samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
And protests have become so vocal that the secretary of state for transport has responded by setting up a dedicated task force. LIBOR’s a bit like that bridge. It’s been around since the 1960s. Every company has got to know it inside out, and built it into their daily routines. And it’s popular – very popular: almost 400 trillion dollars of financial instruments, across every part of the global economy, are tied to LIBOR in some way. But just like that bridge, it isn’t safe. Structural change in the financial markets mean that the trading that used to underpin LIBOR – term unsecured lending between banks – has virtually disappeared. In its place lies little more than informed guesswork. And that just isn’t a viable long-term basis for the debt and financial instruments on which all your businesses rely. Sooner or later, a benchmark based on such shaky foundations will collapse. Just like Hammersmith Bridge. Only it won’t be a few thousand disadvantaged families, it could be the entire global financial system that suffers, with unimaginable consequences. We can’t let that happen. And that’s why, for the past six years, we’ve been doing two things: -  First, we’ve been constructing a new bridge.

Growth is anticipated to be low also next year and approach trend growth in 2001. Demand growth could be higher than expected, which would contribute to maintaining the pressure in the labour market. Employment is still high and near capacity level, while we see a tendency towards higher unemployment in sectors such as the construction and engineering industries. Chart 13 Unemployment rate. Per cent 6  6  5  5  4  4  3  3  2  2  1  1  0  0 80  82  84  86  88  90  92  94  96  98  Source: SSB Legg inn filadresse her  Inflation is expected to remain at around 2% for the next two years, with inflation rates of 2¼% this year, 2% next year and 1¾% in 2001. Chart 14 shows the key technical assumptions underlying Norges Bank’s projections. Short-term interest rates are assumed to move in line with market expectations, as reflected in forward rates in September (Chart 15). According to market expectations, the differential against European rates will narrow from the current level of a little more than 3 percentage points to around 1 percentage point at the end of 2001. The krone exchange rate is assumed to be NOK 8.30 against the euro throughout the projection period. Developments, as indicated by Norges Bank’s analyses, imply that there is little room for further decreases in interest rates.
In the case of electronic banking, this will require us to recruit more bank examiners with specialist knowledge in information technology. As already indicated, our existing regulatory framework is split into two parts, e-money in the form of stored value cards and electronic delivery channels. As regards the first of these, Hong Kong is one of the jurisdictions around the world that has chosen to put in place a specific legal framework to deal with the issue of stored value cards. This is contained in the Banking Ordinance. The thinking behind the legislation was that the issue of multi-purpose stored value cards such as Mondex and Visa Cash is an activity akin to the taking of deposits or the issue of banknotes, and should be confined to licensed banks. On the other hand, we wanted to allow flexibility for non-banks to issue limited purpose cards which would have a distinct core use, such as payment for transport services, but could also be used for a restricted range of ancillary or incidental purposes. There is provision for the issuers of such cards to be licensed as a special type of deposit-taking company under the Banking Ordinance. If the range of non-core uses is very limited, it can be exempted altogether. The Octopus card presently falls into this latter category, although the issuer has stated publicly its intention to broaden the range of permitted usages and to apply for DTC status.

