The Bank of Canada’s annual economic conference, held in October 2012, brought together experts from across Canada and around the world to discuss key issues concerning financial intermediation and vulnerabilities. The conference covered such topics as household finances and their relationship to financial stability, as well as bank regulation, securitization and shadow banking.
Topics: Central bank research; Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policiesThis paper studies a dynamic version of the Holmstrom-Tirole model of intermediated finance. I show that competitive equilibria are not constrained efficient when the economy experiences a financial crisis. A pecuniary externality entails that banks’ desire to accumulate capital over time aggravates the scarcity of informed capital during the financial crisis.
Topics: Financial markets; Financial system regulation and policiesThe financial transaction tax (FTT) is a policy idea with a long history that, in the wake of the global financial crisis, has attracted renewed interest in some quarters. This article examines the evidence of the impact of an FTT on market quality and explores a few of the practical issues surrounding the implementation of an FTT. Proponents argue that an FTT will generate substantial tax revenues and reduce market volatility. The majority of the empirical evidence, however, supports the arguments of opponents of the tax who assert that an FTT reduces volume and liquidity and increases volatility. In addition, there are numerous challenges in implementing an FTT, which may reduce the intended revenues. Whether an FTT is beneficial hinges on its effect on market quality and its ability to raise revenues. However, there are many unanswered questions regarding its design.
Topics: Financial markets; Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policiesCentral counterparties can make over-the-counter markets more resilient and reduce systemic risk by mitigating and managing counterparty credit risk. These benefits are maximized when access to central counterparties is available to a wide range of market participants. In an over-the-counter market, there is an important trade-off between risk and competition. A model of an over-the-counter market shows how risk and competition could be influenced by the incentives of market participants as they move to central clearing. In a centrally cleared market, there may be less risk when participation is high. This helps to explain why regulators have put in place requirements for fair, open and risk-based access criteria.
Topics: Financial markets; Financial system regulation and policies; Market structure and pricingOver the past 20 years, there has been a major shift away from the use of paper-based retail payment instruments, such as cash and cheques, toward electronic means of payment, such as debit cards and credit cards. Recent Bank of Canada research on consumers’ choice of payment instruments indicates that cash is frequently used for transactions with low values because of its speed, ease of use and wide acceptance, while debit and credit cards are more commonly used for transactions with higher values because of perceived attributes such as safety and record keeping. While innovations in retail payments currently being introduced into the Canadian marketplace could lead to a further reduction in the use of cash over the longer term, the implications for the use of cash of some of the structural and regulatory developments under way are less clear.
Topics: Bank notes; Econometric and statistical methods; Financial system regulation and policies; Payment clearing and settlement systemsWe model the behavior of dealers in Over-the-Counter (OTC) derivatives markets where a small number of dealers trade with a continuum of heterogeneous clients (hedgers). Imperfect competition and (endogenous) default induce a familiar trade-off between competition and risk.
Topics: Financial markets; Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policiesThe authors document leverage, capital and liquidity ratios of banks in Canada. These ratios are important indicators of different types of risk with respect to a bank’s balance‐sheet management. Particular attention is given to the observations by different types of banks, including small banks that historically received less attention.
Topics: Financial Institutions; Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policiesThis article examines four indicators of balance-sheet risks—leverage, capital, asset liquidity and funding—among different types of financial institutions in Canada over the past three decades. It also discusses relevant developments in the banking sector that could have contributed to the observed dynamics. The authors find that the various risk indicators decreased during the period for most of the non-Big Six financial institutions, but remained relatively unchanged for the Big Six banks. In addition, the balance-sheet risk indicators became more heterogeneous across financial institutions. The observed overall decline and increased heterogeneity follow certain regulatory changes, such as the introduction of the liquidity guidelines on funding in 1995 and the implementation of bank-specific leverage requirements in 2000. Given that these regulations required more balance-sheet risk management, they have likely contributed to the increased resilience of the banking sector.
Topics: Financial Institutions; Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policiesIn October 2006, Dominion Bond Rating Service (DBRS) introduced new ratings for banks that account for the potential of government support. The rating changes are not a reflection of any changes in the respective banks’ credit fundamentals.
Topics: Financial Institutions; Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policiesThe MacroFinancial Risk Assessment Framework (MFRAF) models the interconnections between liquidity and solvency in a financial system, with multiple institutions linked through an interbank network. The MFRAF integrates funding liquidity risk as an endogenous outcome of the interactions between solvency risk and the liquidity profiles of banks, which is a complementary approach to the new Basel III Liquidity Coverage Ratio framework for Canada. The calibration exercise presented in the article highlights the vulnerability of leveraged institutions to the combination of low cash holdings and excessive dependence on short-term debt funding. As well, by quantifying the trade-offs among higher capital ratios for banks, increased liquid assets or fewer short-term liabilities in reducing risks in the banking system, the MFRAF illustrates that a regulatory framework that properly controls for systemic risk should consider these three factors in a comprehensive manner.
Topics: Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policiesThe Bank of Canada’s annual conference, held in November 2011, brought together leading researchers from universities, central banks and other institutions from around the world. Divided into four sessions plus two keynote addresses, the conference covered such topics as the use of cash and other means of payment in retail transactions, large-value payments systems, and over-the-counter markets and central counterparties.
