Financial services

• Incorporating Trip-Chaining to Measuring Canadians’ Access to Cash

  Staff Working Paper 2025-16 Heng Chen, Hongyu Xiao

  Our paper employs smartphone data to construct an improved cash access metric by accounting for both spatial agglomeration and households’ travel patterns. We find that incorporating trip-chaining into the travel metric could show that travel costs are from 15 to 25% less than not incorporating trip-chaining and that the biggest decrease is driven by rural residents.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Bank notes, Financial services, Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): D, D1, D12, O, O1, O18, R, R2, R22, R4, R41

• Canadians’ access to cash in 2023

  Staff Analytical Note 2025-13 Heng Chen, Hongyu Xiao, Daneal O’Habib, Stephen Wild

  This study updates our measure of Canadians' access to cash through automated banking machines and financial institution branches. We find that in 2023 overall access to cash remains stable, while rural Canadians continue having less access.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Research Topic(s): Bank notes, Financial services, Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): J, J1, J15, O, O1, R, R5, R51

• Tech Reluctance: Fostering Empathy for Canadians Facing Challenges with Digital Systems

  Staff Discussion Paper 2025-2 Sebastian Hernandez, Helena Wang, Badr Omrane, Vera Roberts, David Pereyra

  We find that individuals who require help performing banking tasks or who are reluctant to adopt technology avoid digital payment systems they expect to lack usability. Addressing these issues through standard accessibility practices, live assistance and thoughtful interface design can enhance user interaction and trust.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Research Topic(s): Accessibility, Bank notes, Central bank research, Digital currencies and fintech, Digitalization, Financial services JEL Code(s): A, A1, A14, C, C9, C90, D, D8, D83, O, O3, O33, Y, Y8, Y80

• CBDC in the Market for Payments at the Point of Sale: Equilibrium Impact and Incumbent Responses

  Staff Working Paper 2024-52 Walter Engert, Oleksandr Shcherbakov, André Stenzel

  We simulate introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) and consider consumer adoption, merchant acceptance and usage at the point of sale. Modest adoption frictions significantly inhibit CBDC market penetration along all three dimensions. Incumbent responses to restore pre-CBDC market shares are moderate to small and further reduce the impact of a CBDC.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital currencies and fintech, Econometric and statistical methods, Financial services JEL Code(s): C, C5, C51, D, D1, D12, E, E4, E42, L, L1, L14, L5, L52

• The impact of a central bank digital currency on payments at the point of sale

  Staff Analytical Note 2024-27 Walter Engert, Oleksandr Shcherbakov, André Stenzel

  We simulate the impact of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) on consumer adoption, merchant acceptance and use of different payment methods. Modest frictions that deter consumer adoption of a CBDC inhibit its market penetration. Minor pricing responses by financial institutions and payment service providers further reduce the impact of a CBDC.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Research Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital currencies and fintech, Econometric and statistical methods, Financial services JEL Code(s): C, C5, C51, D, D1, D12, E, E4, E42, L, L1, L14, L5, L52
• November 6, 2024

  Canada’s mortgage market—A question of balance

  Remarks Carolyn Rogers Economic Club of Canada Toronto, Ontario

  Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers looks at the mortgage market in Canada—past, present and future.

  Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Remarks Research Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial services, Financial stability, Financial system regulation and policies, Housing, Monetary policy transmission
• November 6, 2024

  Finding balance in the mortgage market

  Speech summary Carolyn Rogers Economic Club of Canada Toronto, Ontario

  Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers talks about Canada’s mortgage market and how it has evolved over time.

  Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Speech summaries Research Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial services, Financial stability, Financial system regulation and policies, Housing, Monetary policy transmission

• How do Canadians perceive access to cash?

  Staff Analytical Note 2024-24 Heng Chen, Daneal O’Habib, Hongyu Xiao

  This paper introduces a subjective measure of cash accessibility in Canada, complementing existing distance-based metrics developed by Chen, O’Habib and Xiao (2023). Analyzing data from the 2023 Methods-of-Payment Survey, this study explores how Canadians perceive their ease of accessing cash from automated banking machines (ABMs) and financial institution branches.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Research Topic(s): Bank notes, Financial services, Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): J, J1, J15, O, O1, R, R5, R51

• Digital Payments: A Framework for Inclusive Design

  Staff Discussion Paper 2024-15 Sebastian Hernandez, Alexandra Sutton-Lalani, John Miedema, Virginie Cobigo, Fatoumata Bah, Munazza Tahir, Danika Lévesque, Badr Omrane

  We propose a framework for designing cognitively accessible payment and banking interfaces through design guidelines, testing and proposed measures to optimize system learnability and user workload. We include, as a case study, the results of testing this framework with users with cognitive disabilities, using a prototype system for voice payments.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Research Topic(s): Accessibility, Bank notes, Central bank research, Digital currencies and fintech, Digitalization, Financial services

• Ecosystem Models for a Central Bank Digital Currency: Analysis Framework and Potential Models

  Staff Discussion Paper 2024-13 Youming Liu, Francisco Rivadeneyra, Edona Reshidi, Oleksandr Shcherbakov, André Stenzel

  This note analyzes different economic models of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) ecosystem where the central bank chooses different levels of market involvement and usage of policy levers. The analysis suggests that there are trade-offs between the costs to the central bank and its ability to achieve policy goals like universal access.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Research Topic(s): Central bank research, Digital currencies and fintech, Financial services JEL Code(s): E, E5, E58, E6, E61, L, L5