November 11, 2008 Merchants' Costs of Accepting Means of Payment: Is Cash the Least Costly? Bank of Canada Review - Winter 2008-2009 Carlos Arango, Varya Taylor In a competitive sales environment, merchants are compelled to offer consumers the option of paying for goods and services using a variety of payment methods, including cash, debit card, or credit card. Each method entails different costs and benefits to merchants. To better understand the costs of accepting retail payments, the Bank of Canada surveyed over 500 Canadian merchants and found that most consider cash the least costly. This article investigated this perception by calculating the variable costs per transaction of accepting different means of payment. The findings are that costs for each payment method vary by merchant and transaction value, with debit cards the least costly payment for a broad cross-section of merchants. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles
Borrowing Costs for Government of Canada Treasury Bills Staff analytical note 2019-28 Jabir Sandhu, Adrian Walton, Jessica Lee The cost of borrowing Government of Canada treasury bills (t-bills) in the repurchase (repo) market is mainly explained by the relationship between the parties involved. Some pairs of parties conduct most of their repos for t-bills rather than bonds, and at relatively high borrowing costs. We speculate that these pairs have formed a mutually beneficial service relationship in which one party consistently receives t-bills, while the other receives cash at a relatively cheap rate. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): G, G1, G10, G11, G12, G2, G20, G21, G23, G3, G32 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Funds management, Market functioning
Monetary Policy Implementation in a Negative Rate Environment Staff working paper 2017-25 Michael Boutros, Jonathan Witmer Monetary policy implementation could, in theory, be constrained by deeply negative rates since overnight market participants may have an incentive to invest in cash rather than lend to other participants. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E42, E43, G, G0 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Monetary policy tools and implementation
How Oil Supply Shocks Affect the Global Economy: Evidence from Local Projections Staff discussion paper 2019-6 Olivier Gervais We provide empirical evidence on the impact of oil supply shocks on global aggregates. To do this, we first extract structural oil supply shocks from a standard oil-price determination model found in the literature. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): C, C2, C22, C5, E, E3, E37, Q, Q4, Q43 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, International trade, finance and competitiveness
August 19, 2010 Price-Level Targeting and Relative-Price Shocks Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2010 Stephen Murchison Stephen Murchison reviews the findings of recent Bank of Canada research on the relative merits of inflation targeting and price-level targeting (PLT) for a small open economy, such as Canada's, that is susceptible to large and persistent terms-of-trade shocks. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles
Crisis facilities as a source of public information Staff analytical note 2025-7 Lerby Ergun During the COVID-19 financial market crisis, central banks introduced programs to support liquidity in important core funding markets. As well as acting as a backstop to market prices, these programs produce useful trading data on prevailing market conditions. When summary information from this data is shared publicly, it can help market participants understand current conditions and aid the recovery of market functioning. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): C, C5, C58, D, D5, D53, D8, D83, G, G1, G12, G14 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation
A Financial Stability Analysis of Zombie Firms in Canada Staff analytical note 2020-3 Timothy Grieder, Juan Ortega We measure the prevalence of zombie firms in Canada and assess how they could potentially affect the financial system. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): G, G3, G32 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial stability and systemic risk, Household and business credit
Consumer Cash Withdrawal Behaviour: Branch Networks and Online Financial Innovation Staff working paper 2021-28 Heng Chen, Matthew Strathearn, Marcel Voia The physical network of bank branches is important in how consumers manage their cash holdings. This paper estimates how consumer withdrawal behaviour responds to the distance they must travel to their branch. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): G, G2, G21, R, R2, R22 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Cash and bank notes, Digital assets and fintech
Markets Look Beyond the Headline Staff analytical note 2018-37 Bruno Feunou, James Kyeong, Raisa Leiderman Many reports and analyses interpret the release of new economic data based on the headline surprise—for instance, total inflation, real GDP growth and the unemployment rate. However, we find that headline news alone cannot adequately explain the responses of market prices to new information. Rather, market prices react more strongly, on average, to non-headline news such as the composition of GDP growth, quality of jobs created and revisions to past data. Thus, tracking the impact of non-headline information released on the news day is crucial in analyzing how markets interpret and react to new economic data. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, G, G1, G12, G14 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission
August 25, 2015 The Long-Term Evolution of House Prices: An International Perspective Remarks Lawrence L. Schembri Canadian Association for Business Economics Kingston, Ontario Deputy Governor Lawrence Schembri discusses the international evidence of underlying determinants of long-term movements in house prices. Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Remarks