Topics: Bank notes; Central bank research; Financial system regulation and policies; Monetary policy implementation; Payment clearing and settlement systemsThis paper assesses the merits of countercyclical bank balance sheet regulation for the stabilization of financial and economic cycles and examines its interaction with monetary policy.
Topics: Economic models; Financial Institutions; Financial system regulation and policies; Monetary policy framework; Transmission of monetary policyA view advanced in the aftermath of the late-2000s financial crisis is that lower than optimal interest rates lead to excessive risk taking by financial intermediaries.
Topics: Financial system regulation and policies; Transmission of monetary policyOne way of internalizing the externalities that each individual bank imposes on the rest of the financial system is to impose capital surcharges on them in line with their systemic importance.
Topics: Financial system regulation and policiesIn this paper, we define a financial institution’s contribution to financial systemic risk as the increase in financial systemic risk conditional on the crash of the financial institution. The higher the contribution is, the more systemically important is the institution for the system.
Topics: Econometric and statistical methods; Financial Institutions; Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policiesThis article describes changes to the structure of ToTEM—the Bank of Canada’s main model for projection and policy analysis—that allow an independent role for long-term interest rates, as well as for the risk spreads that lead to differences in the interest rates faced by households, firms and the government. These changes broaden the range of policy questions that the model can address and improve its ability to explain data. The authors use the model to simulate the effects of shocks to the risk spreads on interest rates similar to those that occurred during the recent financial crisis. They also use the model to assess the macroeconomic impact of higher requirements for bank capital and liquidity.
Topics: Economic models; Financial system regulation and policies; Interest ratesThis article describes the Bank of Canada’s version of the Global Economy Model structured to incorporate an active banking system that features an interbank market and cross-border lending. After describing the new model, the authors use it to examine the responses of selected U.S. and Canadian macroeconomic variables to a “credit crunch” in the United States and also to study the impact of changes in the regulatory limits to bank leverage in Canada. They also discuss the relative merits of a monetary policy framework based on inflation targeting and one based on price-level targeting in the presence of shocks to the U.S. and Canadian banking sectors.
Topics: Economic models; Financial Institutions; Financial system regulation and policies; Monetary policy frameworkThe author investigates the influence of bank capital on economic activity, using a macroeconomic model that incorporates an explicit role for financial intermediation. The analysis focuses on the role of a “bank-capital channel” in propagating and amplifying monetary policy actions and other shocks. The question of whether weaker bank balance sheets make the economy more vulnerable to adverse shocks is examined, together with the impact of initiatives, such as countercyclical capital buffers, on the transmission of monetary policy and other shocks to the real economy.
Topics: Economic models; Financial Institutions; Financial system regulation and policies; Transmission of monetary policyThis article focuses on the role that loans backed by housing collateral play in amplifying housing booms and, more generally, procyclicality in the housing market. The author uses a model developed to include borrower and lender households, as well as a housing market, to examine the impact that altering the loan-to-value ratio (either permanently or countercyclically) might have on the volatility of house prices and mortgage debt.
Topics: Economic models; Financial system regulation and policies; Market structure and pricingSince the financial crisis, attention has focused on central counterparties (CCPs) as a solution to systemic risk for a variety of financial markets, ranging from repurchase agreements and options to swaps.
Topics: Financial markets; Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policies; Payment clearing and settlement systemsDuring the recent financial crisis, one of the forces set in motion by the initial losses on subprime-mortgage loans was a significant decline in the market liquidity of assets and in the ability of financial institutions to obtain funding in wholesale markets. In this article, the authors summarize recent research that clarifies the role of liquidity in destabilizing the financial system and examine the implications of this research for the recently announced financial system reforms, including Basel III.
Topics: Financial markets; Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policiesThe recent financial crisis has highlighted the importance of adverse selection as a contributing factor to financial market instability. In this article, the author examines the phenomenon of adverse selection and explains how its presence in a particular market can lead to market freezes and liquidity hoarding. She also describes several mechanisms that can propagate the initially small effect of adverse selection to the entire financial system. Possible policy responses and their effectiveness are also discussed.
Topics: Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policies; Market structure and pricingThe Bank of Canada’s annual conference, held in October 2010, brought together leading researchers from universities and central banks around the world. Divided into six sessions plus a keynote address and a panel discussion, the conference covered such topics as the effects of financial globalization on risk, liquidity, and asset prices; the causes of crises and their effects; and appropriate regulatory responses.
Topics: Central bank research; Financial markets; Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policiesSome evidence points to the procyclicality of leverage among financial institutions leading to aggregate volatility. This procyclicality occurs when financial institutions finance their assets with non-equity funding (i.e., debt financed asset expansions). Wholesale funding is an important source of market-based funding that allows some institutions to quickly adjust their leverage.
Topics: Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policies; Recent economic and financial developmentsThe recent crisis has underlined the importance of sound bank liquidity management. In response, regulators are devising new liquidity standards with the aim of making the financial system more stable and resilient. In this paper, the authors analyse the impact of liquid asset holdings on bank profitability for a sample of large U.S. and Canadian banks.
Topics: Financial Institutions; Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policies
