Bloomberg - Ari Altstedter and Kevin Orland (2021-06-15)
Normally this kind of quick-buck speculation would be interpreted by economists, policy makers and finance types as the indisputable sign of a housing bubble. But Moore has been a professional house flipper in the Toronto area for more than a decade now, during which a seemingly endless line of illustrious doomsayers have taken the other side of his bet on real estate in word and deed, only to be proven wrong.
One of the earliest was Mark Carney, then Canada’s central bank governor but soon to take over the Bank of England, who called the country’s reliance on housing wealth “
unsustainable” back in 2012. Then came the wave of American financiers, one after the other, whose collective bet on a Canadian housing crash got its own
nickname, “The Great White Short.” Many of them, like Steve Eisman of The Big Short fame, applied the lessons they had learned in the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble years earlier.
Reuters - Rodrigo CamposKarin Strohecker (2021-06-11)
The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it has economic and legal concerns regarding the move by El Salvador to make bitcoin a parallel legal tender, further clouding the outlook for an IMF-backed program and widening spreads on the country's bonds.
Better Dwelling - Stephen Punwasi (2021-06-11)
Minister Lecce, who has been criticized for his cozy ties to the real estate industry, gave Ontario a taste of his financial literacy focus for math. Explaining the province will be focusing on teaching students how they fit into the economy, he rattled off some examples. The focus will be “… debt, savings, how to use a credit card, [and] how to take out a mortgage or rent,” he said.
Better Dwelling - Daniel Wong (2021-06-11)
One reason they expect the market to cool, and at least stabilize, is affordability. Low interest rates expanded budgets, allowing many to easily absorb higher prices. Then prices moved even higher on the exuberance sparked by the rush of buyers. Homes are now at valuations that are difficult for the vast majority to buy. Even the majority of current homeowners would have difficulty if they bought today.
FT - James Pickford (2021-06-11)
In its recent credit report for April, the Bank said average mortgage interest rates had fallen to their lowest level on record, at 2.07 per cent. By comparison, average rates in October 2008 were 5.82 per cent. The total stock of outstanding mortgage debt (excluding that accounted for by housing associations) has risen from £1.47tn to £1.52tn in the 12 months to April. House prices, meanwhile, rose by an annualised 9.5 per cent in May, according to last week’s Halifax index — its highest level in nearly seven years.
G&M - G&M (2021-06-10)
The Bank of Canada seems pretty intent on ignoring, as much as possible, the raging Canadian dollar. In most instances, that would be a bad idea. In the current circumstances, it may be good policy.
Reuters - Reuters (2021-06-10)
China's top banking and insurance regulator said banks should guard against a rise in non-performing assets, as the country rolls back some of the relief measures implemented during the pandemic to help firms withstand the fallout.
Better Dwelling - Daniel Wong (2021-06-10)
The 3 markets with the lowest price growth also happen to be the most expensive in the province. Oakville ($1,342,300), Mississauga ($1,077,700), and Toronto ($1,025,200) are the three most expensive markets. Those markets saw the composite price make an increase of at least 17.8% though. The low growth had to do with high prices, not due to low demand.
Better Dwelling - Stephen Punwasi (2021-06-10)
One chapter in particular highlights why the issue became so public recently. Triads, transnational criminal gangs, and Chinese Intelligence exploited the country’s biggest vulnerability. “… they moved into real estate and finance, Canada’s soft spot for economic infiltration.” says Cooper.
American Banker - Hannah Lang (2021-06-10)
The Federal Reserve has indicated it would need congressional help if the central bank moves ahead with a plan to create a digital dollar. But lawmakers aren't yet ready to give their stamp of approval.
At a hearing Wednesday, Senate Banking Committee members raised questions about how a Fed-designed digital currency would be structured, how it would complement the private sector and whether a digital dollar is even necessary, among other concerns.
G&M - Rachelle Younglai (2021-06-09)
The bank now expects home resales to climb 16 per cent this year, to 636,700 units, and predicts the RPS House Price Index, which measures appraised values, will jump 13 per cent, to $697,400. The bank’s previous forecast had home resales increasing 6.5 per cent and prices rising 8 per cent.
