Alexandra Lai is Senior Director in the Financial Market Department at the Bank of Canada. In this role, she provides leadership to the development of policy advice on domestic and international regulatory policy, with a focus on regulated financial institutions (e.g., the bank resolution regime and other policy initiatives aimed at ending “too big to fail”), shadow banking, the federal housing finance framework, macroprudential policy, and the provision of central bank liquidity. Ms Lai holds a PhD in Economics from Queen’s University. She joined the Bank of Canada in 2000 and has held positions within the Bank in several areas, including Special Studies (Research), FMI oversight, and regulatory policy.
Emergency Lending Assistance (ELA) is a discretionary last-resort collateralized loan or ad-vance by the Bank of Canada to eligible financial institutions (FIs) and financial market infrastructures (FMIs) facing serious liquidity problems. In December 2015, the Bank revised its ELA policy to (i) replace the requirement for an FI’s solvency with the requirement for a credible recovery and resolution framework; (ii) include mortgages as eligible collateral; and (iii) clarify both the eligibility requirements for FMIs and provincially regulated deposit-taking FIs.
The authors trace the development of the Basel III standards for banking regulation. Basel III builds on two earlier frameworks, in response to weaknesses revealed during the global financial crisis. They highlight how implementation of the standards will underpin greater financial stability and provide a sound foundation for economic growth.
