samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Credit conditions surveys over the past few years have suggested considerable improvement at the aggregate level, with fewer firms reporting difficulties accessing external finance. 5  Bank of England (2016a), ‘Understanding and measuring finance for productive investment’, Discussion Paper, available at www.bankofengland.co.uk/financialstability/Documents/fsdiscussionpaper/080416.pdf. 6 Saleheen, J, Levina I, Melolinna, M and Tatomir, S (2017), 'The financial system and productive investment: new survey evidence', Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Vol 57, No1. 5  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  5  The improvement has been most marked for large businesses, which now seem to face few constraints on cost and availability of financing. Credit conditions for smaller businesses have taken longer to improve – net lending to small business only turned positive in August 2015. And although small firms' perceptions of the cost and availability of credit have improved substantially they are, on balance, still negative (Chart 1). Chart 1: Perceived availability and cost of credit for large and small firms Net percentage balances  100  Solid lines: availability of credit Dashed lines: cost of credit  Credit is cheaper/more available  50  Large Businesses  + 0  Small Businesses  -50 Credit is dearer/less available  -100 2007 08  09  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  Sources: Deloitte CFO Survey, FSB Voice of Small Business Index, Bank calculations.

Options provided to firms include: distribution to shareholders includes dividends and share buybacks. Purchasing financial assets includes M&A. Source: Bank of England Finance and Investment Decisions survey. And, on a related question, 80% of all the publicly owned firms agreed that financial market pressure for short-term returns to shareholders had been an obstacle to investment. Somewhat surprisingly, a significant proportion of the privately owned firms in the survey also saw financial market pressures as an obstacle to investment. This implies perhaps that financial market pressures for returns have a more general effect on the way investment returns are viewed by firms. The underinvesting firms also faced non-financial obstacles. Chief amongst these were greater risk aversion and greater uncertainty about the economic environment, which may include uncertainty about the returns to investment. I want to deal with these under my second set of observations around rates of return. At this stage, however, it is worth noting that for the group that underinvested, non-financial obstacles seem to have played as big a role as financial ones in their investment decisions. And, when looking at constraints on finance, using profits to finance investment appeared as important as constraints on borrowing. 9  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  9  As I noted earlier, the question of constraints on finance for investment in the UK has deep roots.
In other words, controls can cause harm.8 On Tuesday morning, a hurricane damages your main office and floods the backup generator that powers the emergency communications system. Because the emergency communication system is offline, employees do not know they should report to the backup work location, so operations are out for the day. In a simple world, controls are protection, they don’t need protection. In the real world, both the production and control system can be damaged and degraded. So, the control system itself must be designed to operate under stress, and its performance must be monitored. It’s been a tough week so far, but you’ve made it to Wednesday. At noon, your information security officer tells you that a security scan has flagged a possible cyber breach. You cut off all network connections, send non-essential employees home, and wait until the end of the day until diagnostics are complete. The news at the end of the day is good: it turns out that the alert was a false positive. But, the organization lost half a day of productive activity. In a simple world, controls detect problems immediately, diagnose with perfect accuracy, and result in corrective actions that are instantly and fully effective. In the real world, detection takes time, diagnosis is not always accurate, solutions take time to implement, and they don’t always work. That said, we must make decisions—including ones about whether and how to execute controls—based on the information available at the time.

