Payment and financial market infrastructures

• Procyclicality in Central Counterparty Margin Models: A Conceptual Tool Kit and the Key Parameters

  Staff discussion paper 2023-34 Alper Odabasioglu

  Regulators need to provide effective procyclicality guidance, and central counterparties must design and calibrate their margin systems and procyclicality frameworks appropriately. To serve these needs, we provide a novel conceptual tool kit. Further, we highlight that the focus should be on the key margin system parameters in determining procyclicality.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): G, G0, G01, G2, G23, G28 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial stability and systemic risk, Financial system regulation and oversight, Money and payments, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• Decentralized finance: Innovations and challenges

  Staff analytical note 2023-15 Jonathan Chiu, Hanna Yu

  Decentralized finance surged in popularity around 2020. We explore its value and limitations and highlight some potential regulatory concerns.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): G, G1, G2 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial stability and systemic risk, Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• Estimating the Appropriate Quantity of Settlement Balances in a Floor System

  Staff discussion paper 2023-26 Narayan Bulusu, Matthew McNeely, Kaetlynd McRae, Jonathan Witmer

  This paper presents two complementary approaches to estimating the appropriate quantity of settlement balances needed to effectively operate monetary policy under a floor system in Canada.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5, E52, E58, G, G2, G21, G28 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Monetary policy tools and implementation, Money and payments, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• Three things we learned about the Lynx payment system

  Staff analytical note 2023-14 Nikil Chande, Zhentong Lu, Hiru Rodrigo, Phoebe Tian

  Canada transitioned to a new wholesale payment system, Lynx, in August 2021. Lynx is based on a real-time settlement model that eliminates credit risk in the system. This model can require more liquidity; however, Lynx’s design allows Canada’s wholesale payments to settle efficiently.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): C, C1, C10, E, E4, E42, G, G2, G28 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• Anonymous Credentials: Secret-Free and Quantum-Safe

  Staff working paper 2023-50 Raza Ali Kazmi, Cyrus Minwalla

  An anonymous credential mechanism is a set of protocols that allows users to obtain credentials from an organization and demonstrate ownership of these credentials without compromising users’ privacy. In this work, we construct the first secret-free and quantum-safe credential mechanism.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, G, G2, G21, O, O3, O31 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• Privacy-Preserving Post-Quantum Credentials for Digital Payments

  Staff working paper 2023-33 Raza Ali Kazmi, Duc-Phong Le, Cyrus Minwalla

  Digital payments and decentralized systems enable the creation of new financial products and services for users. One core challenge in digital payments is the need to protect users from fraud and abuse while retaining privacy in individual transactions. We propose a pseudonymous credential scheme for use in payment systems to tackle this problem.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, G, G2, G21, O, O3, O31 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech, Payment and financial market infrastructures, Retail payments

• Reviewing Canada’s Monetary Policy Implementation System: Does the Evolving Environment Support Maintaining a Floor System?

  Staff discussion paper 2023-10 Toni Gravelle, Ron Morrow, Jonathan Witmer

  At the onset of the pandemic, the Bank of Canada transitioned its framework for monetary policy implementation from a corridor system to a floor system, which it has since decided to maintain. We provide a comprehensive analysis of both frameworks and assess their relative merits based on five key criteria that define a sound framework.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): D, D4, D47, E, E4, E42, E5, E58 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market structure, Monetary policy, Monetary policy tools and implementation, Money and payments, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• How Banks Create Gridlock to Save Liquidity in Canada's Large Value Payment System

  Staff working paper 2023-26 Rodney J. Garratt, Zhentong Lu, Phoebe Tian

  We show how participants in Canada’s new high-value payment system save liquidity by exploiting the new gridlock resolution arrangement. The findings have important implications for the design of these systems and shed light on financial institutions’ liquidity preference.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, E5, E58, G, G2, G21 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Money and payments, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• From LVTS to Lynx: Quantitative Assessment of Payment System Transition

  Staff working paper 2023-24 Ajit Desai, Zhentong Lu, Hiru Rodrigo, Jacob Sharples, Phoebe Tian, Nellie Zhang

  We quantitatively assess the changes in participants’ payment behaviour from modernizing Canada's high-value payments system to Lynx. Our analysis suggests that Lynx's liquidity-saving mechanism encourages liquidity pooling and early payments submission, resulting in improved efficiency for participants but with slightly increased payment delays.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C1, C10, E, E4, E42, G, G2, G28 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• A central bank digital currency for offline payments

  Staff analytical note 2023-2 Cyrus Minwalla, John Miedema, Sebastian Hernandez, Alexandra Sutton-Lalani

  Offline functionality is a key consideration for a potential CBDC. We describe the different types of offline functionality based on their duration outside of network connection—either intermittent (for short periods) or extended (for longer periods). We discuss the advantages and drawbacks of each and consider implications for end-user devices, system resilience and universal accessibility.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, E5, E51, E58, O, O3, O31 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech, Payment and financial market infrastructures, Retail payments