samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
BIS Review 52/2006  5  optimism regarding the role monetary policy can play in long-term real economic growth was one important reason why inflation was so high during the 1970s. The value of independence How can one then construct a framework for monetary policy that provides the central bank with the best possible conditions to carry out its tasks? Here I intend to be fairly brief as this is something that will be discussed in more detail in the next contribution to this conference. Let me just note that there is currently general agreement that the central bank should be given the opportunity to work independent of the political system in order to attain the objective of price stability. It has been observed that if monetary policy is conducted at arm’s length from party politics, there is greater confidence in the price stability objective. This is linked to the fact that there has often been a tendency for politicians to use monetary policy for more short-term purposes which have conflicted with the long-term price stability objective and which have often entailed loosening the nominal anchor. Making the central bank independent is probably the element of the past decades’ monetary reform process that has triggered the most debate and has been perceived as the most controversial. It is probably natural for politicians to feel uncomfortable giving the central bank increased independence as it unavoidably means that they give up some of their decision-making powers, and moreover in a field perceived to be central.

The maximum bid amount and rate have varied over the life of the exercise in order to ensure usage sufficient to generate useful observations about counterparty demand under various market conditions during the testing period; however, as authorized by the Committee, they cannot exceed $ billion per counterparty and 5 basis points, respectively.18 It bears emphasizing once again that, like the Federal Reserve’s other  16  The facility does, however, raise new collateral management issues for the Desk, which would have to ensure that SOMA securities are appropriately allocated to meet policy and operational needs across multiple operations. 17  The Desk has been conducting periodic, small-value term reverse repo exercises with its expanded counterparties through tri-party arrangements since October 2009. These exercises have been limited to $ billion in total amounts outstanding and have been conducted according to the traditional, fixed-quantity model of Desk operations. In August 2013, the exercises were arranged for same-day settlement and overnight maturity in anticipation of initiating overnight fixed-rate reverse repos. 18  All 139 counterparties are eligible to participate, but they are able to choose whether they do so. Each counterparty was initially limited to a maximum bid of $ million. This amount was raised to $ billion on September 26, after we ensured that the initial launch of the exercise did not operationally overwhelm the  8  BIS central bankers’ speeches  operational readiness exercises, this one is a matter of prudent advance planning.
So, as a result of our operations, investors end up holding fewer gilts, together with more cash in their bank accounts. And corresponding to that increase in bank deposits, the banks themselves see their reserves accounts at the Bank of England increase. If the seller were indifferent between holding the gilt and holding the associated bank deposit, then that is where things would end. But because deposits tend to yield less than gilts and assets such as corporate bonds and equities, the seller is likely in due course to want to buy some other asset instead. The consequence is upward pressure on the prices of a whole range of assets, including corporate bonds and equities. That in turn increases the availability, and reduces the cost, of finance to corporates. It also boosts the value of people's wealth, which should encourage more spending. And, more generally, QE is likely to have boosted confidence by removing some of the worst downside risks associated with a potential slide into deflation. As I noted a moment ago, we aim to source the gilts from institutions other than banks. Because the banks end up with more customer deposits and more liquid assets, they may be encouraged to extend more bank credit. In this way, QE could boost the supply of credit through the banking system, as well as through the capital markets. But in the circumstances prevailing after the financial crisis, with the banks engaged in repairing their balance sheets, this particular channel was expected to be weak.

Reworking the analysis of the text does not, however, affect the main conclusions regarding the impact of QE. Charts D and E are the equivalents of Charts 6 and 7, showing the calculated deficits with and without QE for a fully funded and a 30% underfunded pension scheme respectively. As before, QE makes little difference in the case of a fully funded scheme, but moves it towards deficit in the case of a significantly underfunded one.
), Stalin celebrated the arrival of the [Spanish] gold with a banquet at which he [toasted], “The Spaniards will never see their gold again, just as one cannot see one’s own ears.” Sometimes there is illustrative power in a negative example, even from one whose transgressions went exceedingly beyond being an untrustworthy custodian. The antithesis of what this Bank stands for could not be expressed with more force or greater clarity. The ultimate foundation of this institution, you see, far beyond its technical capacities in monetary policy execution, or its supervision of financial institutions, or its provision of financial services, is trust. This trust must be earned, every day, across every mandate, especially in an era in which confidence in public institutions has waned. The nature of this trust is fickle: it accrues slowly, and can evaporate instantly. It is a charge we take very seriously, especially when it comes to the resiliency and security of the foundational elements of our nation’s payment system. Thank you for your generous attention today. I’d be pleased to respond to a few questions. 3/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  4/4