FP - Larysa Harapyn (2021-06-09)
Leah Zlatkin, LowestRates.ca expert and Principal broker at Brite Mortgage speaks to Financial Post’s Larysa Harapyn about the mortgage stress test that came into effect June 1.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2021-06-09)
Investors will be looking for fresh hints from the Bank of Canada this week on its next move to reduce emergency levels of monetary stimulus.
FT - Sam Fleming, Martin Arnold (2021-06-09)
Jörg Kukies, deputy finance minister of Germany, told the Financial Times that the Franco-German proposal was “a pragmatic way of ensuring a truthful and compliant Basel implementation on the one hand and respecting the political mandate of [the EU’s economic and financial affairs council] and G20 for no significant increase in capital requirements as well”.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2021-06-08)
Total hours is an aggregate number. It says a lot about how fast the economic machine is running, but it necessarily obscures a lot of detail. Freeland and her officials at the Finance Department also want to know the details. She wants to make sure that no one is being left behind. That’s why one of her “guardrails” is also long-term unemployment, which has spiked to levels last seen in the first half of the 1990s. Evidence shows that the longer people spend on the sidelines of the economy, the harder it is to get back in. Economists call it “scarring.” Freeland has pledged to spend heavily so the economy heals before such scars become permanent.
Tiff Macklem completed the first year of his seven-year term on June 3. A year earlier, he oversaw the release of an interest-rate decision on which he played no official part. Last week, he would have been huddled with his deputies, deciding whether their current interest-rate stance needed tweaking ahead of a scheduled update on June 9. Hopefully someone at the central bank thought to mark the occasion. If they didn’t, Macklem still probably went home satisfied on Friday, as a big week of economic data supported his decision to look past the recent spike in inflation and let the economy run hot.
Better Dwelling - Daniel Wong (2021-06-08)
North American lumber prices are rapidly collapsing, as the market abruptly changes. The price fell to US$1,221/mbf today, down 4.91% from the close on Friday. Prices are now down 26.88% from a month ago, which means prices are dropping about as fast as they increased. Lumber, being a popular input cost, was pushing the price of many goods higher. A little relief has arrived, but prices have a long way to go to unwind the pandemic squeeze.
G&M - Jeffrey Jones (2021-06-07)
Canada will soon have a new top financial watchdog and the successful candidate will be more of a climate cop than ever before.
CBC - Christian Paas-Lang (2021-06-07)
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Saturday an agreement made by Group of Seven (G7) countries on taxing multinational companies and setting a global minimum corporate tax rate was just a first step toward a global deal.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2021-06-07)
The policy is known as “open banking” and it could provide a competitive shock to a banking system whose idea of competition is engaging in price wars over the issuance of government-backed mortgages. The review has been so slow in coming to what many say are foregone conclusions that some have wondered if the big banks are doing their best to stand in the way of progress. Whatever the reason for the slow going, any delay from this point on will have everything to do with Freeland herself, as she now has all the information and context that she needs.
WSJ - Mark Maurer (2021-06-07)
The PCAOB regulates the audits of publicly traded companies. Congress established it with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 following accounting scandals at Enron Corp. and other now-defunct firms. Mr. Duhnke was sworn in as PCAOB chairman in January 2018 under then-President Donald Trump.
The SEC’s new Democratic chairman, Gary Gensler, took control in April. A former banker and regulator, he is expected to be tougher on companies and look to increase investor protections and reporting requirements, for example around disclosures about environmental, social and governance issues.
G&M - Rachelle Younglai (2021-06-04)
After a year in which buyers shunned tiny condos in favour of roomier houses in smaller cities, new data show that new condo sales are steadily climbing in the large urban centres. These are condos that have either yet to break ground or are under construction, and sales for these projects are often viewed as a bet on the future because buyers wait several years for their units to be built.
G&M - Rob Carrick (2021-06-04)
Buying a home in the Toronto of 1992 was a bit of a stretch for twentysomething couples, but you got it done without much drama.
G&M - Rachelle Younglai (2021-06-04)
Toronto’s housing market slowed in May, the second straight month of declining sales, as buyer fatigue set in and prices fell in two areas outside the city.
