Thomas Thorn is a Senior Policy Advisor in the Financial Markets Department (FMD) at the Bank of Canada. His work focuses on overseeing the production of the Bank’s Financial Stability Report and contributing to international work on non-bank financial intermediation. Prior to this role, he worked on Canadian benchmark reform at the Bank’s Toronto regional office. From 2015 to 2019, he took a leave of absence from the Bank to serve on the Financial Stability Board Secretariat. Thomas holds an MA in economics from the University of Victoria.
We share insights about non-bank financial intermediation in Canada in 2023. These data were collected as part of the Bank of Canada’s contribution to the Financial Stability Board’s Global Monitoring Report on Non-Bank Financial Intermediation.
Changes in technology and regulation have resulted in an increasing number of trading venues in equity markets in Canada. New trading platforms have intensified price competition and have encouraged innovation, and they do not appear to have segmented trade. But the increasingly complex market structure has necessitated investments in expensive technology and has introduced new operational risks. Regulatory responses should be carefully adapted to retain the competition and innovation associated with this market fragmentation.
Thomas Thorn and Harri Vikstedt examine the efforts being taken internationally and in Canada to enhance the governance and integrity of financial benchmarks. The report provides an overview of how interbank interest rate benchmarks are set and describes the weaknesses in the process that were exposed by the financial crisis. It also explains recent policy developments designed to make global and Canadian interbank benchmarks more robust.