All reporting institutions are invited to provide comments and views on the draft which may be organized through relevant licencing authorities, self-regulatory bodies, industry associations or directly to Bank Negara Malaysia; and 2. second, I would also like to take this opportunity to remind all reporting institutions, that Bank Negara Malaysia is increasing its supervisory and enforcement of AML/CFT compliance, in which we intend to pursue more deterrent action including taking appropriate enforcement actions under the AMLA, for any identified non-compliances, beginning 2020. As such we urge all reporting institutions present today to engage and discourse any compliance issues with the wide ranging of experts that we have lined up for this conference. With that, I wish everyone a fruitful discussion ahead and Selamat Menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan. 3/3  BIS central bankers' speeches
Jessica Chew Cheng Lian: Launch of Financial Literacy Month 2022 Opening remarks by Ms Jessica Chew Cheng Lian, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the Launch of Financial Literacy Month 2022, Kuala Lumpur, 1 October 2022. *** 1. It is my great pleasure to welcome you to Sasana Kijang for the launch of the Financial Literacy Month 2022. On behalf of the Financial Education Network, I thank you for your presence here to join us in flagging off a month-long roadshow to help people across the country build greater confidence in financial matters. It is especially gratifying for our teams to be able to go on the road again, to meet and talk to people in person after what has been a difficult period for many. 2. This is the third year that the Financial Education Network is holding a financial literacy month. And while we have lined up many activities and programmes over the coming month, I know that no one here believes financial education starts and stops within a month. I was reminded again of this as we are about to share the results of the most recent Financial Capability and Inclusion Demand Side Survey, or the FCI Survey, in short, that was conducted in 2021. This is a survey that we carry out once in every three years to track how the level of financial capability in our society – measured in terms of financial knowledge, behaviour and attitudes – is changing over time. 3.

A number of studies have shown that countries, which are more open have a greater capacity to imitate technological progress. The capacity to renew regulatory frameworks and institutions to enable the country to embrace change is an important part of this openness. Obstacles to ideas, goods, services and production factors moving freely across borders have declined during the 1990s, partly thanks to our membership of the EU, and it is reasonable to assume that this has had a positive effect on factor productivity. For a small country like Sweden, internationalisation and increased international competition are expected to lead to particularly favourable productivity effects. Various measures indicate a marked increase in the degree of internationalisation in the Swedish economy. Both the import share and the export share have risen, which means that trade and the degree of specialisation have increased. Moreover, foreign direct investment in Sweden has multiplied and it is mainly direct investment from EU countries that has increased. Although the increasing international openness has been pronounced in Sweden with, for instance, a rise of 13 percentage points in the export share of GDP during the 1990s, there are several smaller countries that have shown an even more rapid increase in the equivalent figures. This reflects the globalised world in which we live, and does not reduce the significance of openness for the development of factor productivity. Internationalisation has thus contributed to ensuring that an increasing percentage of trade and industry is exposed to competition.
Mr Bäckström discusses the prospects for the Swedish economy on the threshold of the new millennium  Speech given by Mr Urban Bäckström, Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank and Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of the Bank for International Settlements, at the Umeå School of Economics and Business Administration on 3 December 1999. *  *  *  First a word of thanks for the invitation to Umeå to discuss the prospects for the Swedish economy on the threshold of the new millennium. In an economic perspective, the last century of this millennium appears to be unique. The dramatic improvement in prosperity and living standards that has taken place during the 20th century is unparalleled in the history of our country. As recently as the 19th century, Sweden was poor, perhaps even one of the poorest European countries. History teaches us that material prosperity can never be taken for granted. Countries and areas can suddenly rise up and become culturally and materially prominent only to subsequently fall back again into poverty. There are examples of this in the present millennium as well as in those preceeding it. Economic growth is not just a matter of the usual economic aspects, i.e. accumulation of real capital and population increase. There are cases where countries with a high rate of capital investment and relatively high population growth have failed to transform this into rapidly increasing material prosperity. The former planned economies are clear examples of this. Something more is evidently required.

