The Electronic Purse: An Overview of Recent Developments and Policy Issues Technical Report No. 74 Gerald Stuber Futurists have been speculating about the prospects for a cashless society for many years, and such predictions became more frequent following the introduction of "smart" cards - cards containing a computer chip - in the mid-1970s. Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Topic(s): Digital currencies and fintech, Financial institutions, Payment clearing and settlement systems, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, G, G2, G20
December 10, 1995 Developments in trusteed pension funds Bank of Canada Review - Winter 1995-1996 Jacobo De Leon Trusteed pension funds are one of the most important sources of retirement income for Canadians. They have also been one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Canadian financial market. Trusteed pension funds play an important role in capital markets, channelling billions of dollars of their members' contributions into investments in financial and real assets. This article presents an overview of the trusteed pension funds sector. It provides a context for this overview by briefly presenting other sources of retirement income in Canada. It then examines the sources of the sector's rapid growth, including regulatory developments that have affected it, namely the increase in allowable foreign content and the adoption of the prudent person rule. Finally, it looks at the evolution of the sector's asset mix and how the sector interacts with capital markets. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Financial institutions, Sectoral balance sheet
Regulation of Financial Institutions: A Functional Analysis Technical Report No. 45 John Chant This study has three main objectives: First, to examine the reasons for the existence of financial institutions that simultaneously lend to one group and borrow from another; second, to analyze the reasons for the special treatment of these institutions in terms of the regulation that governs their activities; and third, to assess the types of […] Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Topic(s): Financial institutions JEL Code(s): G, G2, G28