FP - Ari Alstedter (2021-06-04)
“While sales have trended off the March 2021 peak, so too have new listings,” Jason Mercer, the real estate board’s chief market analyst, said in a statement. “People actively looking to purchase a home continue to face a lot of competition from other buyers, which results in very strong upward pressure on selling prices.”
Reuters - David Milliken (2021-06-04)
Finance ministers from the G7 group of rich nations are meeting in London on Friday for two days of talks aimed at moving closer to a global deal to raise more tax from the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon.
Better Dwelling - Daniel Wong (2021-06-04)
Toronto homebuyers are paying a big premium compared to living in the rest of the country. Buying a single-family (non-condo) home is 30.2% more expensive than the price of a typical home in major cities. Condo apartments are only 2.2% more expensive than condos in other urban markets though.
G&M - Rachelle Younglai (2021-06-03)
Nearly one in six Toronto homes has a basement apartment or secondary unit, according to new research, highlighting the shortage of rental properties and the housing crunch in many parts of Ontario.
Reuters - Staff (2021-06-03)
Saudi Arabian oil group Aramco (2222.SE) is in talks with banks for a U.S. dollar-denominated bond issue, two sources said, seeking to raise money ahead of large commitments for its major shareholder, the Saudi government.
Bloomberg - Brian Chappatta (2021-06-03)
It’s not exactly tapering, but the Federal Reserve is starting the clock on withdrawing the emergency measures it used to support financial markets during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The central bank said late Wednesday that it would start to gradually sell the $13.7 billion portfolio of U.S. corporate debt and exchange-traded funds it amassed through its Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, which was created during the worst of the pandemic-inspired market meltdown in March 2020. The facility marked an unprecedented intervention for the Fed because it effectively pledged to plow hundreds of billions of dollars into company debt if no one else would. That backstop, even if it wasn’t fully used, quickly restored investor confidence, led to a ferocious rally in practically every corner of the bond market and encouraged record-breaking amounts of debt sales from investment-grade and high-yield borrowers alike.
Better Dwelling - Daniel Wong (2021-06-03)
Residential renovation spending grew much faster than the general economy. Home reno now represents 3% of GDP, a record share. This segment is about a third of the residential investment we discussed yesterday. Not surprising the larger category pushed to a new record.
FP - Kelsey Rolfe (2021-06-02)
“That purchasing power reduction is not for all buyers, only for those who are at the max, at the margins, for the qualifying process,” he said. “So the market could have a bit of a cooling effect, but in and of itself we wouldn’t expect this change to engineer a significant cooling of the market the way we saw, for example, in British Columbia in 2016 or in Ontario in 2017.”
Reuters - Tom WestbrookWinni Zhou (2021-06-02)
A mountain of dollars on deposit in China has grown so large that banks are struggling to loan the currency and traders say it poses a risk to official efforts to control a fast-rising yuan.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2021-06-02)
Canada’s economy continued its recovery from pandemic damage in the first quarter, driven by a surge in home construction.
Better Dwelling - Better Dwelling (2021-06-02)
The base case scenario sees big growth this year, with a taper in future years. At the forecast date, they see home prices rising 7.5% over the following 12-month period. This is a significant acceleration from the 4% growth in the January numbers. Prices would slow down after the boom in this outcome.
Better Dwelling (2021-06-02)
That capital appears to be diverted from business investment, which is now at a record low share of GDP. Business investment in this case is a combination of non-residential structures, machinery & equipment, and intellectual property. Together, these add up to 9.3% of GDP in Q1 2021. This is a record low compared to the long-run average of 12% of GDP, according to the economist.
Better Dwelling - Daniel Wong (2021-06-01)
Canadian home prices have grown much faster than rental prices, indicating significant overvaluation. The index increased 7.7% in Q4 2020, compared to the same quarter a year before. This means home prices accelerated 7.7% faster than rents over the same period. It’s also 36.0% higher than it was in 2015 as well. This is a significant detachment from fundamentals, and a steep premium to own vs rent.
Better Dwelling - Stephen Punwasi (2021-06-01)
Read this for a detailed history of Canada running out of land.
