Etienne Lessard is a Director in the Financial Markets Department at the Bank of Canada. In this role, Etienne leads the Foreign Reserves Management (FRM) team, responsible for managing Canada’s international reserves and overseeing the government’s foreign currency liabilities used to fund these reserves.
Previously, Etienne led the Pension Fund team, which is responsible for designing and implementing the investment policies for the Bank of Canada's Pension Trust and Supplementary Trust Funds. Etienne has also remained an active member of the Pension Fund Investment Committee.
Mr. Lessard joined the Bank in 2001 and has gained extensive experience in fund management activities across a wide range of areas, including modeling analysis, global financial markets, and strategic policy development. He holds a Master of Science in Finance from HEC Montréal. In addition, he holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM).
As the Government of Canada’s fiscal agent, the Bank of Canada provides strategic policy advice on the management of the government’s debt, in addition to being responsible for conducting debt-management operations. In this article, the authors review the evolution of the debt strategy over the past 20 years and outline the complex process of developing a sound strategy that balances various cost and risk considerations. This includes an examination of the tools and practices used to develop the new medium-term debt-management strategy, such as the modelling approach involved, market consultations and various debt-management metrics.