Parentage would also be important – it would be highly desirable from our point of view that an internet bank was itself majority-owned by another well-established bank that could provide guidance and financial support if necessary. In general, we would need to be assured that the virtual bank has “substance”, and is not simply a “concept”, taking advantage of the popularity of the internet. On this basis, our authorisation and supervisory regime for virtual banks would be similar to that for conventional banks. However, an offshore internet bank, whether wholly “virtual” or not, might not attempt to take deposits in Hong Kong in the strict legal sense – in other words, the deposit contract might not necessarily be created in Hong Kong. Instead, the offshore internet bank might invite potential customers to send their money to a location abroad, where the deposit would be legally created. In this case, the bank would be taking deposits outside Hong Kong and would not require authorisation under the Banking Ordinance to carry on a deposit-taking business here. But that is not the end of the story. It is also an offence to advertise for deposits in Hong Kong, even if they are to be taken outside the territory, unless the disclosure requirements of the Fifth Schedule of the Banking Ordinance are adhered to. An advertisement would include one contained on a website. The problem is how to determine whether a particular offshore website is targeted at Hong Kong.
As a result, financial stability is more of a collaborative task undertaken by various administrative bodies. The division of tasks in the area of financial stability varies from one country to another, but in the wake of the recent financial crisis, there has been a shift in attitude towards that division. Before the crisis, there was the tendency to believe that financial and monetary stability were well enough served if monetary policy focused solely on the inflation target, with interest rates as its primary tool, and if financial supervision and the regulatory framework aimed primarily at ensuring that individual financial institutions were sound. The market would then take care of the rest. Experience has shown that this view was too narrow, and in many places it is being abandoned. To a degree, this entailed a compartmentalisation of central banks’ previous tasks. Some countries – the UK, for instance – are addressing this problem by reverting to central banks with a wide-ranging role covering monetary and financial stability. But this is not the only viable response. Here in Iceland, the Financial Supervisory Authority and the Central Bank have stepped up their collaboration on systemic risk analysis and exchange of information. These efforts have borne fruit, and the collaboration between the two institutions is good, but it would be imprudent to let success rest mainly in willingness to cooperate, which could change with a change of actors. As a result, it is important to strengthen the statutory framework so that it can provide better support for these efforts.

Useful tools for it are decision statements, inflation reports, published inflation forecasts and central bankers’ public speeches. These tools are now standard in communication among the best ITperformers. For central banks from emerging markets applying these standards is very desirable, as in this way they can gain some ‘confidence premium’ from the market, who perceive such central banks as ‘goodpractice’ followers. This is very important especially amid growing internationalisation of financial markets, when interpreting central bank’s policy is much easier under standard communication. Surely, it is not the amount of communication that matters but rather its quality. This refers especially to central bankers’ talk. It is more important, what you say than how you say it as unclear signals may actually misguide the market. A recent example of communication problems was the puzzle over the first congressional testimony of Governor Bernanke and his later comments. Transparency and communication earned attention of most central bankers, yet some are keener than others. In 1997 Reserve Bank of New Zealand started publishing its three-year interest rate forecast. Since 2005 the bank has been presenting a central interest rate scenario. The RBNZ innovation has  14  McCulley P. “The Root of All Evil”, Global Central Bank Focus, PIMCO, May 2006. 15  FOMC: Federal Open Market Committee.
Invest wisely As we build up our savings, some of us may wish to invest part of it to obtain higher returns. Investments in bonds, equities, mutual funds (or unit trusts) and other financial products typically yield higher returns than bank deposit rates over the medium to long term. But they also carry higher risks.   For the majority of financial investments, neither the returns nor the principal amount invested are guaranteed. This means we could potentially get less than what we have put in. MAS has set stringent disclosure requirements for financial products. We also require that information be provided in a clear and concise manner, through the use of Product Highlight Sheets, for example. But the responsibility ultimately lies with the investor. Every month, MAS receives, on average, about 10 complaints from the public involving the sale of investment products. To be sure, some of them involve mis-selling or poor disclosure, for which the financial adviser or institution is responsible. But there many others – sad stories of people who have lost their money because they did not exercise basic due diligence:   people who were attracted by the lure of high returns and purchased investment products without realising their risks;    people who listened to tips about “sure-to-win” investments and invested large sums of money in them without reading the product documentation;    people who signed blank sheets understanding what they were buying.

