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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Liquidity Management of Canadian Corporate Bond Mutual Funds: A Machine Learning Approach

Staff analytical note 2019-7 Rohan Arora, Chen Fan, Guillaume Ouellet Leblanc
When redeeming shares for investors, bond fund managers must choose a mix of cash and bond sales to honour their commitments. This note uses machine learning algorithms to uncover new patterns in decisions fund managers make to meet redemptions.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): G, G1, G2, G20, G23 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods

Price Caps in Canadian Bond Borrowing Markets

Staff analytical note 2019-2 Léanne Berger-Soucy, Jean-Sébastien Fontaine, Adrian Walton
Price controls, or caps, can lead to shortages, as 1970’s gasoline price controls illustrate. One million trades show that the market for borrowing bonds in Canada has an implicit price cap: traders are willing to pay no more than the overnight interest rate to borrow a bond. This suggests the probability of a shortage increases when interest rates are very low.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): G, G1, G10, G12 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Market structure

Inference in Games Without Nash Equilibrium: An Application to Restaurants’ Competition in Opening Hours

Staff working paper 2018-60 Erhao Xie
This paper relaxes the Bayesian Nash equilibrium (BNE) assumption commonly imposed in empirical discrete choice games with incomplete information. Instead of assuming that players have unbiased/correct expectations, my model treats a player’s belief about the behavior of other players as an unrestricted unknown function. I study the joint identification of belief and payoff functions.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C5, C57, L, L1, L13, L8, L85 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market structure, Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods

The Cost of the Government Bond Buyback and Switch Programs in Canada

Staff analytical note 2018-41 Bo Young Chang, Jun Yang, Parker Liu
This note examines the costs of the Government of Canada bond buyback and switch programs between 1998 and 2016. Our analysis indicates that the auction design of the buyback program was effective in retiring government debt with minimal costs resulting from bid shading in auctions and price impact.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): D, D4, D44 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Funds management, Market functioning

Alternative Futures for Government of Canada Debt Management

Staff discussion paper 2018-15 Corey Garriott, Sophie Lefebvre, Guillaume Nolin, Francisco Rivadeneyra, Adrian Walton
This paper presents four blue-sky ideas for lowering the cost of the Government of Canada’s debt without increasing the debt’s risk profile. We argue that each idea would improve the secondary-market liquidity of government debt, thereby increasing the demand for government bonds and thus lowering their cost at issuance.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): G, G1, G12, G2, G24, H, H6, H63 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Funds management, Market functioning, Market structure
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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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