samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
In other words, their use has been driven by purely economic and commercial motives. 17. The growing concerns over SWFs and various proposals to restrict either the mode of their investments or areas in which they might invest are signs of a worrying trend of rising investment protectionism, and pose a risk to international financial stability. We are  4  BIS Review 51/2008  sympathetic to concerns in recipient countries and acknowledge that these worries, if left unaddressed, would only increase protectionist sentiments. In our last meeting, the IMFC called on the IMF to play a role in identifying best practices for SWFs. We share the view that as a multilateral platform, the Fund could play a useful role in this area, by allowing issues to be discussed in an open and neutral manner. We welcome the inclusive, collaborative, and voluntary approach taken by the Fund. The principles should focus on governance, institutional arrangement, and transparency and be co-written by the SWFs and for the SWFs, hence would help increase ownership of the best practices, which is critical to its successful adoption. We also welcome the parallel work undertaken by the OECD in drawing up a similar set of guidelines for recipient countries to forestall the risk of protectionism. It is highly important that in drafting such guidelines, the standards for SWFs should not be more onerous than for other large institutional investors. Conclusion 18.

In our view, the key issue here is to reduce a possible large swing in the availability and the price of credit stemming from the tendency of banks to underestimate risks in good times, and then to overestimate them in bad times. On this, our approach has been to ensure that banks’ capital and riskmanagement policy is forward-looking by using a combination of three instruments. The first is stress testing to ensure that bank’s own internal process for assessing the adequacy of capital and overall risk management is alert to possible key risks. Thai banks have begun conducting stress tests as part of the supervisory process since early last year when we first underwent the FSAP assessment. From our experience, we find stress testing to be a useful and effective instrument for helping banks in formulating strategy for capital and risk management in a forward-looking manner. Also importantly, it provides a formal process for a two-way dialogue between banks and supervisors on risk management and on other financial stability issues. The second instrument is the fair value accounting rules or IAS 39, which we have adopted for non-performing loans and for structured products. In our view, these rules can help strengthen market discipline over bank lending and investment. And because fair valuation involves marking to market, its adoption also helps make provisioning for asset impairment more forward-looking. The third instrument is prudential policy to limit excessive procyclicality.
It is also important for us to learn from the bitter lessons experienced by others as our financial services industry too is tempted to provide low quality credit, which has been the root cause of the subprime issue. The topic therefore is very relevant and it is time to generate a wider discussion on Governance, Risk Management and Compliance – in short – GRC, which are considered to be the three key pillars or imperatives of financial management. 1. What is GRC? 1.1 By itself, GRC is not new or unknown. GRC has always been of fundamental concern to businesses, the financial service industry and to regulators and supervisors. All stakeholders realize that there are enormous benefits of observing GRC and that such benefits would outweigh the cost of putting in place processes, procedures and controls that enable effective implementation of GRC. 1.2 Governance is all about self-discipline. It is the process by which the Board of Directors sets the objectives for an organization and oversees progress towards achieving those objectives. Put it simply, it is the set of procedures and processes that keeps the organization alive and allows it to operate as a “going concern”. The higher the sophistication of the financial system, the higher would be the demand for governance as regulation and supervision cannot cover all risk elements in their supervisory processes. 1.3 The next critical pillar or imperative is Risk Management; i.e. identification, assessment, continuous monitoring of risks (real or hypothesized) and risk mitigation, while maximizing returns.

Implicit in the concerns about second round effects discussed here is the fear that domestic actors will resist that switch in the composition of demand by seeking to maintain their income and spending levels at pre-shock levels, which is inconsistent with the necessary and inevitable adjustment to the real shock to the economy and can ultimately lead to inflation. 9. As discussed in footnote 8, the composition of demand across domestic and external sources is also important for adjustment to real exchange rate shocks. In this regard, the ability and willingness of domestic firms and households to substitute away from more expensive natural gas imports – both to other sources of energy, and also to non-energy goods and services – can influence the adjustment and its potential inflationary consequences. This was discussed in Box B of the MPC’s November 2022 Monetary Policy Report.
First, each could commit to provide the other with a safe, reliable and confidential service based on the best independent intelligence about trends in their respective markets, untainted by commercial motives. Second, as the owners of the dominant reserve currencies of the day, each understood the need of the other to maintain ‘exchange stability’, ensuring that potential borrowing 5  or lending needs were met, but in a way that did not ‘antagonise’ the policy goals of the other. And, third, such arrangements could help protect financial instability, by reducing the reliance on the increasingly strained system of physical gold movements, and providing a channel that could be used even if private banking linkages were impaired. Between 23 and 30 March 1916, Strong and Norman drew up a confidential ‘Memorandum of Conversations’ setting out a framework in which the two central banks would provide each other with mutual accounts, undertake to purchase bills on the other’s behalf in local markets, to ‘earmark’ gold for one another, and  4  ‘The Bank of England 1891-1944’ by R S Sayers, page 66. Britain briefly experienced concerns about policy antagonism itself when its attempts to borrow in dollar markets using short term Treasury Bills were forcefully censured by the Federal Reserve Board in late 1916. 5  4  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  4  6  exchange information ‘respecting credit matters and financial conditions’.

