G2 - Financial Institutions and Services

• The impact of higher interest rates on mortgage payments

  Staff Analytical Note 2023-19 Maria teNyenhuis, Adam Su

  We investigate how the increase in interest rates since early 2022 is affecting mortgage payments. By November 2023, less than half of mortgage holders had faced higher payments. Many borrowers will see a sizable increase in payments at renewal, although income growth could help mitigate the impact.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Credit and credit aggregates, Financial institutions, Interest rates, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): D, D1, E, E4, E5, G, G2, G21

• Central Bank Crisis Interventions: A Review of the Recent Literature on Potential Costs

  Staff Discussion Paper 2023-30 Patrick Aldridge, David Cimon, Rishi Vala

  Central banks’ actions to stabilize financial markets and implement monetary policy during crises may come with costs and side effects. We provide a literature review of these costs and discuss measures that may mitigate the negative impacts of crisis actions.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Financial institutions, Financial markets, Financial stability, Lender of last resort JEL Code(s): E, E5, E58, G, G1, G10, G2, G20

• How Far Do Canadians Need to Travel to Access Cash?

  Staff Discussion Paper 2023-28 Heng Chen, Daneal O’Habib, Hongyu Xiao

  This paper develops a travel-based metric to measure Canadians’ access to cash from automated banking machines (ABMs) and financial institution branches. We find that, overall, access to cash remained stable between 2019 and 2022. The total number of ABMs in Canada increased by 3.7% and the total number of branches decreased by 5.2% during that period.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Financial services, Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): G, G2, G21, J, J1, J15, R, R5, R51

• Decentralized finance: Innovations and challenges

  Staff Analytical Note 2023-15 Jonathan Chiu, Hanna Yu

  Decentralized finance surged in popularity around 2020. We explore its value and limitations and highlight some potential regulatory concerns.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Digital currencies and fintech, Financial stability, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): G, G1, G2

• Estimating the Appropriate Quantity of Settlement Balances in a Floor System

  Staff Discussion Paper 2023-26 Narayan Bulusu, Matthew McNeely, Kaetlynd McRae, Jonathan Witmer

  This paper presents two complementary approaches to estimating the appropriate quantity of settlement balances needed to effectively operate monetary policy under a floor system in Canada.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial markets, Financial system regulation and policies, Monetary policy implementation, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5, E52, E58, G, G2, G21, G28

• Three things we learned about the Lynx payment system

  Staff Analytical Note 2023-14 Nikil Chande, Zhentong Lu, Hiru Rodrigo, Phoebe Tian

  Canada transitioned to a new wholesale payment system, Lynx, in August 2021. Lynx is based on a real-time settlement model that eliminates credit risk in the system. This model can require more liquidity; however, Lynx’s design allows Canada’s wholesale payments to settle efficiently.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial services, Financial system regulation and policies, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): C, C1, C10, E, E4, E42, G, G2, G28

• Intermediary Market Power and Capital Constraints

  Staff Working Paper 2023-51 Jason Allen, Milena Wittwer

  We examine how intermediary capitalization affects asset prices in a framework that allows for intermediary market power. We introduce a model in which capital-constrained intermediaries buy or trade an asset in an imperfectly competitive market, and we show that weaker capital constraints lead to both higher prices and intermediary markups.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): D, D4, D40, D44, G, G1, G12, G18, G2, G20, L, L1, L10

• Anonymous Credentials: Secret-Free and Quantum-Safe

  Staff Working Paper 2023-50 Raza Ali Kazmi, Cyrus Minwalla

  An anonymous credential mechanism is a set of protocols that allows users to obtain credentials from an organization and demonstrate ownership of these credentials without compromising users’ privacy. In this work, we construct the first secret-free and quantum-safe credential mechanism.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Digital currencies and fintech, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, G, G2, G21, O, O3, O31

• Understanding DeFi Through the Lens of a Production-Network Model

  Staff Working Paper 2023-42 Jonathan Chiu, Thorsten Koeppl, Hanna Yu, Shengxing Zhang

  We develop a production-network model to capture how decentralized finance (DeFi) has evolved across different sectors of financial services. The model allows us to measure the value added by different DeFi sectors and to study how the connections across the sectors influence token prices.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Digital currencies and fintech, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): G, G2

• Do hedge funds support liquidity in the Government of Canada bond market?

  Staff Analytical Note 2023-11 Jabir Sandhu, Rishi Vala

  While Government of Canada bond transactions of hedge funds are typically in the opposite direction to those of other market participants, during the peak period of market turmoil in March 2020, hedge funds sold these bonds, just as other market participants did. This shows that hedge funds can at times contribute to one-sided markets and amplify declines in market liquidity.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Financial markets, Financial stability, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): D, D4, D47, D5, D53, G, G1, G12, G14, G2, G23