samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Third, 20 of the thresholds result from EU regulations and/or Basel definitions. The other 33 are things we have done ourselves here in the UK. Fourth, if we crudely translate non-asset thresholds into an asset equivalent in order to be able to map all thresholds on one scale, then most are concentrated in the area below a size corresponding to £ in assets or deposits. 3 This bears out the prediction made last year by former PRA Executive Director James Proudman that the PRA would soon develop a form of ‘cyborg supervision’ involving humans and machines working closely together. 4 To identify thresholds, the robot ran a series of textual searches on the dataset. The search combined quantitative values £ € expressions related to thresholds (eg. less/more than, greater/smaller than, up to); and typical metrics used for thresholds (eg. assets, balance sheet, deposits, accounts). It also included thresholds, such those on executive pay and exposures, that are only indirectly linked with size. The results were then cross-checked and cleaned by subject matter specialists. 3  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  3  One could make various observations about these findings. But one obvious question to ask is whether or not this is too complicated a picture. While it is a good thing for small firms that we exempt them from various bits of regulation, is there a case for making the gradient a bit easier to discern and climb as they grow? Should we rationalise and harmonise any of these thresholds?

Now, a few years ago the way we’d have investigated this would have been to get an analyst from our Policy Directorate to enter the mighty forest of UK financial regulation and hunt down any and all thresholds for our examination. However, last year – quietly and without great fanfare – our team started to turn this forest into a dataset better suited for textual analysis. I like to call this a machine-readable Rulebook but this upsets the experts in the PRA, so instead you should think of it as us having chopped up all of the rules into bite-sized elements and put each of those into a cell in a giant database. Our team is now publishing the code used for this effort, and a Staff Working Paper with early research findings from the data. One great benefit of this is that rather than tasking an unfortunate analyst with the Herculean endeavour of mapping all the thresholds, we are able to use a PRA robot to do the job instead.3 The PRA competition robot has returned from its daunting mission with interesting findings. First, there are 53 thresholds for deposit-takers, spread across all the main policy areas but with a concentration in capital (17), reporting (11) and remuneration (8).4 Second, 13 unique metrics are used to set thresholds. The most common, unsurprisingly, is simply assets – 26 of the 53. But even within these asset-based ones 16 different values are used to set the actual threshold.
“credere”) supports regaining the trust in the financial system and in the banks as institutions that 2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  ensure the allocation of funds to the private and the public sector. Companies in Romania, as beneficiaries of European funds, need to respond to some pressing issues such as inadequate management and financial discipline. Only around 15% of small and medium companies are eligible for financing, with a management team capable to conduct a lucrative activity that reflects in a sound set of accounting documents, like the balance sheet and the P&L account. These companies too, can be affected by the contagion effect, for instance when their projections and cash flows are subject to repayment from other companies, with delays. To support these companies and to ease the access to finance, one needs to improve the policies and continue the financial reforms to create a more adequate and flexible frame for investments and the multiplier effect of co-financing. The European Investment Bank has been a strong pillar for this strategic economic development, channeling investments towards the crucial sectors of transport, digital infrastructure and the new technologies, education for skilled labour force, healthcare, or agriculture. The European Investment Bank contributes to creating the right mindset and responsible attitude of assuming calculated risks. It supports the communication of sound public policies and priorities for Romania’s economic and social development, to continue and expand the European integration and economic convergence.