This is not something we will do for one or two years. We will have to continue this work as our children become young adults and eventually retire, giving rise to a whole new cycle. Hence the work on financial education has to be done continuously, as it is a very important area to help Singaporeans. 1  Financial Literacy Survey of over 1,800 Singaporeans and PRs conducted by The Nielsen Company on behalf of MAS between August and October 2013. Respondents answered questions and participated in focus groups on their knowledge of, attitudes and behaviour towards financial products and management. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Towards better financial wellbeing Financial protection 7. What will MAS do? We have a two-pronged approach to help Singaporeans to enhance their financial well-being. The first is to regulate the conduct of our banks and financial institutions. For banking, the key issue is to discourage the imprudent use of unsecured credit facilities. Consumer research has shown the immediate pleasure of purchasing a designer accessory or purchasing the latest gadget using a credit card. If you have a credit card, the immediate pleasure of using it to purchase the latest good that you’re interested in can lead people to spending more than they otherwise would. There was an experiment with a group of students in the US who were asked to bid for a pair of tickets to a basketball match.
The resumption of growth of the Spanish economy will depend above all on our perseverance in pushing through the reforms. As I mentioned in my address to the Spanish Parliamentary Budget Committee, and as I believe bears repeating here, economic policy has to continue striving towards two main goals: promoting competitiveness and growth, and restoring the sustainability of public finances. I will focus particularly on this second stage of the adjustment. Fiscal consolidation In the present circumstances, ensuring the credibility of the process of fiscal consolidation is a priority. After the heavy slippage in the deficit in 2011, it is crucial to dispel doubts as to the capacity to control the upward path of public debt. Credibility is the main alleviating factor to mitigate the contractionary impact, in the short run, of the necessary adjustment measures. For the consolidation to be credible, the expenditure-reducing and revenue-enhancing measures have to be well-designed and consistent with our chosen path; in addition, experience indicates that to prevent slippage, it is advisable to work with a highly conservative projection of public revenue. When forecasting revenue, underestimates are more acceptable than overestimates. Also, adequate early warning tools are required to detect in advance any possible deviations and to make, where necessary, the required corrections in time. The Budgetary Stability Law provides an appropriate tool for controlling expenditure.

Taken together, these steps mean that LOLR no longer has to shoulder as much of the burden of preventing insolvency ex ante, or dealing with it ex post. As such, the Bank is now able to state, as a presumption, that all banks and building societies meeting the supervisory threshold conditions for authorisation may sign up for, and access, the Bank’s published liquidity facilities 2. So changes designed to reduce the risks of lending “too much” have actually allowed the UK to offer a more effective LOLR scheme. The second lesson drawn in the UK was that, to avoid the twin pitfalls of “too little” and “too much”, the central bank should have access to the best possible information to judge solvency; and wherever possible be ready and willing to lend on pre-defined terms, against pre-defined collateral. Prior to the crisis, the Bank said very little about the terms on which it would be willing to provide LOLR, or the collateral against which it would lend. Indeed the provision of liquidity insurance wasn’t explicitly acknowledged in its public framework, in large part with a view to minimising moral hazard. In addition, the Bank had limited access to information on the financial position of firms to whom it might have to provide LOLR, because banking supervision was carried out in the Financial Services Authority, a separate organisation. In practice, efforts to tackle moral hazard had little effect: in the absence of formal regulatory requirements, banks took minimal steps to self-insure against liquidity risk.
The banking system can only work effectively if there is an effective means of restructuring corporate debt. It is not however our practice to use our powers under the Banking Ordinance to force banks to take decision on workouts which are against their commercial judgment. Instead, we try to achieve our objectives through moral suasion. Looking ahead, it is essential that the process of corporate debt restructuring in Hong Kong should operate as effectively and smoothly as possible. This is particularly the case as we contemplate the task of restructuring the Mainland-related companies such as Guangdong Enterprises which are currently in financial difficulties. The scale of these problems and the unfamiliarity with the workout concept on the Mainland will pose particular challenges. The lending banks will need to exercise patience while the borrowers and their shareholders must face up to the need for transparency and openness with their creditors. This is going to be a long and arduous process which has only just begun, but the GITIC liquidation provides a clear example that the alternative is even more unpalatable. I will close with some thoughts on how we might take forward the task of improving the workout process in Hong Kong to deal with the challenges ahead. One thing that will help is the proposal to introduce provisional supervision in Hong Kong. The aim of the proposal is to facilitate a company in working out a voluntary arrangement with creditors.

