September 11, 2009 Agency Conflicts in the Process of Securitization Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 2009 Teodora Paligorova Recent evidence finds a positive association between the prevalence of loans of inferior quality and the growth in securitized products. Some attribute this development to the lack of incentives for originators to screen and monitor the performance of securitized loans; others stress that certain factors, such as balance-sheet management, also contributed to the problem, making it difficult to pin down the reason for the proliferation of such loans during the period of high securitization growth. The author reviews the conflicts of interest between participants in the securitization process that contributed to the ongoing financial turmoil and highlights the most recent policy measures and potential solutions for ameliorating these agency issues. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial markets
June 11, 2009 Collateral Management in the LVTS by Canadian Financial Institutions Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2009 Chris D'Souza This article examines the incentives for banks to hold various assets on their balance sheets for use as collateral when the opportunity cost of doing so can be high. Focusing on the five-year period (2002-07) that preceded the financial crisis, it examines the choices made by financial institutions among the assets that are pledged as collateral in Canada's Large Value Transfer System. This serves as a baseline for collateral-management practices during relatively normal times. The results of this study are important for policy-makers, especially the Bank of Canada, which is concerned both about the efficient functioning of fixed-income markets and about the credit risk it ultimately bears in insuring LVTS settlement. The results suggest that relative market liquidity and market-making capacity are important factors in the choice of securities pledged as collateral in the LVTS. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial markets, Payment clearing and settlement systems
June 11, 2009 The Complexities of Financial Risk Management and Systemic Risks Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2009 Frank Milne Risk-management systems in financial institutions have come under increasing scrutiny in light of the current financial crisis, resulting in calls for improvements and an increased role for regulators. Yet such objectives miss the intricacy at the heart of the risk-management process. This article outlines the complexity inherent in any modern risk-management system, which arises because there are shortcuts in the theoretical models that risk managers need to be aware of, as well as the difficulties in sensible calibration of model parameters. The author suggests that prudential regulation of such systems should focus on failures within the financial firm and in the market interactions between firms and reviews possible strategies that can improve the performance of risk management and microprudential regulatory practice. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial stability, Financial system regulation and policies
June 11, 2009 The Changing Pace of Labour Reallocation in Canada: Causes and Consequences Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2009 Danny Leung, Shutao Cao The number of job gains and losses across firms in Canada each year is roughly one-fifth the total number of jobs and generally occurs within sectors (industries) rather than across sectors. Since labour reallocation within sectors has been strongly related to productivity growth in Canada, defining the key drivers of this type of reallocation is important, given the higher rates of reallocation and productivity growth in the Untied States than in Canada. This article finds that the appreciation of the Canadian dollar and rising commodity prices led to above-average reallocation of labour across sectors over the 2005-08 period, but that the impact on productivity has been minor. Labour reallocation across firms, however, generates substantial labour productivity gains in manufacturing and the business sector as a whole. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Labour markets, Productivity
June 11, 2009 BoC-GEM: Modelling the World Economy Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2009 René Lalonde, Dirk Muir BoC-GEM, an adaptation of the Global Economy Model, initially developed at the International Monetary Fund and the New York Federal Reserve, is a very useful tool to tackle a broad range of issues pertinent to the current economic context, such as the recent movements in commodity prices and the adjustment of global imbalances. This article describes the structure and functioning of BoC-GEM and details some examples of recent application in the areas of monetary policy and issues in the real economy and questions of financial stability and describes ongoing research into introducing a financial sector into the model. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Economic models, International topics
April 9, 2009 Next Steps for Canadian Monetary Policy Bank of Canada Review - Spring 2009 Robert Amano, Thomas J. Carter, Donald Coletti In 2006, the Bank initiated a research program exploring two alternatives to the current inflation-targeting framework: (i) lowering the inflation target and (ii) shifting to a price-level target. This article discusses progress to date, places the Bank's findings in the context of a broader literature, and identifies avenues for future research. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Central bank research, Economic models, Inflation and prices, Inflation targets, Inflation: costs and benefits, Monetary policy framework
April 8, 2009 Price-Level Targeting and Stabilization Policy: A Review Bank of Canada Review - Spring 2009 Steve Ambler This article reviews arguments in the literature for and against price-level targeting, focusing on its costs and benefits compared with inflation targeting. Benefits of price-level targeting include the effect on forward-looking inflation expectations; the ability to substitute for commitment by a central bank to its future policies; lessening forecast errors; better economic performance in response to real shocks because of lower wage indexation; and a reduction in the problem of the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Inflation: costs and benefits, Monetary policy framework
April 7, 2009 Price-Level Uncertainty, Price-Level Targeting, and Nominal Debt Contracts Bank of Canada Review - Spring 2009 Allan Crawford, Césaire Meh, Yaz Terajima Many central banks around the world have embraced inflation targeting as a monetary policy framework. Interest is growing, however, in price-level targeting as an alternative. The choice of frameworks has important consequences for financial contracts, most of which are not fully indexed to the price level. Changes in the price level therefore lead to changes in the real value of contracts. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Inflation targets, Inflation: costs and benefits, Monetary policy framework
April 5, 2009 Unexpected Inflation and Redistribution of Wealth in Canada Bank of Canada Review - Spring 2009 Césaire Meh, Yaz Terajima One of the most important arguments in favour of price stability is that unexpected inflation generates changes in the distribution of income and wealth among different economic agents. These redistributions occur because many loans are specified in fixed dollar terms and unexpected inflation redistributes wealth from creditors to debtors by reducing the real value of nominal assets and liabilities. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Central bank research, Inflation and prices, Inflation: costs and benefits, Sectoral balance sheet
November 11, 2008 The Role of Dealers in Providing Interday Liquidity in the Canadian-Dollar Market Bank of Canada Review - Winter 2008-2009 Chris D'Souza Access to information about the future direction of the exchange rate can be extremely valuable in the foreign exchange market. Evidence presented in this article suggests that Canadian dealers are more likely to provide interday liquidity to foreign, rather than Canadian, financial customers, since foreign financial flows can be more informative about future movements in the exchange rate. The author reveals a statistical relationship between the supply of liquidity provided by non-financial firms and that provided by dealing institutions across time, and across markets, and suggests that the relationship between the positions of commercial clients and market-makers, and the role played by dealers in interday liquidity provision, has been understated in the market microstructure literature. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Exchange rates, Financial institutions, Financial markets, Market structure and pricing