The partnership between the European Investment Bank and the commercial banks in Romania ensure the effective transmission mechanism to allocate and distribute the European structural funds to the infrastructure projects, to the development of production capacities of the small and medium enterprises and to the creation of new jobs in the economy. The banks are well capitalized, have an excellent solvency and a superior liquidity, prerequisites for co-financing the companies and the economy. The loan-to-deposits ratio is below 100%, indicating available resources for financing. Nonperforming loans have decreased more than three times, from 22% to about 6%, showing a positive trend in a healthier internal ratings model and a sound balance sheet position, while the lending dynamics for companies is below the European average. We have the potential to accelerate the access to finance to support investments as a base for economic growth, instead of a consumption driven growth. This potential is demonstrated by the low financial intermediation in Romania, around 29%, although this percentage can be misleading, as large corporations usually access financing directly abroad, from the headquarters or from the financial institutions in the countries where they are headquartered. The more prudent lending policies and the risk aversion of commercial banks are factors that could be perceived as a break in financing investments at full capacity; however there is a positive side, too. It is a safe approach to credit as a driver of economic growth, as credit (lat.
In any case, from a supervisor’s perspective, large underwriters could be expected to avoid too much fluctuation in their limits. Third, with regard to stress testing, all banks should conduct dedicated stress tests for their leveraged finance portfolios – I mentioned that before. Such stress tests are helpful in identifying the consequences of downturns in the markets. Therefore, as part of our planned supervisory actions, stress-testing frameworks will be strengthened, particularly with regard to the underwriting pipeline. To sum up: the European market for leveraged finance has grown, and European banks have increased their exposure to it. We as supervisors are closely monitoring these developments. But we go beyond mere observation; we are also acting, combining individual and SSM-wide actions. First, we will address potential weaknesses at the level of individual institutions. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Second, we are thinking about issuing relevant guidelines in order to define a common set of expectations for the entire banking sector. Conclusion Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to end with another quote from Leonard Porter Ayres. In September 1930, he said: “Now arises the emotion of fear. Things were brighter looking than they were. Now they look darker than they are.” To me, that quote perfectly describes the psychology of markets – or rather the psychology of human beings who constantly sway between being overly optimistic and overly pessimistic. Risk managers and supervisors have to fight that impulse.

BankingInfo is a 10-year programme, and over time, the plan is to cover a greater range of banking products and services. Consumer associations can contribute to this process. Consumer associations play an important role in disseminating and educating consumers on their rights and responsibilities. Through your direct contact with consumers, you can in the education process encourage reference to the one-stop information center established for this purpose and highlighting the importance and benefits of becoming financially literate. The wide network and access to consumers, the consumer associations also represent an important source of reference to improve the programme. Through this process, I am sure that the programme will become an important and beneficial source of information on banking matters for consumers. As part of the consumer protection infrastructure, it is also planned that the scope of issues which can be mediated by the Banking Mediation Bureau be expanded. The guidelines on minimum standards on product disclosure, including prescribing and adopting standard terms and definitions are now being reviewed. These initiatives will ensure avenues to seek redress at reasonable costs be further strengthened while transparency in the financial marketplace will be improved. The Banking Mediation Bureau (BMB), was established almost eight years ago. It is timely that a review is carried out in terms of its role as well as the scope of its activities.
The RTGS service settles an average of £ electronic payments each working day and we are in the process of renewing it to adapt to the changes in payments technology to make sure we have a system that is fit for the future. Our vision for the renewed service Blueprint was published in 20178 and is based on five key benefits: increased resilience, wider interoperability, greater access, strengthened end-to-end risk management and improved user functionality. While resilience is at the heart of the changes we also want to promote innovation within the payments landscape. As part of this we have work underway that will tackle a number of the existing frictions in cross-border payments, in particular those identified in Focus Areas C and D. We have, for example, undertaken research into atomic settlement mechanisms to develop the capability to facilitate conditional settlement of transactions to remove settlement risk. Once introduced these could be extended to include Payment-Versus-Payment settlement for FX transactions. The Bank has already made progress in widening access to its RTGS service to include non-bank payment service providers (NBPSPs) and as a result of a policy change in 2017 there are now half a dozen NBPSPs that hold settlement accounts in RTGS, with more set to join. The renewed service will support even greater access through a streamlined testing and on-boarding process and will be designed with the flexibility to enable new payment infrastructures, such as those using Distributed Ledger Technology to interface with the service.

No single building block or focus area can act as a silver bullet, but together they form a holistic solution to the long-standing frictions which have been on the agenda for many years. Strong collaboration and sustained commitment across all of these areas is necessary to tackle an issue spanning multiple players, time zones, jurisdictions and regulations. This will require work internationally and, as I hope my examples from the Bank’s own RTGS Renewal Programme has shown, domestically too. This is an ambitious agenda. But it is also a really important one, where collectively we can enhance global economies, international trade and support financial inclusion. Annex 1: Stage 1  8  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches and @BoE_PressOffice  8  Annex 2: Stage 2  9  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches and @BoE_PressOffice  9
Ravi Menon: Monetary Authority of Singapore at forty Welcome address by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at MAS 40th Anniversary Dinner, Singapore, 28 November 2011. *  *  *  Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman MAS, Tharman Shanmugaratnam Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Staff and management of MAS are delighted to welcome you to our 40th anniversary celebrations. 1. one. An anniversary is a good time to thank all those who made the journey a successful  First, we thank the past leaders and staff of MAS 2. Economic and financial stability that Singapore has enjoyed over last 40 years is result of tireless efforts of generations of MAS officers. 3. The pioneers, led by our first Chairman, Mr Hon Sui Sen, and first Managing Director, Michael Wong Pak Shong, laid the foundations for an integrated central bank and financial regulator while navigating a turbulent global environment – the collapse of Bretton Woods, global recession, and double-digit inflation. 4. With Dr Goh Keng Swee as Chairman at the start of the 1980s and Mr Lim Kim San and Mr Yong Pung How as Managing Directors, MAS adopted the exchange rate as the principal tool of monetary policy, at a time when the conventional tools were monetary aggregates and interest rates. 5.