The Guidelines are in turn based on the London Approach that was formulated by the Bank of England when the UK market was going through similar strains at the beginning of the 1990s. The underlying principles of the Guidelines are as follows: *  When it becomes public knowledge that a debtor company may be experiencing financial problems and the borrower has approached its banks, banks’ initial attitude should be one of support. They should not withdraw facilities or hastily put the company into receivership, or issue writs demanding repayment. *  Further decisions should only be based on information that is reliable and shared fully with all the creditor banks (after obtaining the debtor’s permission). *  The decision to offer the company financial assistance - or not - should be a collective one by creditor banks. It will be seen that the process begins when the debtor takes the initiative to approach the banks and to call what is known as an “all banks” meeting. This is the first psychological barrier to be crossed, since companies are often reluctant to own up to their difficulties. The meeting with the banks offers the company the opportunity to explain the nature of its problems and to ask the banks to agree to a standstill on repayments of principal and possibly also of interest.
In terms of the outlook, a key issue that the Committee faces in deciding the appropriate stance of policy is the extent to which the current elevated levels of inflation will persist into the medium term. Our most recent projections, conditioned on market interest rates, existing fiscal plans and the futures prices of commodities, are shown in Chart 10. The central view is for inflation is to rise further in the near term as recent commodity price increases pass through, but then to fall back, particularly in 2012 as the rise in VAT to 20% drops out of the twelve-month comparison. It then continues to ease back, reflecting the continuing – though uncertain – drag from the margin of spare capacity in the economy. A number of factors will determine the rapidity of that return to target. Profit margins have been squeezed during the recession and businesses are likely to want to rebuild these as the recovery proceeds. But the real purchasing power of wages has also been severely squeezed and employees may also seek to recoup some of that. Ultimately this is about how the costs of the recession and the deterioration in the terms of trade associated with higher real import costs are shared out 7 , but during the adjustment phase it may be manifested in temporarily higher wage and price inflation. Consistently above-target inflation, whatever its cause, may also lead people to believe that it will remain high in the future.

Iceland’s economy is advanced, transparent and dynamic. The population is relatively young, well educated and quick to adapt to technological and scientific innovations. A strong fully funded pension system has been built up and, unlike other countries, there is no reason to fear for its sustainability. GDP per capita ranks with the highest in the world, and the economic and social infrastructure is solid. The openness of the economy results in a smaller effect from a contraction in domestic demand on employment than might be expected. The authorities shape the framework in which businesses and the financial system operate. Through its membership of the European Economic Area, Iceland enjoys similar operating conditions to those within the European Union. Nonetheless, it retains various features that influence economic advancement, such as a rather business-friendly tax environment, efficient public administration and flexible labour market. Extensive and rapid transformation of the financial sector puts supervisory agencies under pressure. The Financial Supervisory Authority (FME) has been granted an increasingly wide remit in recent years and its activities have been strengthened. One task is to monitor the banks’ transactions with main shareholders and executives. Payment and settlement systems are a key component of an efficient and sound financial system. Steps have recently been completed towards bringing their regulatory framework into line with international best practice. Although such work tends to go relatively unnoticed, it is crucial for enhancing security of settlements and reducing technical risks. The main financial sector vulnerabilities are presented in the table below.
The Act amended the PRA’s objectives to incorporate ring-fencing, and set out the basic structural aspects of the regime (in particular about the scope of the ring-fence), while leaving much of the framework to be established via statutory instruments from the Treasury. The statute also detailed matters related to ring-fenced banks’ governance and policies which the PRA should make rules about. The PRA also implemented further details of the regime (e.g. systems and controls requirements, capital requirements for ring-fenced banks, independence requirements, access to payment systems) via rules. To be clear, I am not focused here on the question of whether or not the SMCR or ring-fencing are a good thing, about which people will argue for decades. Rather, I am focused on the legislative style which Parliament adopted in order to introduce them – how this style compares to other models, and which model seems to fit best the principles set out above for a future financial services framework in the UK. 1 2  See Annex 1 The 2000 Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) established the current domestic UK framework for financial regulation 5  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  5  To my mind, if we look across the four main legislative styles adopted by Parliament in the last couple of decades – those for delivering FSMA, SMCR, ring-fencing and the EU model – the one that fits the principles best is the approach used for SMCR: 1. Robust prudential standards.