Does that not offer a recipe for success in so many areas of our lives?   We tell our children to play less and study more, so that they can acquire the education necessary to lead productive and comfortable lives in future.   We tell ourselves to eat less and exercise more, so that we can keep in good health for a longer time and continue to enjoy good food.   Should it be any different in matters financial? What does it mean to be patient and prudent in finance? Three things.   Budget carefully    Borrow responsibly    Invest wisely  These are the three areas that MoneySENSE – our national financial education programme – will focus on increasingly. MoneySENSE – spearheaded by MAS and involving a number of government agencies – has been working in partnership with the financial industry, education institutes, and professional and consumer associations to help empower Singaporeans to manage their finances well. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Budget carefully Let me start with budgeting – the first area of focus. The financial questions we face in our lives are quite similar to the dilemma the children had with their marshmallows. If anything, they are more complicated. For one, marshmallows or the good things in life are usually not free. We have to pay for them with money we receive from working or from our savings. Or from borrowing.
Housing investment is expected to grow through this year, albeit less rapidly than last year. Housing investment growth will thereafter moderate further, and may fall somewhat towards the end of the projection period. House price inflation is expected to slow. 2  BIS Review 108/2006  Household indebtedness has increased in tandem with high activity in the housing market. Growth in household debt (C2) has abated somewhat in recent months, but remains at a high level. Higher interest rates and lower house price inflation will curb growth in household debt in the next few years. Intensified competition and adaptation to new capital adequacy rules in the financial sector have squeezed banks’ lending margins. This may have curbed the impact of higher policy rates on house price inflation. Growth in credit to mainland enterprises has also shown a sharp increase over the past year, partly reflecting increased fixed investment. With prospects of continued high capacity utilisation in the Norwegian economy, solid profitability, ample liquidity and a high level of optimism among enterprises, strong growth in investment is expected again this year. As economic growth gradually slows, investment growth is also expected to moderate. Property management companies account for nearly 40 per cent of banks’ lending to the corporate sector. Activity in the commercial property market reached a very high level in 2005. The vacancy rate in Oslo has diminished steadily for two consecutive years and stood at 8 per cent in January 2006.

In some periods, oil prices have been important for developments in the krone exchange rate, while in other periods there has been no clear relationship. In August, oil prices fell at the same time as the krone depreciated. Interest rates are still low among many of our trading partners, in spite of the interest rate increases in several countries as a result of rising energy prices and higher consumer price inflation. In the November Inflation Report, Norges Bank assumes that money market rates among our trading partners will gradually increase over the next few years. Slower growth in the US has contributed to expectations that the rate tightening cycle is nearing an end and that the policy rate will be lowered in the course of next summer. Our interest rate projections are based on the assumption that external and domestic interest rates will rise to a somewhat higher level in the longer term than implied by forward interest rates. Monetary policy assessments and strategy Monetary policy in Norway is oriented towards low and stable inflation, with annual consumer price inflation of close to 2.5 per cent over time. In its conduct of monetary policy, Norges Bank operates a flexible inflation targeting regime, so that weight is given to both variability in inflation and variability in output and employment. At Norges Bank’s Executive Board meeting of 1 November, the sight deposit rate was raised by 0.25 percentage point to 3.25 per cent.
Lars Nyberg: After the crisis – new thoughts on monetary policy Speech by Mr Lars Nyberg, Deputy Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank, at Nordea, Stockholm, 6 December 2010. *  *  *  I would like to thank Mikael Apel and Erik Lenntorp for contributing to this speech. Crises lead to all sorts of problems. But they also cause us to rethink ingrained ideas and earlier accepted practices. If we succeed in learning the right lessons from a crisis and implementing wise changes, this may lead to a better development in the long run. But it is not always easy to see exactly what lessons we need to learn. For example, we are still not entirely agreed on all of the details regarding the crisis in the 1930s – why it arose and how it became so severe. In the same way, it will probably take time before there is a consensus on what lessons we should learn from the financial crisis we have just experienced. Some of the lessons are fairly obvious, however. For instance, we can with hindsight note that there were clear inadequacies in the regulations and supervision intended to maintain financial stability. New regulatory frameworks are now taking shape both internationally and in individual countries, and there are discussions on how to make supervision more effective.

