The approach must be comprehensive as macroprudential measures will not be effective if it is done in isolation. Since we operate in a dual financial system, all macroprudential measures are applicable to both the Islamic and conventional financial systems, as both have exposures in housing market and household debts. Second, the measures were targeted to minimise unintended cross-sectional spillovers Instead of a broad-based LTV ratio limit, we imposed the measure only on borrowers with three or more house financing to ensure a continued access to financing for eligible first time house buyers and those investing long-term in a second house for wealth diversification. In Malaysia, we have an on-line system called Central Credit Reference Information System or (CCRIS)) which allows us to have more granular data to monitor borrowers with multiple outstanding house financing. In other words, we have an on-line system where each citizen and companies having exposures in the banking system will have their data centralised in one particular database. That way we know at any point in time, the detail exposures of any companies and individuals. The other important point to note is that we did not narrow the application of measures to specific geographical locations and house type or price in order to avoid circumvention or abuse as developers and lenders can easily build or finance houses at the edge of a restricted zone or price range, or even create a new house type (e.g. Small Office Home Office (SOHO)).
The price of five-year futures contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude has almost doubled in the last three years. Following the sudden rise last spring, US capital market rates have since dropped back to the year-earlier level. The temporary increase in capital market rates in Europe was slightly less pronounced. As a result of the opposing movements of the US and European interest rates of the past few weeks, the long-term dollar interest rates now exceed the corresponding interest rates in the euro area by approximately 50 basis points. On the one hand, the general interest rate development in the capital markets reflects market participants’ misgivings concerning the strength of the economic upswing. On the other hand, the historically low nominal interest rates are testimony to the markets’ confidence in the ability and determination of central banks to further ensure price stability. Moreover, the interest rate structure in the US is characterised by the sizeable dollar investments from Asia. International equity markets trended sideways for much of the year, although some emerging market indices in particular were able to generate significant profits. 2. Managing the National Bank’s assets  The National Bank manages monetary reserves slightly in excess of CHF 60 billion, two-thirds of which are held in foreign currency investments and one-third in gold. In addition to this are approximately 25-30 billion Swiss franc assets in the form of balances from repo transactions in the  1/2  money market and bond investments in the domestic capital market.