Financial markets

Financial markets are where savers and borrowers exchange funds. Their well-functioning is critical. This is why we study their structure, participants, regulations and how they are affected by key external changes.

Financial markets consist of markets for money, bonds, equities, derivatives and foreign currencies. It is mainly through these markets that the Bank of Canada’s key policy rate influences interest rates and exchange rates for the Canadian dollar. This, in turn, helps us achieve our monetary policy objectives. As the fiscal agent for the Government of Canada, we are also involved in financial markets through auctions of government securities.

Our research increases our understanding of the structure and functioning of Canadian financial markets and helps us identify ways to support their development and stability.

Examples of areas we are exploring:

  • the ability of and risks to markets absorbing higher levels of government debt
  • what motivates international investors, such as US hedge funds, to participate in the Government of Canada bond market
  • the risks to financial stability from new non-bank players entering the business of intermediating markets
  • important things to consider when designing central bank programs that supply liquidity to market participants
  • the impacts on market structure from things like artificial intelligence and tokenized assets

Government debt market

In recent years, governments around the world, including in Canada and the United States, have issued more debt to support their economies. This large supply of government securities may lead to funding challenges and could distort asset markets. Our research aims to understand the capacity of markets to absorb this debt and its effect on market functioning, financial stability and the transmission of monetary policy.

Market structure and regulation

Another key part of our research is understanding how financial markets adapt to the evolving financial environment and how regulation safeguards stability and market functioning. In many countries, including Canada, fixed-income markets are still primarily over the counter and rely heavily on bank-owned dealers. This reliance can create challenges for dealers managing their balance sheets and, in times of stress, may limit funding to the broader economy. At the same time hedge funds and high-frequency, or principal, trading firms are among the new players acting as intermediaries as these markets digitalize. This change brings both benefits and new risks, which we strive to better understand.

Related research

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Government of Canada Fixed-Income Market Ecology II: Government of Canada Bond Dealing

Staff analytical paper 2026-11 Petr Kocourek, Adrian Walton
This analytical paper examines the organization of Government of Canada bond dealing. We focus on dealers’ hedging and funding practices, the market infrastructures that support those practices, and trading costs across the yield curve. This paper builds on earlier work discussing Canada’s fixed-income market: "Government of Canada Fixed-Income Market Ecology."
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical paper JEL Code(s): G, G1, G10, G2, G20, H, H6, H63 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Market structure, Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Financial stability and systemic risk

Repo transaction costs and balance sheet frictions

Staff analytical paper 2026-10 Yanis Belkacem, Fabienne Schneider, Adrian Walton
We develop an approach to quantify transaction costs in the repo market using OTC transaction data, where quoted bid-ask spreads are not observable. By estimating effective spreads at the level of individual trades, we construct a novel metric to evaluate intermediation costs across different segments of the market.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical paper JEL Code(s): G, G1, G10, G12, G2, G20 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Financial stability and systemic risk

The Usage of Security Lending Facilities under Unconventional Monetary Policy: Evidence from Sweden

Staff working paper 2026-9 Marianna Blix Grimaldi, Fabienne Schneider, David Vestin
This paper examines the interaction between quantitative easing (QE) and the securities lending facility (SLF) using a detailed dataset on Riksbank QE purchases, Swedish DMO SLF transactions and OTC repo deals. A theoretical model further shows how excess demand for assets and search frictions shift the SLF from a backstop to a first-resort tool.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52, E58, G, G2, G21 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Market structure, Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Monetary policy, Monetary policy tools and implementation

Estimation and Inference for Stochastic Volatility Models with Heavy-Tailed Distributions

Staff working paper 2026-8 Gabriel Rodriguez Rondon, Jean-Marie Dufour, Md. Nazmul Ahsan
Statistical inference--both estimation and testing--for stochastic volatility (SV) models is known to be challenging and computationally demanding. We propose simple and efficient estimators for SV models with conditionally heavy-tailed error distributions, particularly the Student’s t and Generalized Exponential Distributions (GED). The estimators rely on a small set of moment conditions derived from ARMA-type representations of SV models, with an option to apply “winsorization” to improve stability and finite-sample performance. Except for the degrees of-freedom parameter, closed-form expressions are available for all other parameters, extending Ahsan and Dufour (2019, 2021), thus eliminating the need for numerical optimization or initial values. We derive the estimators’ asymptotic distribution and show that, due to their analytical tractability, they support reliable, and even exact, simulation-based inference via Monte Carlo or bootstrap methods. We assess their performance through extensive simulations and demonstrate their practical relevance in financial return data, which strongly reject the normality assumption in favor of heavy-tailed models.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C1, C12, C13, C15, C2, C22, C5, C51, C53, C58 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, International markets and currencies, Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Economic models

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
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Disclaimer

Bank of Canada staff produce research and analysis to support the work of the Bank and to advance knowledge in the fields of economics and finance. The research is non-partisan and evidence based. All research is produced independently from the Bank’s Governing Council. The views expressed in each paper or article are solely those of the authors and may differ from official Bank of Canada views.

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