BIS Review 137/1999  6  Today we can see similar developments in the IT industry. Besides the giant Ericssson, Sweden has many different IT enterprises. But growth is still being driven not so much by users of the new communication facilities as by the production of new possibilities. To continue with the comparison, in the next phase people started to travel by rail. A journey from Stockholm to Gothenburg admittedly took 11 hours and 45 minutes in 1865 but that was nothing compared with a horse-drawn carriage. Travelling became quicker and more efficient; people gained new impressions and learned new things. Sweden became smaller. Today we travel on the Internet by gathering information simply and efficiently from all over the world, largely for the price of a local telephone call. Millions of people in all parts of the world are indeed using this facility and in that sense the world has now become smaller. The really important phase, however, was when the railways began to affect processes for production and distribution. Previously, production in Sweden had been located in the vicinity of iron ore and forests. The units were numerous and not particularly efficient; transportation was slow. In the county of Värmland, for example, there were sixty different sites for the production of iron in 1870. When the railways had been constructed, it was easier to concentrate production to fewer sites; by around 1900 there were only six sites and they were accordingly considerably more efficient.
12  By contrast, net profit at the six listed banks fell by 29% in 2022 Q1 compared with a year earlier, but this was due to the almost € billion recorded in extraordinary gains in March 2021 as a result of the merger at CaixaBank. 8  Fourth, the cost-to-income ratio13 worsened slightly in 2021, affected by the extraordinary restructuring costs recorded at several significant banks, although it remains lower (better) than that of the European peers. In recent years the Spanish banking industry’s operating capacity has converged towards average European values, against a backdrop of branch closures and staff reductions in the main European countries. Thus, at December 2020, the number of branches per 100,000 inhabitants in Spain was 47, a figure similar to that of the French banking system and close to that of the Italian one,14 although Spain’s population density is lower. Between 2008 and 2020 the number of branches was cut by more than 50%, while staff reductions, albeit lower, were also significant (close to 40%). In both cases, these are the second highest cuts among the main European countries.15 Branch closures have been comparatively higher in urban areas with higher population growth.16  13  The cost-to-income ratio is defined as the ratio of operating expenses to gross income, such that higher (lower) values denote lower (higher) efficiency.

The economic policy measures implemented have proven crucial in maintaining households’ and firms’ ability to pay and their net lending. Thus, the NPL ratio for credit to the resident private sector stood at 4.2% at end-2021, down 0.2 pp year-on-year. However, despite this good NPL performance, there are latent credit portfolio impairments. Stage 2 loans4 continued to rise at high rates at end-2021 (14% year-on-year), although notably below the growth rates of previous quarters. At December 2021, Stage 2 loans accounted for 8% of all loans, up 2.2 pp on pre-pandemic levels. Forborne loans5 also rose by 14% (compared with the decline of 9% in 2020), owing to strong growth among NFCs and sole proprietors. At end-2021 they accounted for 5% of total outstanding loans, the same percentage as prior to the pandemic. The economic sectors most severely affected by the pandemic show the greatest signs of deterioration. Here, the combined share of NPLs and Stage 2 loans stood at 4  Pursuant to Circular 4/2017, a loan is classified as a Stage 2 exposure when credit risk has increased significantly since initial recognition, even if no event of default has occurred. 5  Forborne loans are also typically associated with possible repayment difficulties for borrowers; indeed, more than half are classified as non-performing. 6  almost 24% at December 2021, compared with 17.7% in the moderately affected sectors and 15.5% in those least affected.
As you will see in slide 5, the share of these investments amounted to more than 70% at the end of 2015. The SNB has a very long investment horizon. In view of this, the criterion of security is taken into account by structuring investments so that at least the real value is preserved over the long term. Thus, after liquidity and security, the criterion of return is also taken into consideration. In order to improve the long-term risk/return profile, certain interest rate, equity, credit and liquidity risks are intentionally entered into, based on the associated risk  4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  premia. These risks are spread as widely as possible by diversifying the investments. For instance, government bonds in the main currencies are supplemented by additional asset classes including corporate bonds and equities. In particular, the share of equities, which currently amounts to 18%, increases the expected return in our portfolio. Challenges when investing high foreign exchange reserves The SNB is one of the world’s major investors. At the end of 2015, our foreign exchange reserves amounted to around CHF 560 billion. The management of large foreign currency investments comes with its own set of challenges. I would like to focus on three of these challenges in particular, and explain briefly how we address them: first, the widening of fluctuations in absolute investment returns; second, non-financial aspects, which have become much more important in our globally diversified equity portfolio; and third, liquidity conditions, which have deteriorated in some markets.

They show the observed intraday frequency of certain fluctuations in yield on US or Japanese government bonds for the period since 2001. Fluctuations of the magnitude described here are extremely rare events. Such episodes prompted fears that market distortions of this kind could recur at any time. What do these changes in market liquidity mean for the SNB? At the operational portfolio management level, we are affected by the deterioration in corporate bond liquidity. The greatest difficulty stems from the fact that trading is increasingly focused on a comparatively small section of the corporate bonds outstanding. This has meant that large purchases or sales are more difficult, and more expensive, than before the financial crisis. This, in turn, has necessitated some adjustments in the way corporate bond portfolios are managed. The SNB is now more active in the primary sales market than before, and has also expanded its counterparty base. In addition, depending on the liquidity situation, transactions are having to be split into smaller tranches. Overall, therefore, the management of corporate bond portfolios has become more complex and more demanding. By contrast, the markets for highly rated government bonds continue to be very liquid. Shortterm price fluctuations do not place any limitations on the management of the government bonds in our portfolio. As I have already mentioned, we have a very long investment horizon. We hold our investments for at least one full economic cycle and we are not obliged to sell, even in periods of stress.
Inflation rates have been falling in most countries and they have registered appreciable expansion in economic activities with GDP growth rates averaging at about 5% in 2007. In addition, most countries have become more democratic in political circles, giving more say to the public on the running of governments and their institutions. Distinguished Participants, allow me now to turn to the subject we are gathered here for, that is, “Central Bank Governance”. Good corporate governance is generally acknowledged as  BIS Review 26/2008  1  important in economic management. In this regard, Central bank governance is arguably defined by a number of key-concepts or pillars, which together should form the basis of an effective legal framework governing a central bank and on which central bank governance should rest, that is, operational independence, democratic accountability and transparency. Despite its common usage, it is not always very clear what central bank transparency amounts to. Generally, two definitions of transparency can be distinguished in the policyoriented literature. Firstly, central bank transparency is referred to as the activities of the central bank in providing information. Thus, in this case, transparency has been defined as the degree to which information on policy actions is available. However, a somewhat broader approach to transparency includes the public’s understanding of the decisions taken by the monetary authorities and the reasoning behind it.

Your Honour, apart from Zambian delegates, this international seminar has drawn participation from several other countries including: Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius and Mozambique. Other participants are from Namibia,  2  BIS Review 26/2008  Nigeria, Sweden, Tanzania, Swaziland and Uganda. With this wide participation, I have no doubt that the seminar will be thought-provoking and highly participatory, given also the high calibre of resource persons from institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of International Settlements. I therefore wish all of you good deliberations and a memorable stay in Livingstone and Zambia in general. It is now my privilege to call upon His Honour the Vice President of the Republic of Zambia, Mr Rupiah Banda to deliver the official opening speech for the seminar. Your Honour Sir! Thank you. BIS Review 26/2008  3