Jörg Asmussen: Europe 2014 – an outlook from the ECB Speech by Mr Jörg Asmussen, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York, 21 November 2013. *  *  *  The latest economic data suggest that the euro area is gradually advancing on the road to recovery – but doubts remain about where that road is leading. Some commentators think that the road will be so long and difficult that Europe will face a “lost decade”, like Japan experienced in the 1990s. Yet this is not my view. I would like to us my remarks today to argue that the changes taking place in the euro area today will allow us to take a different path from Japan – although we need to persevere to ensure that a “lost decade” is definitively avoided. At the same time, observers should understand that the process of restructuring and reform this entails has certain economic consequences – namely a period of current account surpluses. I see this as part of a healthy adjustment that will help the euro area to play a constructive role in global demand in the future. 1. Learning the lessons of Japan  Let me start by illustrating how the euro area is learning the lessons of Japan. The term a “lost decade” came to be applied to Japan not just because economic outcomes were poor, but also because little was done to address its structural challenges.
Urban Bäckström: What shall guide monetary policy? Speech by Mr Urban Bäckström, Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank and Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of the Bank for International Settlements, to the Swedish Economics Association, Stockholm, 17 April 2001. *  *  *  Thank you for inviting me once again to the Swedish Economics Association to discuss various aspects of the Riksbank and monetary policy. I greatly appreciate the opportunity of addressing what can be called a historical and academic forum and conducting a dialogue about economic policy both with the two opponents and with other scholars and students. The inflation target has been monetary policy’s rudder ever since 1993 and I believe most people would agree that on the whole in this period it has functioned fairly well. After a couple of decades of high inflation, we have managed to re-establish price stability. Market players as well as people in general are now more confident in and have a better understanding of the regime and the general formation of monetary policy. It also looks as though the importance of fiscal discipline as a means of supporting the monetary policy regime is anchored in the political system and in Swedish society. Sweden is not the only country where a regime with an explicit inflation target seems to be working well.

For each wage adjustment episode in a country, the data sample starts at year T0 (the peak year) and it ends when a new peak is detected (at year T0 new – 1). We apply this only if the cumulative real wage gap has been closed before reaching the new peak. If the cumulative wage gap has not been closed, then we continue to consider the new peak as part of the same adjustment episode. A wage adjustment episode within a larger wage adjustment episode is not considered. This approach prevents data overlapping and it secures research consistency and integrity. In the analysed period, there were three historical episodes of wage adjustments. Data shows that the cumulative real wage gap was closed in all countries which experienced the first wage adjustment episode, with the exception of two countries (Japan and Korea). In the case of the second wage adjustment episode, the cumulative real wage gap has not yet been closed, with the exception of other two countries (Mexico and Latvia). These latter two countries entered a new wage adjustment episode, the third one. For simplicity reasons, the wage adjustment episodes are numbered with reference to the time periods and not to the country-specific episodes. We considered as the first wage adjustment 5  episode any episode which started in the last decade of last century (1990-1999) and the second wage adjustment episode any episode which started after the year 2000.
Norman Chan: Hong Kong as an international debt financing centre Remarks by Mr Norman Chan, Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, at the cocktail reception of HKCMA Forum 2005, Hong Kong, 26 January 2005. *  *  *  Mr Yiu, ladies and gentlemen: I am very pleased to be invited to speak at this Cocktail Reception today. Let me first congratulate the Hong Kong Capital Markets Association for successfully organising this Forum. I am glad to note that the Forum has drawn together many market participants to discuss a number of important issues related to the role of Hong Kong as an international debt financing centre. Over the years, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has been working closely with the HKCMA in developing the debt market of Hong Kong. This co-operation has turned a new page last year with the establishment of the Hong Kong Treasury Markets Forum, or the TMF in short, on which the HKCMA is represented. As the Chairman of the TMF, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce how the TMF intends to work with the industry associations, including the HKCMA, to enhance the competitiveness of the treasury markets in Hong Kong. As some of you may already know, the TMF was set up in March 2004 by restructuring the previous Foreign Exchange and Money Market Practices Committee.

