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
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
Consumers’ Path to Mortgage Delinquency Staff analytical paper 2026-3 Laura Zhao, Jia Qi Xiao, Aidan Witts Analyzing TransUnion data from 2015–2024, this study identifies a systematic timeline of distress where rising credit utilization and non-mortgage arrears precede mortgage delinquency by up to two years. This deterioration intensifies in the final six months, providing a robust suite of high-frequency indicators for monitoring emerging household stress. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical paper JEL Code(s): D, D1, D14, G, G2, G21, G5, G51 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial system regulation and oversight, Household and business credit
Unintended consequences of liquidity regulation Staff analytical note 2025-28 Omar Abdelrahman, Josef Schroth When a bank holds a lot of safe assets, it is well situated to deal with funding stress. But when all banks hold a lot of safe assets, a pecuniary externality implies that their (wholesale) funding costs increase. This reduces banks’ ability to hold capital buffers and thus, paradoxically, increases the frequency of funding stress. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, E6, G, G2, G21, G28 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Financial system regulation and oversight
Perceived interconnections between Canadian banks and non-bank financial intermediaries under stress Staff analytical note 2025-26 Javier Ojea Ferreiro I study the links between Canadian banks and non-bank financial intermediaries (NBFIs) by observing co-movements in stock prices. Perceived interconnections increased before the COVID-19 pandemic but have since stabilized, with the strongest ties seen between large banks and NBFIs. The secured credit line extended to Home Trust, a non-bank mortgage lender that experienced severe funding stress in 2017, significantly reduced banks' risk exposure to NBFIs during this episode. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): C, C5, C58, G, G0, G01, G2, G21, G23, G3, G32 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Financial stability and systemic risk
A Market-Based Approach to Reverse Stress Testing the Financial System Staff working paper 2025-32 Javier Ojea Ferreiro This article examines what market conditions lead to extreme losses in global financial systems. Using a reverse stress testing approach, it introduces two measures of systemic risk by starting from the tail losses and working backward to identify the events most closely associated with them. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C0, C02, C3, C32, C5, C58, G, G2, G21 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Financial stability and systemic risk
Net Send Limits in the Lynx Payment System: Usage and Implications Staff discussion paper 2025-13 Virgilio B Pasin, Anna Wyllie We study how participants in the Lynx payment system use the net send limit (NSL) tool to control their intraday payment outflow levels. Our results show that participants typically adopt a “set it and forget it” approach to scheduling NSLs and sometimes have distinct intraday NSL adjustment behaviours. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): C, C1, C10, D, D8, D82, E, E4, E42, E5, E58, G, G2, G21, G4, G41 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Money and payments, Payment and financial market infrastructures
An update on the Canadian money market mutual fund sector Staff analytical note 2025-25 Jabir Sandhu, Sofia Tchamova, Rishi Vala We examine the Canadian money market fund (MMF) sector and find that it has grown rapidly, holding a large share of treasury bills and commercial paper. Unlike in some other jurisdictions where investor outflows likely amplified stresses, Canadian MMFs experienced inflows during the March 2020 market turmoil. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, G, G0, G00, G01, G1, G2, G23 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Financial stability and systemic risk