Posts
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The Impact of Liquidity on Bank Profitability
The recent crisis has underlined the importance of sound bank liquidity management. In response, regulators are devising new liquidity standards with the aim of making the financial system more stable and resilient. In this paper, the authors analyse the impact of liquid asset holdings on bank profitability for a sample of large U.S. and Canadian banks. -
'Lean' versus 'Rich' Data Sets: Forecasting during the Great Moderation and the Great Recession
We evaluate forecasts for the euro area in data-rich and ‘data-lean' environments by comparing three different approaches: a simple PMI model based on Purchasing Managers' Indices (PMIs), a dynamic factor model with euro area data, and a dynamic factor model with data from the euro plus data from national economies (pseudo-real time data). -
Testing Linear Factor Pricing Models with Large Cross-Sections: A Distribution-Free Approach
We develop a finite-sample procedure to test the beta-pricing representation of linear factor pricing models that is applicable even if the number of test assets is greater than the length of the time series. Our distribution-free framework leaves open the possibility of unknown forms of non-normalities, heteroskedasticity, time-varying correlations, and even outliers in the asset returns. -
December 21, 2010
Bank of Canada Announces Extension of Expanded Swap Facility with U.S. Federal Reserve
The Federal Open Market Committee has authorized an extension through 1 August 2011, of its temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangements with the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, and the Swiss National Bank. The swap arrangements, established in May 2010, had been authorized through January 2011.
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Bank Competition and International Financial Integration: Evidence Using a New Index
This paper finds a strong empirical link between domestic banking sector competitiveness and de facto international integration. De-facto international integration is measured through a new index of financial integration, which measures, for deviations from covered interest parity, the size of no-arbitrage bands and the speed of arbitrage outside the no-arbitrage band. -
Semi-Structural Models for Inflation Forecasting
We propose alternative single-equation semi-structural models for forecasting inflation in Canada, whereby structural New Keynesian models are combined with time-series features in the data. Several marginal cost measures are used, including one that in addition to unit labour cost also integrates relative price shocks known to play an important role in open-economies. -
Composition of International Capital Flows: A Survey
We survey several key mechanisms that explain the composition of international capital flows: foreign direct investment, foreign portfolio investment and debt flows (bank loans and bonds). In particular, we focus on the following market frictions: asymmetric information in capital markets and exposure to liquidity shocks. -
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December 17, 2010
Summary of the 2010 Survey on Canadian Foreign Exchange Hedging
Since 2004, the Bank of Canada has undertaken an annual questionnaire with banks that are active in Canadian foreign exchange (FX) markets, including the eleven members of the Canadian Foreign Exchange Committee (CFEC), to gauge FX hedging activities of Canadian corporate customers.