Financial services

• Distributional Effects of Payment Card Pricing and Merchant Cost Pass-through in Canada and the United States

  Staff Working Paper 2021-8 Marie-Hélène Felt, Fumiko Hayashi, Joanna Stavins, Angelika Welte

  Although credit cards are more expensive for merchants to accept than cash or debit cards, merchants typically pass through their costs evenly to all customers. Along with consumer card rewards and banking fees, this creates cross-subsidies between payment methods. Because higher-income individuals tend to use credit cards more than those with lower incomes, our results indicate that these cross-subsidies might lead to regressive distributional effects.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Financial institutions, Financial services, Market structure and pricing, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): D, D1, D12, D2, D23, D3, D31, E, E4, E42, G, G2, G21, L, L8, L81

• Eggs in One Basket: Security and Convenience of Digital Currencies

  Staff Working Paper 2021-6 Charles M. Kahn, Francisco Rivadeneyra, Tsz-Nga Wong

  Digital currencies store balances in anonymous electronic addresses. This paper analyzes the trade-offs between the safety and convenience of aggregating balances in addresses, electronic wallets and banks.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Digital currencies and fintech, Financial services, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, E5, E51, E58

• Losing Contact: The Impact of Contactless Payments on Cash Usage

  Staff Working Paper 2020-56 Marie-Hélène Felt

  Because they mimic desirable features of cash and are typically used for smaller-value transactions, contactless payment cards are a competitive alternative to cash. This study investigates whether contactless credit cards are an important contributor to the decline in the transactional usage of cash, using Canadian panel data between 2010 and 2017.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital currencies and fintech, Econometric and statistical methods, Financial services JEL Code(s): C, C3, C33, D, D1, D12, E, E4, E41
• October 8, 2020

  COVID‑19 and the financial system

  Speech summary Tiff Macklem Global Risk Institute Toronto, Ontario

  Governor Tiff Macklem discusses financial risks from the COVID-19 pandemic that are affecting our economy and that could shape how well it recovers. He also talks about financial risks from climate change.

  Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Speech summaries Topic(s): Climate change, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Financial services, Financial stability, Monetary policy
• October 8, 2020

  From COVID to climate—the importance of risk management

  Remarks (delivered virtually) Tiff Macklem The Global Risk Institute Toronto, Ontario

  Governor Tiff Macklem discusses the importance of financial risk management as Canada recovers from the pandemic, and as it deals with issues like climate change.

  Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Remarks Topic(s): Climate change, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Financial services, Financial stability, Monetary policy

• Predicting Payment Migration in Canada

  Staff Working Paper 2020-37 Anneke Kosse, Zhentong Lu, Gabriel Xerri

  Developments are underway to replace Canada’s two core payment systems with three new systems. We use a discrete choice model to predict migration patterns of end-users and financial institutions for future systems and discuss their policy implications.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial services, Financial stability, Financial system regulation and policies, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): C, C3, E, E4, E42, G, G1, G2, G28

• Liquidity Usage and Payment Delay Estimates of the New Canadian High Value Payments System

  Staff Discussion Paper 2020-9 Francisco Rivadeneyra, Nellie Zhang

  As part of modernizing its core payments infrastructure, Canada will replace the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS) with a new Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system called Lynx. An important question for policy-makers is how Lynx should be designed.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Financial services, Financial system regulation and policies, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): C, C5, E, E4, E42, E5, E58

• The Interplay of Financial Education, Financial Literacy, Financial Inclusion and Financial Stability: Any Lessons for the Current Big Tech Era?

  Staff Working Paper 2020-32 Nicole Jonker, Anneke Kosse

  The objective of this paper is twofold. First, we assess whether financial education might be a suitable tool to promote the financial inclusion opportunities that big techs provide. Second, we study how this potential financial inclusion could impact financial stability.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Development economics, Digital currencies and fintech, Financial markets, Financial services, Financial stability JEL Code(s): D, D1, D14, D9, D91, D92, G, G2, G21, G23, O, O1, O16
• June 18, 2020

  Spending patterns in a pandemic

  Speech summary Lawrence L. Schembri Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

  Deputy Governor Lawrence Schembri explains how household spending has changed because of COVID-19 and discusses why the Bank expects the recovery to have two phases.

  Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Speech summaries Topic(s): Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Domestic demand and components, Financial institutions, Financial services, Financial stability, Firm dynamics, Fiscal policy, Housing, Inflation and prices, Labour markets, Monetary policy, Recent economic and financial developments, Regional economic developments, Service sector
• June 18, 2020

  Living with limits: household behaviour in Canada in the time of COVID-19

  Remarks (delivered virtually) Lawrence L. Schembri Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

  Deputy Governor Lawrence Schembri explains how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected household spending and economic activity, and discusses what the recovery is expected to look like.

  Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Remarks Topic(s): Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Domestic demand and components, Financial institutions, Financial services, Financial stability, Firm dynamics, Fiscal policy, Housing, Inflation and prices, Labour markets, Monetary policy, Recent economic and financial developments, Regional economic developments, Service sector