The ECB’s asset purchases are being expanded in terms of both size and composition: the monthly purchase volume has been increased from € billion to € billion and the universe of eligible assets now includes non-bank corporate bonds. Purchases are intended to run until the end of March 2017 – or beyond, if necessary – , and in any case until the Governing Council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation to levels close to 2% over the medium term. Taking into account the current outlook for price stability, the Governing Council expects the ECB’s key policy rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, well past the horizon of the net asset purchases. We are confident that the very accommodative monetary policy stance will provide further support to the euro area recovery and will accelerate the return of inflation to levels that we consider to be consistent with our objective. The Governing Council has done and, within its mandate, will continue to do whatever is needed to pursue its price stability objective. Our very accommodative monetary policy stance has provided considerable support for the euro area recovery. By supporting growth prospects, our actions have also been beneficial for financial stability.
In our efforts to promote a larger role for consumer activism, attention has also been directed at enhancing dispute resolution mechanisms for consumers to seek redress. Within the insurance sector, the Insurance Mediation Bureau established in 1992 constitutes the main avenue outside the court system for resolving disputes between policyholders and their insurers. To further enhance the role of the Insurance Mediation Bureau as a dispute resolution mechanism, an expanded scope for the Bureau involving higher limits for claims falling within its purview and the inclusion of third party claims is being considered. This will provide greater access to the Bureau for a wider spectrum of the insuring public. At the same time, efforts are also underway to merge the mediation bureaus of both the banking and insurance sectors into a single new Financial Mediation Bureau that will serve as a one-stop centre for the resolution of a broad range of retail consumer issues raised against the financial institutions that are regulated by the Central Bank. With effect from 1 June this year, we have also made it a requirement for all insurers and takaful operators to establish dedicated complaints units in their respective organizations. The experience has been that most complaints can be resolved in-house by the service providers themselves, in particular those complaints that involve delays in claims settlements due to institutional procedures, which generally comprise the bulk of public complaints.

It is my pleasure to welcome you to Malaysia for this 13th Annual Conference that is being organised by the Fixed Income, Money Market and Derivatives Association of India and the Primary Dealers Association of India. We are most pleased to host this conference here in Kuala Lumpur. The theme of this conference, “Asian Money, Bonds and Derivatives in the New Global Economy”, is a relevant topic to be discussed in this period of transition to an increasingly multipolar world, in which Asia together with other emerging regions will have an increasingly more important role. Asia’s potential and regional integration While this recent global financial crisis has provided us with challenges, it has also seen the resilience of Asia in weathering a number of major shocks in the international financial markets. Asian financial systems have demonstrated the capacity to continue to function and to meet the demands of its significant investment requirements. Moreover, the trend towards greater regional financial integration will provide for a more effective and efficient channeling of the sizeable surplus funds to such activities within the region. This increased intra-regional economic and financial activities is already taking place. The economic integration is supported by the strong demand from the growing middle class Asian population, which is projected to reach 3.3 billion by 2030. The intra-regional trade in Asia now represents more than 50 percent of total trade in the region, increasing from 32 percent in 1995. Intra-regional investment activities have also been on a rising trend.
In my view, portfolio flows in the opposite direction – i.e. portfolio outflows from Mainland China – will also present huge  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  opportunities to the asset management industry, especially given the fact that the Mainland economy is the single largest provider of savings in the world. Currently, outward portfolio investment (OPI) from the Mainland is only around 5% of its GDP, still far below 57% for East Asia, 42% for the US and over 100% for the UK. Our inhouse research findings show that an economy’s portfolio investment outflows as a percentage of GDP tend to grow along with the level of economic development measured by per capita GDP. So, given the huge potential outward portfolio investments from Mainland China, how will they be allocated across different financial markets? Our researchers have studied this particular subject in depth and found that the home bias is still very much there, i.e. the closer the potential investment destination to Mainland China, the more OPIs it will receive from Mainland China. As such, Hong Kong is likely to be one of the key destinations of Mainland’s OPIs and the amount of those OPIs Hong Kong will receive will increase as China’s GDP grows. Apart from being the final destination for these investments, Hong Kong can also act as an ideal launch platform for these investment flows to reach other major global markets.

The launch of this scheme has opened up a channel for offshore RMB funds to invest on the Mainland. Market responses to this scheme have been very positive. As I mentioned at the beginning, Mainland China is now the second largest economy and the single largest source of new economic activities in the world. The increasing use of RMB in the international stage – although that will be a gradual process – will have profound implications on the global financial landscape in the years to come. Concluding remarks So, the trends are very clear. Now is a critical time for market players, including banks, financial institutions and asset management companies, to prepare themselves well for the unprecedented opportunities presented by China. Thank you. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches