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This article summarizes the proceedings of a conference hosted by the Bank of Canada in May 1998. This was the second Bank conference to focus directly on issues concerning financial markets. The topic for 1998—the extraction of information from the prices of financial assets—has been an area of extensive research by central banks worldwide because of its connection to monetary policy. The Bank wanted to encourage such work by Canadian researchers as well as solicit feedback on work conducted internally. It also wanted to broaden the understanding of the interplay in the markets between central banks and other participants. It therefore assembled a wide mix of researchers, central bankers, and market participants. The summary briefly outlines the papers presented as well as the wrap-up discussion.

Learn about the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Bank’s actions to support the Canadian economy and financial system.

Economists in the nineteenth century spent considerable time discussing the merits of a free-banking system, in which each commercial bank would be able to issue its own notes and deposits, subject to a convertibility requirement backed by its own gold reserves. Such a system, the proponents argued, would be able to deliver price-level stability yet be flexible enough to withstand the vicissitudes of the business cycle. Moreover, there would be no need for central banks. While this idea has received less attention in recent years, some economists still put it forward as a practical alternative to the current system. Laidler suggests that the centralizing tendencies in banking would inevitably undermine competition within a free-banking system, and lead to the natural emergence of one dominant bank. Other developments in the twentieth century, most notably the demise of the gold standard and widespread agreement that governments should play a determining role in setting monetary policy goals, have also limited the practicality of such a system. Laidler examines the Bank of Canada's history from the free-banking perspective and concludes that the current system of inflation targeting provides a much better anchor for orderly price-level behaviour than the free-banking system's convertibility could ever guarantee.

We design, issue and distribute Canada’s bank notes. We work to ensure that Canadians have access to secure, reliable and high-quality bank notes.

The Bank of Canada is seeking comments from direct participants in the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS) and other interested parties on the proposed eligibility criteria for accepting asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) as collateral for the Bank of Canada's Standing Liquidity Facility (SLF).

There are two broad classes of arguments for greater flexibility in the design and application of monetary policy frameworks. The BIS has done a great deal of useful work on asset-price targeting in particular and on the complicated interplay between monetary policy and financial stability in general.

Speaking a day after the Bank of Canada’s latest interest rate decision, Deputy Governor Sharon Kozicki discusses the current state of the economy and talks about how the Bank is improving both its use of data and the way we communicate with Canadians.

The Bank of Canada is updating its emergency lending policies to reflect the evolution of the Canadian financial system and lessons learned globally during the 2007–09 financial crisis. This paper sets out proposed updates to the Bank of Canada’s Emergency Lending Assistance (ELA) policies and is being issued for public consultation. All comments on this consultation paper should be received by 4 July 2015.

We have seen a remarkable continuation of robust global growth, fuelled by increases in international trade and facilitated by the continuing evolution and expansion of capital markets. Domestic demand began to grow more strongly in Europe and Asia and to slow in the United States, and this began to ease some of the concerns related to global imbalances that I spoke about during my last visit.

At the Bank of Canada, we’re pleased to offer awards for research papers by students and by staff.