June 23, 2005 A Brief Survey of Risk-Appetite Indexes Financial System Review - June 2005 Mark Illing, Meyer Aaron Content Type(s): Publications, Financial System Review articles
June 23, 2005 Credit Default Swaps and the Canadian Context Financial System Review - June 2005 Christopher Reid Content Type(s): Publications, Financial System Review articles
June 23, 2005 Understanding the Benefits and Risks of Synthetic Collateralized Debt Obligations Financial System Review - June 2005 Jim Armstrong, John Kiff Content Type(s): Publications, Financial System Review articles
June 23, 2005 On the Evolution of the Financial Safety Net Financial System Review - June 2005 Walter Engert Content Type(s): Publications, Financial System Review articles
June 23, 2005 Efficiency and Economies of Scale of Large Canadian Banks Financial System Review - June 2005 Jason Allen, Ying Liu Content Type(s): Publications, Financial System Review articles
June 23, 2005 Degree of Internationalization: An Analysis of Canadian Banks Financial System Review - June 2005 Walid Hejazi, Eric Santor Content Type(s): Publications, Financial System Review articles
June 23, 2005 Bank Failures and Bank Fundamentals: A Comparative Analysis for Latin America and East Asia during the 1990s Financial System Review - June 2005 Marco Arena Content Type(s): Publications, Financial System Review articles
June 23, 2005 Financial System Review - June 2005 The financial system makes an important contribution to the welfare of all Canadians. The ability of households and firms to confidently hold and transfer financial assets is one of the fundamental building blocks of the Canadian economy. Content Type(s): Publications, Financial Stability Report
June 22, 2005 Estimating the Impact of Monetary Policy Surprises on Fixed-Income Markets Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2005 Jason Andreou In the interest of better understanding the impact of the Bank of Canada's policy actions on bond and bill yields, Andreou assesses the impact of policy-rate announcements on short and long bonds over the period 1996 to 2004. To aid the analysis, policy actions are decomposed into expected and surprise components. He also examines whether the introduction of fixed announcement dates (FADs) has affected these results, including markets' perceptions. The main finding is that unexpected policy actions by the Bank have a significant effect on market rates at the shorter end of the yield curve, with the effect dissipating as the maturity increases. A second finding, that the impact on longer-term interest rates of a surprise action by the Bank has diminished since the introduction of the FADs, suggests that the Bank's long-term policy goals are well understood and credible. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Credibility, Financial markets, Monetary policy and uncertainty
June 18, 2005 Recent Trends in Canadian Defined-Benefit Pension Sector Investment and Risk Management Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2005 Eric Tuer, Elizabeth Woodman Defined-benefit (DB) pension plans account for the majority of employer pension fund assets. In recent years, a number of DB plans have become underfunded, in sharp contrast to the 1990s, when many plans had large actuarial surpluses. The deterioration in the financial health of DB plans has underscored various longer-term structural issues that could make it increasingly difficult for plan sponsors to manage the financial risks of these plans. Tuer and Woodman examine how funding deficits, a greater focus on plan liabilities, a low yield environment, and changing investment beliefs are influencing investment decisions in the Canadian DB pension sector. They review the funding of DB plans, changing views on the equity-risk premium, and the shift towards liability-centred approaches to investment and how these developments are affecting pension sector investment. They also consider additional influences on the pension sector, including the limited supply of long-term bonds, the elimination of the foreign-property rule, and the movement towards fair-value accounting and a financial-economics approach to actuarial valuation, as well as their implications for financial markets. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Financial institutions, Recent economic and financial developments