samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
First, modern ATMs can more safely dispense notes of a physical quality that as the issuing authority I would not wish to see in circulation (for example, heavily soiled notes). This is a mundane point, but the latest ATMs are harder to jam, unlike their predecessors. On the whole, financial institutions do not dispense what we regard as unfit notes, even though their ATMs might be able to do so, but as the issuing authority we now have to pay more attention to ensuring that this does not happen. The second development represents the connection between the physical quality of notes and denominational mix. We have most difficulty getting our low denomination note, the £ into circulation. The main reason for this problem is that few ATMs dispense £ The link to quality comes about because once our £ enter circulation, they stay in circulation and exchange hands more times before they return into the wholesale cash distribution system for fitness sorting, and thus can be taken out of circulation as unfit or re-circulated as a fit note. Put simply, since there are relatively few £ notes entering circulation they stay in circulation and are not banked and fitness sorted as regularly as they should be. Chart 9 illustrates this problem. It shows over the last nearly fifteen years the trend in how many times per year on average banknotes of each denomination are processed through the wholesale cash centre fitness sorting process.

With the results of these two pilot exercises, I think we have the evidence to press the case for raising the dispense of £ and we will do this alongside reviewing our distribution scheme to ensure that the incentives for note distribution are properly aligned across the denominations. 8  BIS Review 162/2009  The story of the £ illustrates the growing importance of denominational mix in our note distribution policy. We want to work with the commercial sector to ensure that the public’s demand for a balanced denominational mix of notes is met. In conclusion, notes are a big business for central banks. They are high profile in the eye of the public. There is an apparent paradox in that the value of notes in circulation has been rising year after year at the same time that evidence suggests that the use of notes to pay for transactions is declining. I have offered some explanations for this paradox which highlight that banknotes are also a store of value since they are central bank money. But at the same time the objectives of our central bank distribution scheme have grown in number to embrace the physical quality of notes in circulation and the denominational mix. The last of these – denominational mix – poses the biggest challenge, but in the UK I believe we now have evidence to support the business case for ATM and retailer dispense of £ And, finally, I am sometimes asked why this matters to the Bank of England?
It is surprising that this issue is still outstanding, despite the fact that it is more than ten years since the bank crisis occurred and despite a draft bill being taken up for consultation five years ago. We play a central role in the monitoring work and concentrate our task to assessing how the financial system functions and what risks might arise. Our Financial Stability Report is very important here. The aim of this report is to identify potential risks and to influence market operators with good analyses. The third part of the stability work – crisis management – arises because the central government might need to take action to avoid a crisis that threatened the stability of the system. In order to manage a crisis, the central government must be able to assess what consequences will arise if an institution suffering problems should become bankrupt. If these consequences are judged to be serious, the central government must also be able to take measures to alleviate the effects. In extreme cases the central bank can act as “lender of last resort” (provide emergency liquidity assistance, ELA) if this is necessary to prevent the bank system from collapsing. A lot has happened with regard to stability work since 1997 and the work changes continuously as the world around us changes. For instance, the increase in the banks’ operations abroad means that foreign borrowers also need to be analysed to a greater extent. In addition, the stability work must follow the increasing integration of the financial markets.

Here I would focus on reducing the public sector wage bill, mainly by lowering employment levels, as government is currently doing; reforming the provision of pensions and health care; rationalizing social welfare schemes, including by eliminating benefits that have outlived their usefulness and extending means testing; and transforming the unemployment benefit system into an effective instrument of employment creation rather than of social dependence. With regard to competitiveness-related problems, there is a need to address remaining rigidities in the labour market – including by ensuring that wage costs reflect productivity levels; investing more in education and providing suitable incentives to unleash the potential inherent in the country’s human resources; and improving the business environment, in particular by lowering the costs of operating in Malta. While it is beyond dispute that the country has undergone significant change for the better in these first years of the new century, it is equally true that the world around us has become a much more dynamic place in the meantime, and competitive pressures are such that unless we adapt to them rapidly, we will have to accept lower living standards. 6. Euro yields have risen yet you have left the central intervention rate unchanged… This proves that our limited monetary policy tools have not been put in the shed, as you put it in an earlier question! We still have a degree of autonomy. As I said earlier, the exchange rate is the nominal anchor of our monetary policy.
Ardian Fullani: Overview of Albania’s latest monetary and economic developments and outlook Speech by Mr Ardian Fullani, Governor of the Bank of Albania, on the Monetary Policy Decision of the Bank of Albania’s Supervisory Council, Tirana, 25 June 2014. *  *  *  The Supervisory Council of the Bank of Albania reviewed and approved today the monthly Monetary Policy Report. Based on the most recent economic and monetary developments in Albania, and following the discussions on their outlook, the Supervisory Council decided to keep the key interest rate unchanged, at 2.50%. The Council considers that the gradual transmission of earlier interest rate cuts to the financial markets will provide adequate monetary conditions for inflation to return to target over the medium term. Let me now proceed with an overview of the economic developments and key issues discussed at today’s meeting. *** Annual inflation rate was 1.6% in May, slightly down from the previous month. Inflation fell due to the reduction of health care prices, while prices of other items in the basket recorded low volatility. As with previous months, annual inflation continues to be determined by unprocessed food prices, which contribute around 88% to its final rate. From the macroeconomic perspective, the performance of consumer prices continues to reflect weak inflationary pressures, both from the domestic economy and the external sector. The negative output gap does not favour an increase in employment and wages, leading thus to a low increase of other production costs.

Fiscal revenues increased 9.0% in annual terms, while budget expenditures were 7.5% lower than the previous year. Our monetary policy easing has also taken into account this feature of fiscal policy that the Bank of Albania has urged and supported. However, the Bank of Albania would like to bring to attention the need for a more uniform distribution of expenditures and budget deficit over the year, to enhance their effectiveness and avoid the fluctuations that their excessive concentration may cause to the country’s economic and financial indicators. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  The improved foreign demand and positive dynamic of some sectors of the economy were reflected in an increase in annual exports by 10.3% in April. The detailed analysis of trade data reveals encouraging signals about re-exporting and agricultural activities. Trade deficit, however, expanded 1.8% in April, due to the simultaneous increase of imports by 6.0%. In particular, the energy situation continues to burden the trade balance of the country due to high levels of energy imports. Structural improvements to the economy and a more favourable external environment would pave the way for a faster growth of Albanian exports. The Bank of Albania considers this channel as the most appropriate tool to support the country’s sustainable growth in the medium and long term. Projections for low annual inflation rates, against the backdrop of below-potential economic growth, have dictated the pursuit of an easing monetary policy by the Bank of Albania.
There is no simple or self-evident answer to the question of what path of interest rates will be necessary to bring inflation back to the 2% target and keep it there. By now you must be asking your own “why?” question – why is he keeping us from such a splendid dinner? So I will not detain you. I have tried to explain this evening why interest rates have gone up. Each month we try to spot the shocks, evaluate their implications for inflation, and set interest rates to meet the 2% target. We do that to provide a backdrop of macroeconomic stability so that you can focus on the really important questions for your businesses. Why is that product selling better than this one? Why is my competitor changing his prices? And, most important, why did the Wallabies run the Welsh defence ragged in Brisbane, where Wales lost by almost as big a margin as England did to South Africa? I don’t have the answers to those questions. But, of one thing I can assure you, in terms of the economy we will never stop asking “why?”  BIS Review 63/2007  3

Muhammad bin Ibrahim: Developments in Malaysia’s banking sector Keynote address by Mr Muhammad bin Ibrahim, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the Official Launch of the Asian Banking School, Kuala Lumpur, 17 August 2015. *  *  *  Thank you for inviting me to deliver my remarks at this official launch of the Asian Banking School (ABS). It is my great pleasure to be a part of this momentous occasion. Today is the culmination of the vision to take professional development and continuous learning in the Malaysian banking sector to new heights. It also marks the beginning of another important and exciting journey in our overall effort to enhance the standards, quality, productivity and competitiveness of the workforce of the financial services industry. It’s an important first step in professionalising the industry. The banking sector in Malaysia has come a long way to grow both in strength and stature, steadily advancing and maturing as it seeks to become more effective and efficient in performing its intermediation function. In the last decade alone, the industry has undergone some fundamental changes following a period of transformation facilitated by the Financial Sector Masterplan (FSMP). Today, our banking system is placed on a solid footing on the back of strong capitalisation, strengthened by improved risk management and governance practices. We are also seeing increased sophistication and a wide spectrum of products and services being offered by diverse players in the marketplace.
The draft standard on risk management for new bond issuances sets out principles to mitigate risks around selection and formation of reference rates. The FMSB’s Statements of Good Practice, such as for surveillance of FX markets, provide more detailed guidance and worked examples to help set expectations. The FMSB is also scanning the horizon for future misconduct risks, including through its innovative behavioural cluster analysis. Rightly, given rapid changes in underlying market structure, this process has prioritised work on vulnerabilities arising from fast automated markets. Will These Standards and Codes Make a Difference? We know from history that codes are of little use if nobody reads, follows or enforces them. Why should the FMSB’s efforts be expected to help reverse the tide of ethical drift? Indeed, given the long history of misconduct, aren’t such efforts akin to King Canute rebuking the waves? 8  I’m more optimistic that the tide will turn because the FMSB is part of a much broader effort by UK authorities and market participants. Together, we have created a comprehensive and mutually reinforcing set of measures that strengthen the hard and soft market infrastructure. The resulting incentives give FMSB standards moral force and practical consequence. First, in the FMSB’s core work, the best in the market are taking responsibility for identifying and codifying best practice, in a way that complements and reinforces existing regulation. The FMSB now convenes senior participants from fifty global issuers, underwriters, asset managers, exchanges, custodians and investment banks.

Christian Noyer: Monetary policy and the crisis – some lessons for the future Keynote address by Mr Christian Noyer, Governor of the Bank of France, at the ParisEuroplace Financial Forum, Tokyo, 16 November 2009. *  *  *  Central banks have been very active over the last two years in containing the impact of the financial crisis. Monetary policy has made an important contribution to stabilizing financial markets and the real economy. Today, however, I will not talk about our response to the crisis, whether by conventional or unconventional measures. I will rather focus on the longer term and address two questions: "Was monetary policy the cause of the crisis?" and "How can it contribute to preventing future crisis?" These are two different questions. And they call for differentiated answers. While I doubt very much that monetary policy played a major role in triggering the crisis, I also believe that it can – and should – help in the future to better contribute to financial stability. Was monetary policy the cause of the crisis? One major success in the two last decades has been the achievement of price stability in most industrialized and many emerging economies. This success has rightly been ascribed to the monetary policy framework almost universally adopted in the world, which, beyond national differences and specific features, is based on two common pillars: Central bank independence and price stability as a primary objective.
However, when interest rates are  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  already very low, a decline in the Euribor is associated with a reduction in the interest margin (the price effect exceeds the quantity effect) as banks have less capacity to pass through the reduction in interest rates to retail deposits owing to their proximity to the zero-rate level. It is possible that these non-linearities may be exacerbated when interest rates move into negative territory. Chart 2  That said, there are also factors that mitigate the impact of low interest rates on results. In particular, low interest rate levels contribute to reducing loan loss provisions, insofar as they are conducive to a decline in non-performing loans. This mitigating effect is particularly significant in Spain, owing to the prevalence of assets with floating rates on bank balance sheets. 2.2  Non-performing loans  The second factor weighing down on bank profitability is the still-high level of non-productive assets on the balance sheets of banks located in specific countries, despite the continuing downtrend we have observed for some time. As can be seen in Chart 3, in some instances the NPL ratio exceeded levels of 15% in mid-2015. With its ratio at approximately 7%2, Spain stands only slightly above the euro area average, thanks to the reduction witnessed in the past two years.

6  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Unquestionably, this scenario of new technologies and new emerging competitors poses a challenge to the traditional banking business. However, technical progress is also an opportunity for the more dynamic banks to generate efficiency and to extend the services provided to their customers. For instance, banks are proving very adept at developing instant payment services. And some of them might be well-positioned to develop direct lending facilities (P2P) competing with the new non-bank operators (e.g. crowdfunding). Banks retain advantages in terms of experience, market roots and the ability to offer a full range of transactional and intermediation services which should help them face competition which, nonetheless, will be increasingly intense. In our capacity as regulators and supervisors, we should seek to strike a balance between facilitating technical progress, supporting the development of new products and services, and properly safeguarding customers and financial stability. 3.3  Consolidation  Finally, orderly correction of the excess capacity in the banking industry will foreseeably require greater consolidation in the sector. I spoke to you about this exactly a year ago in this same forum and I believe that since then the view that such a process is becoming increasingly likely has become widespread. Ideally, consolidation should take place at the European level, in order to overcome the strictly domestic vocation of the overwhelming majority of banks.
Experience after the global financial guidance (and the empirical evidence collected by Elsby and Solon (2019) inter alia) suggest that concerns about downward nominal wage and price rigidity may have been overplayed. See the discussion in Pill (2019) on this point. See Box A in ‘Monetary Policy Report – August 2021,’ Bank of England. See Broadbent (2022) on this point. See Pill (2021). This speech was given on the day the first reports in the UK media of the emergence of the Omicron variant of the Covid virus. Broadbent (2021) and Tenreyro (2022) offer some model simulations that illustrate the challenges monetary policy faced in addressing these inflationary shocks, demonstrating the substantial output costs entailed in stabilising inflation at 2% if those gas prices rises had been anticipated early enough for monetary policy action to offset them. See Haskell and Martin (2022). Of course, rising inactivity will also have demand effects. After all, Says Law implies that ‘supply creates its own demand’ (or in this case, the destruction of supply leads to the destruction of demand). That perspective is embodied in the Bank’s core forecasting model, at least over the long run. The inflationary pressures identified here are associated with shorter-term transitions before Says Law holds. In other words, the market prices prevailing on average in the 7-day window ending on 25 October 2022, which implied a peak in Bank Rate of 5¼% in the second half of 2023.

A classic example is the tulipmania in the Netherlands, which ended in 1636 with the collapse of the market for tulip options. From the tulip crisis it is also clear that derivative instruments are not a recent innovation in financial markets. The world also saw numerous financial crises in the nineteenth century. As for the present century, what first comes to mind is the crisis in the wake of the stock-market crash in New York in 1929, with effects that left their mark on the global economy in the 1930s. There are various explanations for the Great Depression but it clearly involved widespread financial turbulence and the failure of many banks. In Sweden, too, there were serious bank crises in the early 1920s and ’30s; on both occasions they were accompanied by a deep economic depression and serious deflation. The drop in output and the price level reached two-digit figures before the problems could be overcome. In recent years the pace of financial market development has been rapid. As a result of innovations in communications and information technology, with the new instruments and methods they provide for risk management, the financial system is now more extensive and globalised than ever before. The system channels savings more effectively to those activities in the global economy that need them most. The rapid pace of financial developments and their internationalisation are a logical consequence of arrangements for the production and international exchange of goods and services in the world economy.
In the absence of direct trust among parties, the alternative is to rely on trusted central parties. In payments and settlement, there is a central operator that records and updates the balances of the clearing participants But trusted central parties are not always available. And even if they are, what if they fail? Single points of failure make attractive attack targets. And what if trust is broken? What if the central party colludes? The key breakthrough of blockchain technology is its ability to establish trust in a decentralised system. Blockchain technology allow diverse parties to collaborate without trusted central parties. All parties to a set of transactions are able to maintain a coherent and consistent view of the state of the world. 1/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  When I am confident that what you see is what I see, we can collaborate more seamlessly without a third party to maintain a “golden source of truth”. How does a blockchain make sure that what you see is what I see without third party verification? First, data are recorded and shared in a way that ensures a consistent view across multiple parties. Copies of the data are spread around all the nodes of the blockchain network. Rather than trusting any single party, the trust is placed in the collective view of all parties. Anybody can check whether something is wrong. Second, data are heavily encrypted or signed with digital signatures that makes the blockchain secure against tampering.

Norges Bank is nevertheless of the view that higher demand for the best bonds will have a positive effect. This will reduce the pressure on banks, and it may result in a shift in private demand towards bonds with a lower credit rating. Thank you for your attention. 2  BIS Review 17/2009  BIS Review 17/2009  3  4  BIS Review 17/2009