The cost of financial intermediation has declined in recent years thanks to technology and increased competition in some parts of the finance industry. I document this fact and I analyze two features of new financial technologies that have stirred controversy: returns to scale and the use of big...

This paper assesses the potential impact of FinTech on the finance industry. I document first that financial services remain surprisingly expensive, which explains the emergence of new entrants. I then argue that the current regulatory approach is subject to significant political economy and...

We provide an overview and key elements on the ongoing debate of whether and how to regulate fintech. The paper reviews three objectives of financial regulation (investor protection, market integrity, safeguarding financial stability) in the context of recent fintech developments, covers three...

We study the role of intermediaries (brokers) in the Canadian mortgage market. In this market, consumers can search for quotes in one of two ways: on their own or via a broker. We provide descriptive evidence that borrowers who transact through brokers are different from those who do not....

Canada is in the midst of developing three new core payment systems: Lynx, Settlement Optimization Engine (SOE) and Real-Time Rail (RTR). Lynx and SOE will replace the current Large Value Transfer System (LVTS) and Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS), whereas RTR will be a new...

Canada currently has two core payment systems for processing funds transfers between financial institutions: the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS) and the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS). These systems will be replaced over the next years by three new systems: Lynx, the Settlement...

The aim of this paper is to examine which payment instruments Canadians use for paying bills and to assess the factors driving their bill payment behaviour. I use 2019 survey data collected among over 4,000 Canadians and estimate a set of binomial and multinomial regressions to assess the...

We analyze the relationship between the intensity of banks' use of soft-information and household bankruptcy patterns. Using a unique data set on the universe of Canadian household bankruptcies, we document that bankruptcy rates are higher in markets where the collection of soft, or qualitative...

Recent studies find that cash remains a dominant payment choice for small-value transactions despite the prevalence of alternative means of payment such as debit and credit cards. For policy makers an important question is whether consumers truly prefer using cash or merchants restrict card...

This paper examines the impact of bank consolidation on mortgage rates in order to evaluate the extent to which mortgage markets are competitive. Mortgage markets are decentralized and so rates are determined through a search and negotiation process. The primary effect of a merger therefore is...