Francisco Rivadeneyra
Director of CBDC and Fintech Policy and Research
- Ph.D., Economics. The University of Chicago (2009)
- M.A., Economics. The University of Chicago (2005)
- B.A., Economics. ITAM, Mexico City (2003)
Bio
Francisco Rivadeneyra is the Director for CBDC & FinTech Policy and Research at the Bank of Canada. In this role he leads a team developing policy advice in areas of central bank digital currency, electronic money and payments, and the implications for central banks of broader financial innovations. He also is an active researcher working in the intersection of technology, payments infrastructures and finance. His current research studies the security and convenience trade-off of digital currencies and the use of artificial intelligence in the liquidity management problem of commercial banks. His previous work has been on the management of domestic debt and foreign reserves for the Government of Canada.
Mr. Rivadeneyra holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Staff analytical notes
CBDC and Monetary Policy
Improving the conduct of monetary policy is unlikely to be the main motivation for central banks to issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC). While some argue that a CBDC could allow more complex transfer schemes or the ability to break below the zero lower bound, we find these benefits might be small or difficult to realize in practice.Staff discussion papers
Ecosystem Models for a Central Bank Digital Currency: Analysis Framework and Potential Models
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.The Role of Public Money in the Digital Age
A well-functioning monetary system is characterized by public and private forms of money that exchange at par as value flows freely between them. A relevant retail public money—whether in the form of cash, a central bank digital currency or both—is a necessary component of such a monetary system.Central Bank Digital Currencies and Banking: Literature Review and New Questions
We review the nascent but fast-growing literature on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), focusing on their potential impacts on private banks. We evaluate these impacts in three areas of traditional banking: payments, lending and liquidity and maturity transformation. We also take a broader look at CBDCs and highlight two promising directions for future research.Payment Coordination and Liquidity Efficiency in the New Canadian Wholesale Payments System
We study the impact of the Bank of Canada’s choice of settlement mechanism in Lynx on participant behaviors, liquidity usage, payment delays and the overall operational efficiency of the new system.The Positive Case for a CBDC
We discuss the competition and innovation arguments for issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). A CBDC could be an effective competition policy tool for payments. A CBDC could also support the vibrancy of the digital economy. It could help solve market failures and foster competition and innovation in new digital payments markets.Liquidity Usage and Payment Delay Estimates of the New Canadian High Value Payments System
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.Alternative Futures for Government of Canada Debt Management
This paper presents four blue-sky ideas for lowering the cost of the Government of Canada’s debt without increasing the debt’s risk profile. We argue that each idea would improve the secondary-market liquidity of government debt, thereby increasing the demand for government bonds and thus lowering their cost at issuance.A Policy Framework for E-Money: A Report on Bank of Canada Research
We present a policy framework for electronic money and payments. The framework poses a set of positive questions related to the areas of responsibility of central banks: payments systems, monetary policy and financial stability. The questions are posed to four broad forms of e-money: privately or publicly issued, and with centralized or decentralized verification of transactions. This framework is intended to help evaluate the trade-offs that central banks face in the decision to issue new forms of e-money.Fintech: Is This Time Different? A Framework for Assessing Risks and Opportunities for Central Banks
We investigate the risks and opportunities to the mandates of central banks arising from fintech developments.The U.S.-Dollar Supranational Zero-Coupon Curve
The author describes the construction of the U.S.-dollar-denominated zero-coupon curve for the supranational asset class from 1995 to 2010. He uses yield data from a crosssection of bonds issued by AAA-rated supranational entities to fit the Svensson (1995) term-structure model.Staff working papers
Improving the Efficiency of Payments Systems Using Quantum Computing
We develop an algorithm and run it on a hybrid quantum annealing solver to find an ordering of payments that reduces the amount of system liquidity necessary without substantially increasing payment delays.Estimating Policy Functions in Payments Systems Using Reinforcement Learning
We demonstrate the ability of reinforcement learning techniques to estimate the best-response functions of banks participating in high-value payments systems—a real-world strategic game of incomplete information.Eggs in One Basket: Security and Convenience of Digital Currencies
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.Should the Central Bank Issue E-money?
Should a central bank take over the provision of e-money, a circulable electronic liability? We discuss how e-money technology changes the tradeoff between public and private provision, and the tradeoff between e-money and a central bank's existing liabilities like bank notes and reserves.Financial Development and the Volatility of Income
This paper presents a general equilibrium model with endogenous collateral constraints to study the relationship between financial development and business cycle fluctuations in a cross-section of economies with different sizes of their financial sector.Technical reports
The Government of Canada Debt Securities Data Set
We present the daily time series of the outstanding amounts of all Government of Canada marketable debt securities from July 2001 to June 2017.Bank publications
Bank of Canada Review articles
May 13, 2014
The Canadian Dollar as a Reserve Currency
This article provides an overview of the growth of Canadian-dollar-denominated assets in official foreign reserves. Based on International Monetary Fund data and on internal Bank of Canada analysis, we estimate that the total reserve holdings of Canadian-dollar assets increased from negligible levels before 2008 to around US$200 billion in the third quarter of 2013. We discuss the determinants of this increase, as well as its potential impact on Canadian debt markets, for example, lower yields and therefore reduced financing costs for the Government of Canada, and the possible negative impact on market liquidity.
May 16, 2013
Modelling the Asset-Allocation and Liability Strategy for Canada’s Foreign Exchange Reserves
The Bank of Canada recently developed an asset-liability-matching model to aid in the management of Canada’s foreign exchange reserves. The model allows policy-makers at the Bank and the Department of Finance to analyze asset-allocation and funding-mix decisions by quantifying both the risk-return and liquidity trade-offs for the assets, as well as the risk-cost trade-offs of the funding liabilities.Journal publications
Journal articles
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- "Government Bond Clienteles and Yields"
(with Jianjian Jin and Jesus Sierra), In Advances in the Practice of Public Investment Management, Palgrave, 2018 - "Financial Development, Credit, and Business Cycles"
(with Tiago Pinheiro and Marc Teignier), Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 2017, 49 (7), 1653-1665. - "Monopolies and Economic Growth" (in Spanish)
(with Pablo Pena), Gaceta de Economía, Fall 2009. - "An Empirical Analysis of the Law of One Price in Mexico" (in Spanish)
(with Marco González-Navarro), Gaceta de Economía, Fall 2004.
- "Government Bond Clienteles and Yields"
"Trade Creation and Trade Diversion of Preferential Agreements: New Estimates for NAFTA" (in Spanish)
(with Jose M. Chavez), Gaceta de Economía, Spring 2002.
Work in progress
- "Payments System Design Using Reinforcement Learning"
(with Ajit Desai, Hand Du and Rod Garratt). - "E-Money and Payments Policy"
(with Charles M. Kahn and Russell Wong). - "Intraday Trade Dynamics in Short-term Funding Markets"
(with Mark Rempel). - "Foreign Reserves and Tail Risk"
(with Jorge Cruz Lopez).