomic and financial stability. Despite hardships, our economy has registered positive growth rates, and our banking system’s performance has been stable. The banking sector is well capitalized and profitable, non-performing loans have decreased and banks continue to support economic activity with credit, while managing potential shocks originated from the external sector of the economy. The agenda is rich and covers the most important areas of research related to traditional central bank activity.

The Rt Hon Sir Edward George: A brief review of economic and financial developments in the UK Speech by The Rt Hon Sir Edward George, Governor of the Bank of England, at the Finance and Leasing Association Annual Dinner, London, 24 March 2003. *  *  *  Mr Chairman, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, I must confess that I was surprised when I discovered that it was seven years since I last spoke at this Finance and Leasing Association Annual Dinner. I'm delighted to be with you here this evening. On that earlier occasion - in 1996 - I emphasised the corrosive and debilitating effect of high and variable inflation that we had experienced in this country over much of the previous 50 years. I stressed the damage that this had done to our economy - the pervasive uncertainty and unpredictability, and the short-termism that it induced, in personal and business as well as financial behaviour, the incentive to borrow and spend rather than save and invest, the masking of real price signals as the guide to efficient resource allocation, and the masking, too, of productive inefficiency that was too easily covered up by generally rising prices and earnings. But I suggested that the tide had already then finally begun to turn. I drew attention to the growing constituency in support of stability in this country - as a necessary condition for sustainable growth after our particularly bitter experience of boom and bust in the late 1980's and early 1990's.
William J McDonough: Completing the journey to the New Basel Accord Remarks by Mr William J McDonough, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, before the Twelfth International Conference of Banking Supervisors, Cape Town, South Africa, 18 September 2002. *  *  *  Introduction and Overview As the chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, I am honored to welcome you today to the Twelfth International Conference of Banking Supervisors. I would like to thank our hosts, Governor Mboweni and the staff of the South African Reserve Bank, as well as my colleague, Andrew Crockett, and the Bank for International Settlements, for organizing our gathering here in Cape Town. I’m sure you’ll agree that they’ve done an excellent job. It appears to me, and probably to many of you, that South Africans have discovered a wonderful niche for themselves as hosts of auspicious international gatherings, having just concluded the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg a few weeks ago. So if you’re visiting this beautiful country for the first time, I have a feeling that you may be back in South Africa someday in the future. Participants at the United Nations summit in Johannesburg sought ways to improve the lives of people everywhere by focusing on, among other goals, alleviating poverty and promoting economic growth. Bank supervisors and central bankers certainly share those goals.

As we complete the final miles of our marathon journey, I am confident that the New Accord will be worthy of our efforts. Thank you. BIS Review 52/2002  7
Overly high inflation would have disastrous consequences for the economy – as German history shows. Excessively low inflation would have exposed us to deflation, a mortal danger as we know from the 1930s. In practice, price stability was defined by the Council of Governors as from 2003 as an inflation rate of close to, but below, 2% over the medium-term. This definition has not changed and is now widely shared by all the central banks in developed countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. Up to recent years, the stability of prices in the euro area was remarkable. However, as from 2013, inflation dropped to well below the 2% mark. Our mandate required us to respond so as to bring inflation back to healthier levels for our economies. b) What is the situation today? Inflation is gradually recovering in the euro area, as we had announced: we have gone from a fall of 0.2% in April 2016 to a rise of 1.1% in last December. This is partly due to the rebound in energy prices but is also the result of our monetary policy: it 1/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  has enabled us to ward off the risk of deflation which was still a threat in 2015. Now in contrast, some seem to fear a resurgence of inflation; this is very exaggerated. We have not yet reached our 2% target and “core” inflation – excluding energy and food – is of only 0.9%.

The British prime minister’s speech last week provided some clarifications but it is essential to bear one clear principle in mind: the single market is not divisible; access to the single market is inseparable from respecting its rules. This makes a simple free trade agreement such as that proposed by Theresa May very difficult and there can be no cherry picking with regard to Europe. The German Chancellor has quite rightly stressed that it is essential for all 27 Member States to be united on this matter. ** I will conclude by sharing my conviction with you. In the face of US and global uncertainties, I want the euro area to be an area of relative stability and growth. But now more than ever, France and Germany must act together. As a central banker, our duty is to implement the best possible monetary policy for the euro area, in keeping with our mandate. But this monetary policy neither can, nor should, do everything. It is also my responsibility to make proposals for more effective economic policies. I have outlined some ideas to you with my conviction as a European and I am now happy to answer your questions. 4/4  BIS central bankers' speeches