All this should lead to a more harmonised regulation and supervision across countries, and as a result also foster financial integration. 2  BIS Review 47/2010  For central bankers, the part of the reform which directly concerns them is the establishment of the ESRB, a new independent body that will for the first time carry out a comprehensive macro-prudential oversight of the financial system of the EU. The ESRB will also issue risk warnings, and, where appropriate, recommendations, and follow up their implementation. This body will bring together the central bankers, the heads of the three supervisory authorities, the Commission together with the supervisors of the 27 EU Member States to regularly discuss and assess the financial stability conditions in the EU. In that respect, the ESRB shows some keen similarities with the Financial Stability Council in the proposed financial reform in the United States. The ESRB is expected to support financial integration through its contribution to financial stability in the EU. Indeed, if market participants are confident that the authorities take properly into account the interdependencies between countries and the various components of the financial system, they are likely to fully exploit the possibilities offered by cross-border activities in the EU.
According to the monetary policy strategy in Inflation Report 2/06, the sight deposit rate should be in the interval 2¾ - 3¾ per cent in the period to the publication of the next Inflation Report on 1 November, conditional on economic developments that are broadly in line with projections. In the first six months of 2006, the key rate was increased twice by increments of 0.25 percentage point. There are prospects that the interest rate will rise further at about the same pace. In line with this strategy, Norges Bank’s Executive Board decided to raise the sight deposit rate by 0.25 percentage point to 3.00 per cent at its meeting on 16 August. Capacity constraints and a shortage of skilled labour were cited as mounting challenges to a number of industries. At the same  4  BIS Review 80/2006  time, corporate earnings are very high. Local government tax revenues have increased substantially. Household and corporate borrowing remains high. Property prices are rising markedly, and the level of building activity is high. Growth among our trading partners is solid, and a number of countries have raised their policy rates. These factors point to a higher interest rate. At the same time, inflationary pressures, with the exception of energy prices, in the Norwegian economy remain fairly moderate. The krone exchange rate has depreciated recently, but over a period of several quarters the krone has varied around fairly strong levels. Exchange rate movements are difficult to project.

Crude oil prices rose to about USD 75 per barrel over the summer, partly owing to the conflict in the Middle East and reduced production in Nigeria and the US. In recent weeks, oil prices have edged back again. Brent Blend futures prices nevertheless indicate that oil prices will remain high several years ahead. Export prices for Norwegian natural gas largely follow developments in oil prices with a lag. Since autumn 2005, prices for Norwegian gas exports have risen substantially according to the quarterly reports of the oil companies Statoil and Hydro. In the next few years, natural gas will account for a steadily larger share of total petroleum production on the Norwegian continental shelf. Petroleum investment has reached a high level after three years of strong growth. In 2005, investment was close to NOK 87 billion, and it is expected to edge up again this year. The large Ormen Lange and Snøhvit projects have contributed to high petroleum investment, and high oil prices have fuelled activity even at oil fields that have been in production for a long period. The development of the Skarv Idun fields will contribute to holding up petroleum investment from 2007. Information from our regional network suggests that petroleum investment provides considerable impulses to activity in Norway’s coastal regions. According to the network, suppliers to the petroleum sector are expecting strong growth to continue in the coming months.
Before going into the specific refinements, I would like to elaborate the background of the arrangement for the conversion of RMB conducted by Participating AIs through the Clearing Bank in Shanghai: (1)  First, RMB funds flowed into Hong Kong through trade payments or other channels will become RMB deposits in Hong Kong, and these RMB funds can be used, deployed or exchanged freely into other currencies in the market in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations in Hong Kong. This is the main premise of developing an RMB offshore market in Hong Kong. In other words, the exchange rate and interest rate of RMB are to be determined by the supply and demand of RMB funds in the Hong Kong market. As the offshore and onshore markets are segregated, it is not unusual that the pricing may be different between the two markets. BIS Review 175/2010  1  (2)  Secondly, we should look at the actual supply and demand of RMB funds in the Hong Kong market this year. At the end of November, the total amount of RMB deposits in Hong Kong reached RMB 280 billion. This means that Hong Kong has accumulated a substantial pool of RMB funds which can meet the market’s daily demand.

For coordination with the SBIF, a mechanism similar to that which already exists requiring a prior report or authorization from the BCCH when the supervisor exercises its regulatory power, could be used. BIS Review 142/2010  7  8  BIS Review 142/2010