November 20, 2003 Technical Note: Elimination of Retroactive Settlement in the ACSS Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 2003 Eric Tuer Effective 1 November 2003, the Bank of Canada abandoned its practice of backdating the results of settlement of payments through the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS). It has adopted instead a system of "next-day" settlement under which the results of the settlement process will appear on the central bank's books on the day the items actually settle in the ACSS. Since July 1986, settlement of these items had occurred at noon the day after items were presented for clearing, but the results were recognized on the Bank's books the previous day, through backdating, or "retroactive" settlement. The new system should simplify the payments process and improve the reporting of settlement risk, as well as promote cost-effectiveness within the payments systems. ACSS participants have agreed among themselves to implement an interest-compensation mechanism in order to avoid imposing a float charge on their customer base. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Payment clearing and settlement systems
Excess Collateral in the LVTS: How Much is Too Much? Staff Working Paper 2003-36 Kim McPhail, Anastasia Vakos The authors build a theoretical model that generates demand for collateral by Large Value Transfer System (LVTS) participants under the assumption that they minimize the cost of holding and managing collateral for LVTS purposes. The model predicts that the optimal amount of collateral held by each LVTS participant depends on the opportunity cost of collateral, the transactions costs of acquiring assets used as collateral and transferring them in and out of the LVTS, and the distribution of an LVTS participant's payment flows in the LVTS. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, G, G2, G21
Managing Operational Risk in Payment, Clearing, and Settlement Systems Staff Working Paper 2003-2 Kim McPhail Awareness of operational risk has increased greatly in recent years, both at individual financial institutions and for payment, clearing, and settlement systems (PCSS). PCSS consist of networks of interconnected elements (i.e., central operators, participants, and settlement agents); operational problems at any one of the key elements have the potential to disrupt the system as a whole and negatively affect financial stability. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, G, G2, G21
Estimating Settlement Risk and the Potential for Contagion in Canada's Automated Clearing Settlement System Staff Working Paper 2002-41 Carol Ann Northcott Payments systems operate virtually unnoticed in our daily lives and yet are crucial to a wellfunctioning economy and financial system. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, G, G2, G21
November 20, 2002 CLS Bank: Managing Foreign Exchange Settlement Risk Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 2002 Paul Miller, Carol Ann Northcott In the foreign exchange market, where average daily turnover is in trillions of dollars and trades span time zones, legal systems, and domestic payments systems, participants take on various risks. The most serious risk is credit risk—the risk that one party will fail to pay. Central banks, private sector financial institutions, and domestic payments systems operators laboured for more than a decade to develop a multi-currency settlement system to deal with these risks. The result, the CLS Bank, began operations in September 2002. It virtually eliminates the credit risk inherent in foreign exchange transactions by providing a payment-versus-payment arrangement for settlement. The CLS Bank is regulated by the Federal Reserve Board in consultation with the central banks that have currencies settling through its system. At present there are seven currencies, including the Canadian dollar. The Bank of Canada acts as banker for the CLS Bank, providing it with a settlement account and making and receiving payments on its behalf through the Large Value Transfer System. With the participation and support of the world's largest foreign-exchange-dealing institutions, and growing membership, the CLS Bank has the potential to become the dominant global mechanism for settling foreign exchange transactions. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Payment clearing and settlement systems
May 16, 2001 Core Principles for Systemically Important Payments Systems and Their Application in Canada Bank of Canada Review - Spring 2001 Clyde Goodlet Systemically important payments systems are systems that, because of the size or the nature of the payments they process, could trigger or transmit serious shocks across domestic or international financial systems if they were insufficiently protected against risk. This article describes the overall framework of core principles developed for the design, operation, and oversight of such payments systems. The article reviews the role of the task force established to develop the core principles and examines the core principles themselves. It also examines the role of central banks in overseeing major payments systems and in applying the core principles to them. The focus is on the Bank of Canada's oversight responsibilities under the Payment Clearing and Settlement Act and on Canada's systemically important payments system—the LVTS. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Payment clearing and settlement systems
The Elements of the Global Network for Large-Value Funds Transfers Staff Working Paper 2001-1 James Dingle The author describes the various elements of the global payment network for large-value funds transfers (G-LVTN) in order to provide a convenient reference document intended for readers in the academic, legal, and financial communities. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E6, E61
The Regulation of Central Securities Depositories and the Linkages between CSDs and Large-Value Payment Systems Technical Report No. 87 Charles Freedman This paper first describes the Bank of Canada's approach to the design of large-value clearing and settlement systems. It then examines the way the Bank has operated under the Payment Clearing and Settlement Act, passed by Parliament in July 1996. Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Topic(s): Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): G, G2, G20
November 12, 1998 The LVTS—Canada's Large-Value Transfer System Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 1998 James Dingle The LVTS is an electronic network for sending and receiving large-value payments. It is expected to become operational in the first half of 1999. Major chartered banks and other large deposit-taking institutions will provide access to the system for their clients in the financial, corporate and government sectors. Canada’s LVTS exceeds world standards for risk control in large-value systems. The author explains how this is achieved through the netting, bilateral and multilateral credit limits, collateral, and loss-sharing procedures used in the event of a default, and, as a last resort, a guarantee by the Bank of Canada. The LVTS gives participating institutions certainty of settlement for their LVTS positions every day, even if one or more participants default. This greatly reduces systemic risk in the financial system. Moreover, the LVTS supports finality of payment; that is, it makes funds unconditionally and irrevocably available to the receiver. Finality is highly desirable when the amount of the payment is substantial, or when exact timing is critical. Since the LVTS will carry the great majority of the value of all payments in Canada, it should be considered the core of the national payments system. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Payment clearing and settlement systems
November 11, 1998 A primer on the implementation of monetary policy in the LVTS environment Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 1998 Donna Howard The author summarizes the objectives and key elements of the framework that the Bank will use to implement monetary policy under the new payments system. The article includes a comparison of the key features of the pre-LVTS framework with that to be used in the LVTS environment. It also features a glossary of terms with respect to the Bank's monetary policy operations. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Monetary policy implementation, Payment clearing and settlement systems