1/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  Indeed, the various measures that were implemented have been instrumental in accelerating the e-payment agenda forward, only because of the cooperation of the industry, sometimes with a bit of nudging. But truth be told, we have been able to achieve so much. Today, the payments industry is no longer the exclusive domain of banks. The advent of FinTech driven by the increasingly inexpensive and pervasive internet and mobile technology has encouraged the entry of more agile non-bank players as potential disruptors or collaborators of the incumbent players. This has set the stage for an exciting new era in payments, an era in which the industry is expected to take on a larger role in delivering a more robust and efficient payments system for Malaysia. The Bank will facilitate this in three key ways: i. First, through policy initiatives to encourage collaborative competition or ‘co-opetition’; ii. Second, by further strengthening industry alignment; and iii. Third, by supporting more inclusive governance arrangements for the development of the payment system. Policies to promote co-opetition as a key enabler for greater efficiency, competition and innovation Network effects are critical to an efficient payment system. The larger the network of a payment system, the more valuable it is to users of the payment system.
This was not the first time that Parliament had concerned itself with the affairs of insurance companies, however. In 1739, Britain entered into a war with Spain. As a consequence, trade with Spain ceased but – perhaps surprisingly – the underwriting of Spanish ships by British underwriters continued unabated. This led to a somewhat perverse situation in which British insurers compensated enemy merchants for shipping losses suffered at the hands of British privateers and squadrons of the Royal Navy. The value of insurance trade was, it seems, considered by many to be too valuable to forfeit voluntarily 10 as Britain entered a period of sustained warfare with Spain and then France. By 1748, attitudes had changed and Parliament passed an Act which banned the insurance of enemy ships by British insurers. Yet the Act was expired just a few months later (after the Seven Years War ended) such that insurers did, in fact, enjoy considerable discretion over which risks to underwrite, including foreign enemy ships. I think that what this example ultimately demonstrates is the importance of trade and competitiveness in shaping the British state’s involvement in the affairs of insurers. The protection of enemy ships was at direct odds with Britain’s foreign policy – but trade was ultimately considered strategically more important. In common with the environment in which our eighteenth-century forebears worked, trade and competitiveness remain important contextual factors in the debate about how we should regulate insurers today.

Hence, regulation and supervision in order to minimize systemic risk should concentrate on the leading global investment banks to make sure that adequate counterparty and liquidity risk management systems and processes are implemented. Against the backdrop of scarce resources, we should refrain from opening new regulatory fields which are not relevant for systemic risks. 1/1
Allow me to thank you once again for the work and devotion you exhibited over the course of this year. I strongly believe that the truthfulness and objectivity in reporting economic and financial news will continue to accompany you in fulfilling your duty in the coming year. I reaffirm that the Bank of Albania will continue be a transparent institution, ready to provide opinions and assessments as necessary in all public debates related to the performance of our economy and financial markets. A certificate of this commitment and achievement of the Bank of Albania in the communication with the public is the ranking first of the Bank of Albania among all the banks of Central, Eastern and South-eastern countries, for very active pubic communication, 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  in the last report: “Focus on the European Economic Integration” for the second quarter of 2021, published by the National Bank of Austria. Dear guests, The Bank of Albania continues to focus scrupulously on financial education and research considering it a crucial pillar of its activity. They are seen as the foundations for increasing the social-economic development and welfare of the citizens of Albania. From this point of view, I kindly invite you to share together a special moment of this meeting: the traditional ceremony for the Governor’s Award for the Best Diploma. The Bank of Albania for this 15th year ceremony in a raw has selected and valued three scientific works amid all the presented researches by students graduated in Albanian and abroad.

