samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
Expected liquidity conditions on the last day of the maintenance period, when averaging is no longer possible, anchor interest rates of that day, and – via the so called “martingale hypothesis” – also of the preceding days. The present turmoil shows, however, that at times of stress, the strength of the martingale hypothesis may weaken. Interest rates may no longer be necessarily linked to liquidity  2  In particular, the ECB has helped to overcome market disruptions by temporarily supplying liquidity, first via a sequence of four overnight fine-tuning operations; then via increased allotment amounts in the weekly main refinancing operations and, subsequently, also via two supplementary longer term refinancing operations, the renewal of which has been subsequently announced. BIS Review 143/2007  3  conditions on the last day of the maintenance period as banks do no longer regard reserve holdings across different days of the maintenance period as substitutes. Implementing monetary policy in these conditions can be challenging for a central bank, especially since it can not use its regular procedures for estimating the demand for liquidity – not least in the absence of any relevant empirical references. This is the main reason why the ECB conducted the very first of its fine-tuning operations during the turmoil (on 9 August) through a fixed rate tender with pre-announced full allotment. At that point in time, it was assessed that the market was in a better position than the ECB to judge which amount would bring interest rates back to the desired level.

Since the outbreak of the financial tensions, this Group has solidly worked to gather and share information on developments in the euro area money market and has also provided us with useful feedback on the effect of the ECB’s money market operations. Statistical information. The ECB has also benefited from the wealth of harmonised area-wide financial, banking and monetary statistics that the Eurosystem has developed over the last decade as well as from the recently released quarterly integrated accounts. In addition, very useful information has been collected through surveys (notably, the Bank Lending Survey). Information exchanges with other central banks. During the current turmoil information has been extensively shared and discussed within the central banking community on a wide range of issues, from very technical and operational to more policy-relevant considerations. Especially at the onset of the tensions, the consultations among the relevant central banks were very intense and particularly useful to assess the extent of the turmoil accurately and rapidly. Information exchanges among European authorities. During a market turbulence like the one we have recently witnessed, it is crucial to assess in a timely and comprehensive fashion the implications of the turmoil for the banking and financial industry and, ultimately, for the economy as a whole. In this context, it is important to ensure that the responsible public authorities, notably central banks and supervisors, have the adequate procedures and infrastructure in place to share the relevant information among them.
Ladies and Gentlemen, although Mobile Money Transfer provides a solid platform upon which to anchor expansion in the coverage of financial services, this goal will not be realised unless all stakeholders participate and play their respective roles effectively. Accordingly, banks and other payment system businesses need to utilise this infrastructure to the fullest extent possible by ensuring that various products are developed to extend financial services coverage. At the same time, households and businesses need to change their attitude towards non-cash payment methods. It therefore goes without saying that financial education will be critical in shifting public attitudes and ensuring that the non-cash payment methods are widely utilised by the target market. In this regard, I am pleased to inform you that the FSDP has prioritised financial education so as to increase the level of financial literacy and awareness of alternative payment methods. I would like to urge all financial service providers to not only take advantage of this initiative but also to design their own programmes to sensitise their customers of the innovative products they offer or plan to offer which promote financial inclusion. Furthermore, as Bank of Zambia we welcome the innovations by the banking sector and other financial service providers aimed at enhancing financial inclusion. However, it is our responsibility to ensure that these services are provided in a safe and efficient manner. In this regard, the Bank of Zambia reviews these banking products before their introduction to ensure that they comply with the existing prudential and statutory financial sector requirements.

BIS Review 27/2004  1
It was enacted on June 11, 1930 as the Law on the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. Accordingly, the Bank started to operate on October 3, 1931 and Mr. Selahattin Çam was appointed as the first General Director, or as we now refer to, as our first Governor. The Law did not involve any explicit provision for the independence of the CBT. However, this did not mean that Lawmakers then did not have any idea about the relationships among money, politics and price level. On the contrary, the founders of the Republic were fully aware of the idea that a central bank should be independent in order to get the best outcome from its policies. Let me quote, for example, _smet _nönü, the Second President of the Republic, in one of his various speeches on the establishment of the Central Bank; “I knew from the very start that the Central Bank had to be an independent institution, operating with the integrity and robustness that would be required against even the Government and the Ministry of Finance, let alone its relations with other private banks”. The law did not stipulate any provisions for granting short term advances to the government to prevent the use of the Central Bank resources for financing government expenditures, and thus to avoid inflation and to maintain fiscal discipline. These are enough evidence that despite no formal provisions for the independence, the CBT was de facto an independent authority in conducting monetary policy.

Few knew who was exposed to losses, and banks, funds and financial establishments started to question counterparties’ financial situation, and held on to their money. This resulted in a surge in banks’ premia on short-term interbank rates. Moreover, banks had to bring back on their books loans from companies they had established, which further reduced their capacity and willingness to provide new loans. Several large foreign banks have received capital infusions from sovereign-wealth funds in the Middle East and Asia to bolster their financial strength. What began as isolated losses in a small segment of the US home mortgage market led to a confidence crisis, which spread to money and credit markets in many countries in autumn 2007. In the US, there is a risk that the losses will increase in other segments of the property market and on ordinary consumer and business credit. Many of the new financial instruments which were forged to diversify risk have proved to be non-viable. It is now difficult for many companies to raise new capital or procure long-term funding. There are also signs that prices and activity in property markets have reversed and are falling in many European countries. Around the turn of the year, doubts were raised as to the financial strength of some US banks. The new year was ushered in amid fears of a setback in the US and a sharp decline in global equity prices.
Will they manage to reach the NPL targets as agreed? Should the targets be tightened for the years after 2019? The capital position of Greek banks has strengthened substantially during the programme and is now quantitatively at higher levels than in other countries affected by the crisis. However, the quality of Greek banks’ capital is lower than elsewhere in Europe, consisting partly of deferred tax assets, and there is still a large amount of non-performing exposures (NPE) as a legacy of the crisis. There is a need to be prudent and to set ambitious targets in order to significantly reduce the NPE ratio by the end of 2019. The performance of Greek banks has so far been broadly in line with their approved NPL targets, as shown in the Bank of Greece’s quarterly NPL monitoring reports. However, the targets to be achieved by the end of 2019 are back-loaded. Beyond 2019, continued efforts are needed to further reduce the NPE ratio in Greece in the years ahead, until it is closer to the euro area average. Swift progress in resolving NPLs is crucial not only for economic recovery, but also for the forward-looking capital adequacy of Greek banks. This depends on the economic environment stabilising and, importantly, on the continued and improved effectiveness of the relevant legal frameworks (household and corporate insolvency, out-of-court workout, NPL sales and eauctions).

For example, it will be easier to reduce the amount of NPLs if there is a reduction in the backlog of cases related to the household insolvency framework (the so-called Katseli law) that are still pending before the courts. In June the government presented an ambitious action plan that will be closely monitored in the context of the enhanced surveillance framework. Are you satisfied with the pace of e-auctions? A comprehensive approach involving all stakeholders must remain in place at all times to ensure that the e-auction system continues to be successful. We have seen a clear improvement here in recent months, but further progress in raising the number of auctions is needed, especially for properties located outside Attica. So we will continue to monitor the situation closely, in cooperation with the authorities. It is also important to recognise that e-auctions have incentivised borrowers (including strategic defaulters) and banks to work towards a mutually beneficial solution. There are indications of increased restructurings and settlements of loans now that eauctions have started. The ECB lifted the waiver for Greek government bonds. Wasn’t the enhanced surveillance sufficient to keep it? How much liquidity did banks have to get from ELA as a result of lifting the waiver? The minimum credit rating rule for ECB collateral eligibility pre-dates the Greek crisis. In 2010, we acknowledged that the rule could be procyclical and granted a waiver to countries under an EU/IMF programme, because policy conditionality and access to comprehensive information gave us confidence about the sovereign’s creditworthiness.
And recently, it was reported that North Korea was able to illegally transfer monies from a Bangladesh account at the Fed to an account at the Philippines. What’s being done to protect funds that are held not only at the Fed but also at other financial institutions? President Dudley: Well, that’s a good question. Cybersecurity is a really important activity for us at the Fed. We want to make sure that not only is the Federal Reserve well-protected but also the banks that we supervise are also well-protected against cyber-risk. This is a particularly hard risk to evaluate on any given day because we’re trying to improve our defenses, but the bad guys are also improving their capabilities. So, we do a lot of different activities within the bank to make sure that we’re secure from a cyber-perspective. For example, we phish our employees, and we send them emails that sort of suggest that if you’ll click on this, and if you click on this you get a message from our Information Technology Department that you’ve been phished and you learn that you have to be a lot more careful about what you actually click on. That’s important because a threat can both come from outside, but it can also come from within. The other thing we’ve done is we’re spending a lot of time internationally to try to make the financial system safer by making sure that the payment executer, their systems are secure.

The findings from the market, needs assessment and scope for intervention were materialised 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  in a National Strategy on the Modernisation of Retail Payment 2018–2023) The Strategy aims for improvements in the retail payment market to provide Albanian citizens with more options to choose from for their daily transactions, more easily and more cost-effective, by supporting the objective for a broader-based financial inclusion. The strategy lays down concrete and measurable objectives, such as the doubling of the population having a bank account (from 38% in 2018 to 70% in 2022), the increase in the number of electronic payments per capita, from 4.3% in 2016, to 10 in 2022 (increase by 130%). The Strategy aims also legal and regulatory improvements, which lay the foundations for  innovative initiatives, and a level playing field. In this regard, the Bank of Albania finalised the drafting of the law “On Payment Services in the Republic of Albania”. The approval and implementation of this law will provide a crucial contribution to establishing services at low cost and easily accessible by the public, and promoting competition and innovation also based on a prudential consumer protection regime. This will be the theme of the first session of the Conference. Also, the Strategy aims at infrastructural improvements. In this regard, a set of measures are envisaged to promote interaction among various actors from the infrastructural point of view, aiming at reducing costs, in particular, for end users.
It is very important for the economy to have inflation anchored at 4%. What stands in the way? The uncertainty of external factors, including oil prices. We are conservative about it and therefore will pursue our monetary policy, and easing thereof, with great care and precision, taking these external factors into account. Households still have high inflation expectations. There is a risk that they will be too slow in verging towards our inflation target. This 10 / 14  BIS central bankers' speeches  is also a risk which may sustain conditions of high inflation. Taxes are still adding to the uncertainty. However, we realise that at some point forthcoming tax decisions will have inflation repercussions. Certainly, we have taken all of these factors into account. Again, we assume that we will always analyse the situation, analyse newly received data on the current situation, revise our forecasts and make decisions accordingly. I have already said that we believe 0.25 pp to be an appropriate pace for reducing the key rate to a specified level, which we have actually already reached. However, we may deviate from this pace of 0.25 pp during this period. Is there any difference between 9.75% and 10%, and does our rate work? The rate works, as we can clearly see. It effectively determines short-term rates on the money market and ultimately translates these into rates on bank loans and deposits. This takes effect with a certain lag.

Playing to form, during the period of the Great Moderation, it was held that central banks and policymakers had successfully moderated destabilising booms and busts in the long term. Financial ‘innovation’, while not eliminating risk completely, had found new ways to effectively distribute risks across diversified agents and borders. Or so it seemed, even though no one fully understood or had enough information to know where the risks ultimately ended up. All of the above lent credence to the deep-seated faith that “this time would be different”, until the extended period of macroeconomic calm was abruptly brought to a jolting halt by the Great Recession. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  The future terrain of crises will continue to be fraught with uncertainty and a humbling recognition of our inherent limitations. Policymakers therefore need to proceed with a healthy dose of humility. Much like the harsh, volatile weather conditions at the world’s highest peak, the next crisis will be unpredictable, and likely exceed our capacity to control or prevent. In this post-crisis era, we have seen wide ranging policy and institutional reforms in many jurisdictions. They are important, even critical, to correct past errors and respond to future anticipated challenges. But their implementation, and our reliance on them, should acknowledge the constraints that we face. Contemporary understanding of the sources, drivers and transmission channels of systemic risks remains incomplete. Multifaceted policy frameworks and toolkits designed to curb systemic risks and manage crisis are also still evolving.
Effective rates on some types of lending are not much changed since last summer, but we have cut Bank Rate by 75bp and the risk-free curve has shifted down (Chart 2). All this is true in the US too, probably more so. That has led John Taylor himself to suggest 8 that, to maintain an unchanged policy stance, the policy rate should be reduced by the extent of the widening in spreads. In fact, as I am sure Taylor recognises, it is nowhere near so straightforward – if for no other reason than that, for the real economy, the most severe feature of the credit shock is the rising incidence of quantity rationing. 9 There appears to be some discrimination between lower-risk and higher-risk borrowers in the household sector. Rates on fixed-rate mortgages have recently been cut for lower loan-tovalue borrowers. We have added a question to our current Credit Condition Survey, due out later this month, to gauge conditions in that part of the market. Plainly, conditions have tightened a lot for riskier borrowers – households and firms. That means we need to look at quantity data as well as at the price of credit. For companies, money growth has fallen very sharply. Lending held up for a while, but possibly in part because firms were drawing on committed lines of credit while they were still available on pre-turmoil terms. The Credit Conditions Survey has signalled a clear tightening (Chart 3).

Some of us may still remember being able to buy a 2-öre or 5-öre toffee at the sweetshop. There were also 25-öre comics and the 25-öre coin was very real. But times change. The proposal for the new banknote and coin series is that we should introduce a new 200-krona banknote and reintroduce the 2-kronor coin. Whether the 20-kronor banknote should be retained or be converted into a coin is also a matter that is being discussed. The final decision on the new banknote and coin series has not yet been made. New means of payment So far, I have mainly spoken about cards and cash. But technology is also developing rapidly as regards other means of payment. In Stockholm and a number of other Swedish cities, the SMS function of a mobile phone can be used, for example, to pay for bus tickets. This is an interesting example of the manner in which technology can also create new means of payment. We are, as you know, not alone in using mobile payments, these are already available in highly-developed countries like Japan and in less-developed countries like Kenya. In Kenya, mobile payments have already taken over large parts of the payment market. Sweden is a highly-developed country with a lot of expertise regarding the Internet and mobile telephony. We should be able to be at the cutting edge of the development of mobile payments.
Furthermore, the ECB is involved in the recently established "Economic dialogue with accession countries", launched by the European Council, which includes issues highly relevant to the ECB such as monetary and exchange rate policies and financial sector developments. The road towards EU integration and, later, euro area participation is not a single one and, therefore, a plurality of approaches may well be pursued by accession countries, not only before EU accession, but also after it. It is true that, upon accession, countries will enter the EU with the status of "Member States with a derogation", that no "opt-out" clauses will be granted and that countries will therefore be expected to follow macroeconomic policies consistent with the ultimate adoption of the euro. Indeed, accession countries will have to comply with the well-known convergence criteria, before they can adopt the euro. It is also true that, with this objective in mind, countries will be expected to join ERM II at some point in time, and to participate in this mechanism for at least two years, without devaluation of the exchange rate of their currency vis-à-vis the euro, before they join the euro area. However, ERM II membership does not need to happen immediately after EU accession, neither need ERM II membership to be limited to only two years (this is a minimum for adoption of the euro). In fact, the length of the period of ERM II participation has also varied among current euro area countries; this may be similar for new Member States.

Jean-Pierre Danthine: Does cash have a future? Summary of a speech by Mr Jean-Pierre Danthine, Vice Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the Assemblée Générale de l’Association des Alumni HEC, Lausanne, 8 May 2014. *  *  *  The complete speech can be found in German on the Swiss National Bank’s website: www.snb.ch. One of the traditional tasks of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) is to provide the economy with banknotes and coins. Since the establishment of the SNB, banknotes have constituted the most visible link to the population. As an everyday article of use, but also symbolically, banknotes embody the quality, security and stability of the SNB, and of Switzerland in general, not least of all also for the rest of the world. It is therefore of key importance that the SNB undertake the task of cash supply and distribution conscientiously. The role that banknotes play in the public’s trust in the institution and its decisions is not to be underestimated. In turn, this trust is an important prerequisite for the SNB to be able to fulfil its core monetary policy mandate, and thereby ensure price stability. Due to technological developments in the post-war period, the significance of cash declined, as measured in terms of economic performance. Since the beginning of the 1990s, however, the demand for cash has hovered at a stable level, and since 2008, in the wake of the financial crisis, there has even been a marked increase.