Scott Hendry was appointed Senior Research Officer in the Economic and Financial Research Department in January 2025. He previously held the role of Senior Special Director, Financial Technology (FinTech) in the Banking and Payments Department (BAP) from 2016 to 2024. Before that he was the Senior Research Director for the Funds Management and Banking Department (FBD) and the Financial Markets Department (FMD). His personal research has focused on central bank digital currency, electronic payments, price discovery in the Canadian government bond market, and central bank communication. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Western Ontario.
A well-functioning monetary system is characterized by public and private forms of money that exchange at par as value flows freely between them. A relevant retail public money—whether in the form of cash, a central bank digital currency or both—is a necessary component of such a monetary system.
We discuss the competition and innovation arguments for issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). A CBDC could be an effective competition policy tool for payments. A CBDC could also support the vibrancy of the digital economy. It could help solve market failures and foster competition and innovation in new digital payments markets.
In this paper, we discuss whether the ability of individuals to convert commercial bank money (i.e., bank deposits) into central bank money is fundamentally important for the monetary system.
This paper considers an economy where central-bank-issued fiat money competes with privately issued e-money. We study a policy-setting game between the central bank and the e-money issuer and find (1) the optimal monetary policy of the central bank depends on the policy of the private issuer and may deviate from the Friedman rule; (2) multiple equilibria may exist; (3) when the economy approaches a cashless state, the central bank’s optimal policy improves the market power of the e-money issuer and can lead to a discrete decrease in welfare and a discrete increase in inflation; and (4) first best cannot be achieved.
The use of bank notes in Canada for payments has declined consistently for some time, and similar trends are evident in other countries. This has led some observers to predict a cashless society in the future.
This paper examines the experience of Sweden with government notes and private bank notes to determine how well the Swedish experience corresponds to that of Canada and the United States. Sweden is important to study because it has had government notes in circulation for more than 350 years, and it had government notes before private bank notes.
The Bank of Canada’s annual conference, held in October 2010, brought together leading researchers from universities and central banks around the world.
The Bank of Canada's interest in fixed-income markets spans several of its functional areas of responsibility, including monetary policy, funds management, and financial system stability and efficiency. For that reason, the 2006 conference brought together top academics and central bankers from around the world to discuss leading-edge work in the field of fixed-income research. The papers and discussions cover such topics as the efficiency of fixed-income markets, price formation, the determinants of the yield curve, and volatility modelling. This article provides a short summary of each conference paper and the ensuing discussion.
Capital markets and their related financial instruments make an important contribution to the welfare of Canadians. The Bank of Canada is interested in the efficient functioning of capital markets through each of its responsibilities for monetary policy, the financial system, and funds management. Hendry and King highlight the key findings of Bank research published over the past year that addresses capital market efficiency and summarize lessons that have been learned. The research conducted thus far suggests that Canadian capital markets are efficient for a capital market of Canada's size but are less diverse than the U.S. capital markets, indicating that there is room for improvement in certain areas.
This report describes a joint endeavour between public and private sectors to explore a wholesale payment system based on distributed ledger technology (DLT). They find that a stand-alone DLT system is unlikely to be as beneficial as a centralized payment system in terms of core operating costs; however, it could increase financial system efficiency as a result of integration with the broader financial market infrastructure.
"Labour Markets, Liquidity, and Monetary Policy Regimes," (with David Andolfatto, SFU, and Kevin Moran), Canadian Journal of Economics, Vol 37, p. 392-420, April 2004.
"Liquidity Effects and Market Frictions," (with Guang-Jia Zhang) Journal of Macroeconomics, Spring 2001, 23 (2): 153-176.
Other
Publications
"Inflation Expectations and Learning about Monetary Policy," (with David Andolfatto, SFU, and Kevin Moran), DNB Staff Reports No. 121/2004.
"Inflation Persistence and Costly Market Share Adjustment: A Preliminary Analysis," (with Robert Amano), Monetary Policy in a Changing Environment, BIS Papers No. 19, p. 134-146.