For this reason, the commission found difficult in making a selection as all topics were coherent, interesting and properly addressed. Nevertheless, we succeeded to identify carefully those minor variations and distinguished nuances which make the difference to the winning theses amid all the presented works. Eventually, we have come to a decision on the “Governor’s Award for the Best Diploma Theses” for 2021. Though, I would like together with the winners to thank and congratulate all the participants in this contest for their engagement, ideas, the applied methods and findings based on the appropriate methodologies. I wish this passion and devotion is part of your commitment as you advance in your careers. Let us now present the winning contestants. Thank you and happy holidays! 2/2  BIS central bankers' speeches
Chart: Relative labour costs Improved cost-competitiveness is an important factor in enabling new exports to emerge as the production of oil and gas dwindles. Tourism in Norway has risen markedly in recent years, and exports of traditional manufactured finished products have shown an appreciable increase. However, the increase is not sufficient to compensate for a decrease in exports from other sectors of the mainland economy. Total mainland exports were lower last year than in 2014. The most important reason for this is the marked decrease in oil service industry exports in the wake of the fall in oil prices. But even excluding this part of the export industry, growth in mainland exports since 2014 has been lower than growth in trading partner imports. Chart: Mainland exports Weak export growth partly reflects supply-side constraints in some sectors. Production stoppages at several large companies led to a decrease in industrial commodity exports last year, while salmon lice infestations contributed to a decline in seafood exports. Other service sector segments in addition to the oil service industry also appear to have been adversely affected by the downturn in the global petroleum industry. A weaker krone is also an advantage for Norwegian firms competing in the domestic market. Competitiveness in the oil service industry has improved considerably, particularly after the substantial cost-cutting measures introduced by companies in this industry in recent years. We have recently seen that a larger share of contracts on the Norwegian continental shelf is being awarded to Norwegian companies.

As set out in the Financial Stability Board's (FSB) latest progress reportOpens in a new window in October 2022, much progress has already been made including: agreeing global quantitative targetsOpens in a new window and a methodology for measuring progress towards them, undertaking stocktakes and analyses of existing payment systems and arrangements, and publishing proposals and best practice for achieving progress. And there have already been tangible changes, for example the move by SWIFT and some key systems to ISO 20022Opens in a new window messaging standards, increased operating hours and the launch of interlinking arrangements such as between Thailand's PromptPay and Singapore's PayNow. Now the work is at an inflection point: many of the original roadmap actions have been completed, providing a solid foundation from which to make real changes to the crossborder payments experience. In February 2023 the FSB published a set of priority actions that will be taken forward to meet the cross-border payments targets by 2027. The actions are grouped in three priority focus areasOpens in a new window: Payment system interoperability and extension; Legal, regulatory and supervisory frameworks; and Cross-border data exchange and message standards. We need to work together to make payments faster, cheaper, more accessible, and more transparent. Some of this work needs to continue to be international for example, agreeing approaches to harmonising rules and standards.
What we want to achieve is to improve people’s ability – to manage money well – through their entire life cycle, and their ability to handle periods of difficulties. Financially literate population – will help to improve the well-being of individuals and households; ensure a sound and competitive financial system; as well as contribute to the sustainable growth of the economy. Let me explain further on the importance of elevating financial literacy: a. For individuals and households – financial literacy has become a key life skill. Those who go through life by making sound financial decisions – will potentially be more resilient and end-up with a much higher standard of living throughout their lifetime, including during retirement. With the right knowledge and skills – individuals can live within their means; manage finances; and improve chances of achieving their ultimate financial goals. A financially literate Malaysian – would be aware of the importance of long-term financial planning and will actively save for the future. b. Empowered financial consumers – is an important element in enhancing market discipline and promoting financial stability. Financially literate consumers can collectively influence the behaviour of financial institutions to operate in a responsible, transparent and efficient manner. Financial institutions would be more competitive and motivated – to provide proper advice and offer suitable products, including that can support long-term financial planning. c. Successful channelling of savings into productive investment opportunities – will also promote better economic growth.

Greater use of financial products; as well as prudent use 1/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  of credit among households – would promote wealth creation. A nation with a more literate population – can achieve greater financial inclusion through the access and appropriate use of financial products and services. Such households would facilitate in achieving the intended outcomes of macroeconomic policies. Let me focus on three areas that are relevant towards shaping a better future in the context of financial literacy: 1. First – long-term financial planning begins at young age and relevant at each key life stages. 2. Second – on the individual responsibility to take charge of its own financial decisions and well-being; and 3. Third – building financial capability and enhancing literacy – is a shared responsibility. I will share the on-going collaborative efforts undertaken to raise financial literacy among Malaysians. Talking about long-term financial planning Based on Bank Negara Malaysia’s observation – there is a continuing concern – on the lack of attention to long-term financial planning among a majority of Malaysians. Only 40% of Malaysians are financially ready for retirement. A recent focus group discussion with retirees – shows that they would still rely on their children or purchase using credit in the event of emergency or for higher value items. This could be a result of lack of financial planning when they were younger.