The Bank of Albania is very heedful to external balances of the Albanian economy, regarding their correction as one of the main priorities of the country’s macroeconomic policies. This objective assumes more importance against the backdrop of recent developments in global financial markets. In the long run, its attainment requires ongoing structural reforms, which will enhance competitiveness of the Albanian economy and will generate higher revenues from the export of goods and services. Monetary inflationary pressures remain subdued in the medium run. Monetary expansion has maintained stable annual growth rates during the year, resulting 10.4% in September. Public sector demand for funding has been downward in recent months, making the private sector’s demand provide the largest contribution to money supply growth. Private sector credit grew 14.0% in September, marking a slight acceleration compared with the first half of the year. However, as we have constantly stated, the relatively sluggish performance of private sector credit reflects mostly its weak demand. The banking sector appears liquid and well capitalized to credit the Albanian economy, but it has increased its prudence in terms of lending, thus reflecting the new reality of the Albanian economy and global financial markets. The Bank of Albania assesses that, within the parameters of prudence, there is room for a more rapid growth of credit and for supporting sound investment projects by the banking sector. On our behalf, we will continue to support the financial system with liquidity and monetary stimuli in order to boost lending.
The Riksbank’s view then was that it was a temporary effect; that electricity prices would fall back and that the inflation rate would therefore come down again during the year, which it did. As regards CPI and UND1X inflation, that meant that the twelve-month change – or the change in relation to the corresponding month a year earlier – fell steeply in early 2004. So the drop in inflation at the start of 2004 was partly an expected recoil of the temporary increase a year before. (Figure 1). The Riksbank had thus anticipated in early 2003 that CPI inflation would undershoot the target in 2004. Inflation was also being depressed by low import prices. Imported producer prices have developed weakly for a couple of years, although they rose again in 2004 partly because hikes in commodity prices pushed up the prices of intermediate goods. As regards consumer prices, inflation on imported goods has turned out unexpectedly low for some time. The surprisingly low import prices could be a result of Swedish importers and producers buying from low-cost countries to a greater extent than before, something that is difficult to capture with the measure that we normally use to gauge developments in world market prices. The low outcome is most likely also attributable to conditions in Sweden, including increased competition in many sectors, not least the retail trade.

Throughout Malaysia’s more than 50 years of development, the country has demonstrated economic flexibility to successfully shift to the new areas of comparative advantage to the new areas of growth. I believe, with the foundations in place, Malaysia has every potential to transition into a high value-added, high income economy. Concluding remarks Asia’s new role in the globalisation process has only just begun. The continuous dynamic evolution of Asia as greater regional economic and financial integration take place will contribute towards raising the standards of living in this region. In this context, the important partnership between the Government and the private sector remains a key element in ensuring stability and sustainable economic development in the future. 4  BIS Review 43/2010
In addition, the expansion of the euro’s international role would be a useful means of consolidating our economic sovereignty. The euro is 20 years old and it is our success: it ranks second in the international monetary system, but it still needs to increase its importance at the global level. The dollar remains a key pillar of America’s global power, and China is taking a greater interest in the internationalisation of the renminbi. The other major threat to Europe’s sovereignty is technological. Of the large digital corporations – the GAFA and other bigtechs – whose power equals that of sovereign states, none is European. And Europe is seriously lagging behind in investment: in 2015, the euro area’s stock of information and communication technology (ICT) capital amounted to 7.6% of GDP compared with 10.9% in the United States. v Yet Europe has the advantage of having a single market: you can see what happens without it with Brexit and the cost of a “no deal” for the British economy. But we need to be more bold. By taking full advantage of the size effect: there are still too many implicit borders and too much  Page 4 of 10  fragmentation. By using the power of standardisation, notably to direct innovation, as illustrated by the GDPR and data where Europe is taking the lead. By daring to implement an industrial policy with public-private partnerships, as in artificial intelligence and batteries.

