Capital markets and their related financial instruments make an important contribution to the welfare of Canadians. The Bank of Canada is interested in the efficient functioning of capital markets through each of its responsibilities for monetary policy, the financial system, and funds...

This paper studies the country-level reaction of bank credit default swap (“CDS”) spreads and stock prices to bailout announcements in the US and five European countries in October 2008. Bailouts announcements are associated with bank CDS spreads narrowing, both for domestic and foreign...

Standalone ratings measure a bank's intrinsic financial strength but – unlike all-in ratings – do not incorporate potential sovereign or parent-bank support. On July 20, 2011, Fitch switched from a 9-point to a 21-point scale for their standalone ratings but did not alter their all-in...

The global financial crisis triggered a political debate about bank bonuses and their impact on risk-taking. We investigate whether excessive levels of trading activity have adverse effects for bank shareholders, and the impact of variable compensation on outcomes. We find that excessive trading...

The Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) is a new Basel III liquidity requirement designed to limit funding risk arising from maturity mismatches between bank assets and liabilities. This study explains the NSFR and estimates this ratio for banks in 15 countries. Banks below the ratio need to...

The Bank of Canada is one of very few central banks that has made records of the intraday timing of its intervention operations available to researchers. This paper investigates the effectiveness of sterilized intervention in the Canadian dollar exchange rate market over the period January 1995...

This paper analyzes official, high-frequency Bank of Canada intervention and exchange rate data (the latter quoted at the end of every 5-minute interval over every 24-hour period) over the January 1995 to September 1998 time-period. The data is of particular interest as it spans over two...

This paper examines the relation between the Canadian dollar / US dollar (CAD) exchange rate and foreign exchange order flow employing a novel data set on CAD order flow over the period 1994-2005. We investigate empirically the predictive information content and the determinants of order flow....

As the financial crisis deepened and unsecured interbank markets effectively shut down, repo market activity became increasingly concentrated in the very shortest maturities and against the highest-quality collateral. Repo rates for US Treasury collateral fell relative to overnight index swap...

We review key characteristics of the hedge fund industry, and identify conditions under which this sector can pose a threat to financial stability. Direct regulation of hedge funds that increases transparency does not appear feasible, may create a moral-hazard problem, and may reduce market...