E4 - Money and Interest Rates

• Everything You Want to Know About the Bank’s Standing Liquidity Facility… But were too afraid to ask!

  Staff analytical paper 2026-26 Kaetlynd McRae, Jessie Ziqing Chen

  The Standing Liquidity Facility (SLF) is one of the Bank of Canada’s least discussed tools—and one of its most important. Embedded directly in Canada’s high value payment system, Lynx, the SLF operates quietly in the background every business day, ensuring the smooth settlement of payments and reinforcing the implementation of monetary policy.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical paper JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E44, E5, E58, E59, G, G2, G21, G28 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Monetary policy, Monetary policy tools and implementation, Money and payments, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• Unpacking interest rate uncertainty in 2025

  Staff analytical paper 2026-25 Harshbir Kaur, Rishi Vala

  Amid heightened Canada–US trade tensions in 2025, financial markets showed signs that investors had greater difficulty anticipating near-term Bank of Canada interest rate decisions. We look at the Overnight Index Swap prices and intraday Government of Canada yields to identify the main driver of uncertainty around interest rate decisions.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical paper JEL Code(s): C, C5, C58, D, D5, D53, E, E4, E44, E5, E52, E58 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission

• Optimal Conventional and Unconventional Monetary Policy Mix

  Staff working paper 2026-18 Sami Alpanda, Serdar Kabaca, Kostas Mavromatis

  We show that in a heterogeneous economy, optimal policy after cost-push shocks raises short-term rates to curb inflation while lowering long-term rates to support indebted households, speeding investment and output recovery while increasing consumption inequality.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E43, E5, E52 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission, Monetary policy tools and implementation

• Assessing the US and Canadian neutral rates: 2026 update

  Staff analytical paper 2026-21 Felipe Alves, William Beaudoin, Hélène Desgagnés, Wei Dong, Jan David Schneider, Eugene Trostin, Argyn Toktamyssov, Hannes Twieling

  We assess the Canadian nominal neutral rate to be in the range of 2.25% to 3.25%, unchanged from our assessment in 2025. We assess the US nominal neutral rate to be in the range of 2.50% to 3.50%, somewhat higher than the range of 2.25% to 3.25% reported in the 2025 assessment.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical paper JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, E5, E52 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission

• Potential output in Canada: 2026 assessment

  Staff analytical paper 2026-19 Alex Chernoff, Christopher Hajzler, Stéphanie Houle, Gabriella Ruggero, Olena Senyuta, Karanbir Sohal, Walter Steingress, Temel Taskin

  Growth in potential output is expected to drop from 2.3% in 2025 to 1.2% in 2026 given slowing population growth, US tariffs and trade policy uncertainty. It is then estimated to pick up to an average of 1.5% over 2027–29 as strengthening business and government investment supports trend labour productivity (TLP). Gradual adoption of artificial intelligence is also expected to lift TLP growth over the projection horizon.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical paper JEL Code(s): E, E2, E3, E4, E5 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, Demographics and labour supply

• Patterns and Determinants of Global Cryptocurrency Flows

  Staff working paper 2026-15 Christian Friedrich, Laura Zhao

  This paper analyzes cross-border cryptocurrency flows, focusing on Bitcoin and four major stablecoins. Using data for 162 countries, we identify the key determinants, including responses to weak economic conditions and demand for remittances. A COVID-19 case study supports these findings and emphasizes the role of cryptocurrencies in global finance.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, F, F3, F32, F38, F5, F51, G, G1, G15, G2, G23 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech

• Public vs. Private Payment Platforms: Market Impacts and Optimal Policy

  Staff working paper 2026-10 Youming Liu, Francisco Rivadeneyra, Edona Reshidi

  We study the competition between a welfare-maximizing public payment platform (e.g., CBDC or fast payment system) and a profit-maximizing private platform in a two-sided market, deriving optimal public pricing and showing how network effects, fragmentation, and policy mandates like zero fees or cost recovery shape welfare, usage, and fee incidence.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): D, D4, E, E4, E42, E5, E58 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech, Payment and financial market infrastructures, Retail payments

• Project Samara Research Paper

  Staff analytical paper 2026-8 Rakesh Arora, Umar Faruqui, Scott Hendry, Dinesh Shah, André Usche

  Project Samara was a real‑world experiment testing distributed ledger technology and wholesale central bank digital money for bond issuance and settlement in Canada. It demonstrated technical feasibility and potential efficiency and risk‑reduction benefits, while highlighting important trade‑offs related to complexity, governance, and regulatory alignment.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical paper JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, E5, E58, G, G2, G28, O, O3, O33 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Funds management, Market structure, Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech, Payment and financial market infrastructures

• Macro News in Market Moves: Classifying News through Asset Co-movements

  Staff analytical paper 2026-7 Bruno Feunou, Jean-Sébastien Fontaine, Rishi Vala

  This paper introduces CLONE, a method that decomposes asset price movements into aggregate demand, productivity, inflation, and monetary policy news, using stocks, bonds, and inflation swaps. CLONE simplicity and forward-looking focus helps guide policymakers in determining the economic drivers behind asset price movements.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical paper JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32, E4, E44, G, G1, G12, G14 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission

• Do Monetary Policy Shocks Affect the Neutral Rate of Interest?

  Staff working paper 2026-6 Danilo Leiva-Leon, Rodrigo Sekkel, Luis Uzeda

  Can monetary policy influence the neutral real interest rate (r-star)? Using a new statistical model, we show that interest rate hikes tend to lower r-star and long-run growth, but that monetary policy explains only a small share of the long-run decline in r-star.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C3, C32, C5, C51, E, E3, E32, E4, E44 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission, Monetary policy tools and implementation