We continue to explore ways in which the provision of greater information to counterparties and to the markets more generally could help reduce vulnerability to financial crises. For now, though, the practical limitations on achieving greater transparency underscore the importance strengthening the robustness of the shock absorbers in the financial system. We are not likely to ever be in a position where we have the capacity to identify the source and estimate the probability of future financial shocks. And policy makers are unlikely to ever be in a position to diffuse concentrations of risk or crowded trades ahead of a crisis. The most sensible thing we can do is to improve the capacity of the core of the financial system to handle adversity, and this requires continued focus on improving the strength of the capital and liquidity cushions, as well as the market infrastructure. Let me end with a few quick thoughts on the role of monetary policy in this context. Can monetary policy play a pre-emptive role in reducing the vulnerability of financial markets to the type of dynamic we saw in 1987 and 1998? Central banks cannot realistically hold out the prospect of using monetary policy to prevent asset price bubbles, conditions of "excess" leverage in parts of the financial system, or other factors in markets that might lead to the types of positive feedback dynamics that were at the heart of some past crises.
Norges Bank will contribute with advice on the design of regulations in this area, but the Bank should not be formally responsible for regulations that include provisions on banks’ business practices and consumer protection. This should be the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance. Organisation of the GPFG and central banking functions Chart: Number of employees in Norges Bank The organisation of Norges Bank has changed considerably over time, particularly over the past 20 years. While central banking activities have been concentrated on core functions, Norges Bank has built up an investment management organisation that is responsible for managing the equity, bond and real estate portfolios of the GPFG. The Central Bank Law Commission proposes to remove the GPFG from the aegis of Norges Bank. The Commission recognises that the Bank has managed the GPFG and performed its central banking functions in a satisfactory manner. At the same time, the Commission points out that the GPFG would stand to gain from being placed under the management of a separate organisation with a board whose sole area of responsibility is investment management. In recent years, the investment mandate has been changed to give the Bank greater responsibility for determining the GPFG’s investment strategy. Investment management has also become more demanding in terms of resources for both the Executive Board and the organisation. In addition, the Bank has been given responsibility for decisions to exclude companies or place them under observation for ethical reasons.

No matter how the Commission’s concrete proposals are followed up, I am confident that Norges Bank will continue to be a useful public institution. 7/8  BIS central bankers' speeches  1 Official Norwegian Reports 2017:13. New central bank act. Organisation of Norges Bank and the Government  Pension Fund Global. 8/8  BIS central bankers' speeches
As one of the key global reference interest rates, Libor continues to be used in a wide variety of credit agreements and derivatives contracts. The Libor-based interest rate swap curve (‘swap curve’) plays a particularly important role. Interest rate swaps are derivatives transactions involving the exchange of long-term, fixed-rate and short-term, variable-rate interest payments. The variable interest rates are usually linked to Libor. These swap contracts can involve maturities of several years or decades. The swap curve thus extends over the full maturity spectrum of financial transactions. In Switzerland too, Libor – the Swiss franc Libor, to be specific – is extensively used as a benchmark. According to an SNB survey on lending, Libor and its swap curve are applied as  Page 2/5  Berne, 14 December 2017 Andréa M. Maechler  News conference  the base rate for determining interest rates in a major portion of Swiss franc lending business. The swap curve also plays a key role in price-setting on the Swiss franc capital market. Given its significance, the shift away from Libor poses major challenges for financial market participants. The process is being coordinated and supported, internationally and nationally, by various committees on which both market participants and authorities are represented. Faced with the likely demise of the Swiss franc Libor, the national working group on reference interest rates has recommended using SARON (Swiss Average Rate Overnight) as an alternative. SARON reflects the interest rate conditions for collateralised money market transactions with one-day maturity.

Ladies and gentlemen, On the 8th of May this year, only 15 days ago, Macedonia had the honor to represent its first preaccession economic program at the ministerial dialog between the ministries of economy and finance of the EU and the candidate countries in Brussels. The adopted conclusions that refer to our country, amongst other things, state that "generally, the document suffers from a lack of reliable statistics, impeding the analyses of the position of the country regarding the growth cycle...", which, you would all agree, has to do with the reliability, in such situation, with inflation calculations, particularly of the expected one. Furthermore, page 4 says that "in the area of economic statistics, top priority for Macedonia is to establish a capacity for regular production and submission of annual and sub-annual statistics", but, also, not failing to notice that "a certain progress has been made in the annual national accounts, following the ESA 95 concepts", and that we should move on in that area.