Today, the Bankers’ Acceptance Transition Virtual Network (BATVN), established by the Canadian Fixed-Income Forum (CFIF) to support the transition away from BAs, published an overview of the Canadian repo market. This informational paper provides background information on the Canadian repo market and highlights that repos could be a viable BA replacement for some investors and that the disappearance of BAs could potentially be an important catalyst to help develop a tri-party repo market in Canada.

This paper does not, and is not intended to, constitute investment or legal advice. It is provided for general information purposes only.

To further help with this effort and bring more transparency to a core Canadian funding market, the Bank of Canada, in collaboration with the Collateral Infrastructure and Market Practices Advisory Group (CIMPA) published the Canadian Repo Market Fact Sheet. This report provides statistics on trading activity in the Canadian repo market.

About CFIF

The Canadian Fixed-Income Forum (Forum) is a senior level industry-wide committee established by the Bank of Canada to discuss developments in fixed-income market structure and functioning, market practices, and related policy issues. The goals of the Forum are to:

  • enhance the efficiency and resilience of the Canadian fixed-income market;
  • improve the quality, clarity and market-wide understanding of Canadian fixed-income trading practices;
  • evaluate and propose changes to market infrastructure;
  • communicate any recommendations and analysis to oversight authorities, regulators, industry groups and other market participants as needed.

The Forum will not discuss monetary policy or policy issues directly relating to the size and distribution of the federal government’s debt programme which are covered through other fora.

About the BATVN

The BA Transition Virtual Network consists of members from close to 30 institutions, primarily representing the major buy-side investors active in BAs. Members include insurance companies, pension funds, money market funds, the major BA issuing banks and their dealers, as well as other relevant stakeholders. Member institutions account for approximately 60% of end-investor BA purchases.

About CIMPA

The Collateral Infrastructure and Market Practices Advisory Group (CIMPA) is an industry-wide working group created under CFIF to promote the well-functioning of the Canadian securities and financing markets through improved operational efficiency, reduced market segmentation and industry coordination on related issues and initiatives. The goals of the working group are to:

  • improve interconnectedness, standardization, and automation of securities flows;
  • support market functioning through promotion of best practices for clearing, settlement, margining and risk management;
  • facilitate broad adoption of the recently introduced Canadian Collateral Management Service (CCMS), Canada’s first tri-party service launched by TMX and Clearstream;
  • provide an information hub on Canadian collateral developments;
  • build consensus on relevant issues.

Market inquiries:


CFIF Secretariat
Financial Markets Department
Bank of Canada
613‑782‑7913

Media Relations
Bank of Canada