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Trade Silver

The objects featured on the cover range in size from 1 to 2.5 inches in width. They form part of the National Currency Collection, Bank of Canada.

Photography by James Zagon.

Innovations in communications and information technology and the related globalization of financial markets have created the potential for important changes to the structure of Canadian equity markets. Established marketplaces can now compete more effectively on an inter-regional and international basis. At the same time, reduced costs have lowered the barriers to entry faced by new competitors known as alternative trading systems (ATSs). In response to this heightened competition, established Canadian stock exchanges have taken measures to improve market quality. While regulators see innovation as positive for the development of Canadian markets, there is some concern that market liquidity may be fragmented in the short run. The Canadian Securities Administrators have proposed a framework that attempts to address this issue and that would allow ATSs to compete with traditional exchanges for the first time. The authors provide an overview of the Canadian equity market and its structure, focusing on these recent developments.

In recent years, the Bank has put renewed emphasis on analyzing monetary variables and on developing models that incorporate money as an active part of the transmission mechanism. In this article, Dinah Maclean describes how the monetary aggregates are used in the formulation of monetary policy analysis at the Bank, outlining the key tools and models used. The most important money-based model currently in use is the M1-VECM. In this model, deviations in the money supply from the long-term demand for money cause changes in inflation. The author briefly describes the "active-money" paradigm underlying this model and explains the key equations within it. Other simpler empirical models are also outlined, including single-equation indicator models for output based on the narrow aggregates, a neural network, and a model based on the broader aggregate M2++. A detailed technical annex provides details on model equations and coefficient values.

On behalf of the Minister of Finance, the Department of Finance and Bank of Canada are releasing today draft terms and conditions for participation in Receiver General auctions. These auctions are the means by which the government invests its short-term Canadian dollar cash balances.

Under its Standing Liquidity Facility (SLF), the Bank of Canada is prepared to provide liquidity on a daily basis to financial institutions that participate directly in the payment systems operated by the Canadian Payments Association - the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS) and the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS).

Overview The objectives of debt strategy are to provide stable, low cost funding for the federal government, and to maintain and enhance a well-functioning market for Government of Canada securities. A key element of the strategy is to maintain a prudent debt structure, with approximately two-thirds of the debt stock in fixed-rate instruments. The Government […]

A consultation document on issues relating to the design and operation of government debt programs over 2001-2002 and beyond, prepared jointly by the Department of Finance and the Bank of Canada, is being made public today.

The Bank’s outlook for inflation and overall economic activity in Canada to the end of 2002 has not changed fundamentally from that presented in the May Monetary Policy Report.

The Bank of Canada today released its Update to the May Monetary Policy Report, in which it discusses economic and financial trends in the context of Canada's inflation-control strategy.

Sheryl Kennedy, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada, has been asked by the Bank's Board of Directors to serve as Deputy Governor, Financial Markets. She takes over the responsibilities formerly carried out by Tim Noël, who passed away last week.