FT - Valentina Romei (2021-06-01)
UK house prices have risen by their fastest annual rate in seven years, driven by demand for bigger homes outside the city and a temporary stamp duty holiday, according to the Nationwide Building Society.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2021-06-01)
Stephen Poloz had only been Governor of the Bank of Canada for a few months in the late summer of 2013, when he gave a speech that defined his unique communication style and signalled a new era for a traditionally staid institution.
CBC - Don Pittis (2021-05-31)
And as many, including our central bankers, have said in the past, if that trend continues, diverting so much of our wealth to inflating the price of unproductive real estate may not be the best thing for Canada, or for its banks, once the pandemic is over. By comparison the effects of rising fees, while evidently annoying, are of small economic consequence.
FP - Staff (2021-05-31)
Carney, who led the Bank of Canada from 2008 and 2013 and the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, advised the Liberal federal government on its latest budget and is widely considered to have political aspirations to run for the Liberal party.
Bloomberg - Michael Heath (2021-05-31)
Australia’s central bank is approaching a decision on whether the economy is strong enough for it to join Canada and New Zealand in signaling a move away from emergency mode.
Investment Executive - CP (2021-05-31)
The early deficit figure for the 12-month period between April 2020 to March 2021 compares to a deficit of $21.8 billion over the preceding fiscal year.
G&M - Ian McGugan (2021-05-27)
The Bank of Canada is closely monitoring the rise of cryptocurrencies and other digital forms of cash, but has no plans at the moment to launch its own digital loonie, a deputy governor said Wednesday.
FP - Julie Gordon (2021-05-27)
The Bank of Canada is thinking in more concrete terms about how its digital currency might look and work but it does not currently see a strong case for issuing one, a deputy governor said on Wednesday.
G&M - Sean Kilpatrick (2021-05-26)
The budget and its stimulus plan certainly didn’t ignore measures to fuel growth in labour supply (most notably, the national child care plan) and small-business investment and innovation (such as the Canada Digital Adoption Program). But the vast bulk of spending in the package over the next year continues to be targeted at wage subsidies and income supports for workers and employers hit by COVID-19 shutdowns and restrictions. The effect of these programs is, ultimately, to keep money flowing into consumers’ pockets – which keeps consumer demand humming.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2021-05-26)
The Bank of Canada is also ramping up its research agenda. The FSR included the results of a deep study of natural disasters in Canada based on data that dates to 1900. Using artificial intelligence, the central bank determined that about 40 per cent of the country’s total household debt is held by households living in parts of the country that face “high exposure” to wildfires and other such catastrophes.
Reuters - SUJATA RAO (2021-05-26)
With global borrowing costs probably as low as they can go, high debt levels will start to matter more in coming years, a Barclays study found, highlighting Brazil as the country at greatest risk of a hit to growth and debt sustainability.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2021-05-26)
The crackdown on unregulated crypto trading in Canada has begun, with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) bringing allegations against a Seychelles-based firm for failing to heed the regulator’s warning to get registered.
CBC - Don Pittis (2021-05-25)
That's why the first and biggest risk outlined by the bank in its report was "a large decline in household income and house prices" caused by an external trigger event. It is hard to be sure what form such a trigger event could take. Macklem referred at one point to a "sharp repricing of risk." Such an event might lead to, say, a sudden rise in global interest rates, a stock market crash or a weakening of global trade. Maybe even the collapse of bitcoin.
BOC - BOC (2021-05-20)
The Financial System Review (FSR) summarizes the Governing Council’s judgment on the main vulnerabilities and risks to the stability of the Canadian financial system and highlights the efforts of the Bank and other Canadian and international regulatory authorities to mitigate those risks. After a brief survey of macrofinancial conditions, the principal vulnerabilities and risks are examined.
Bloomberg - Erik Hertzberg (2021-05-20)
The Bank of Canada said volatility in cryptocurrency assets is an emerging vulnerability to the country’s financial system, a day after a major selloff in the sector.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2021-05-18)
When Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem delivered a speech last week championing diversity and inclusion, he took a moment to deliver a mea culpa from the upper echelon of the central bank.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2021-05-18)
The title of his remarks was “Including everyone helps us all.” Macklem talked about the importance of diversity, noting that research on the question is settled: strategy and decisions made by leadership teams that feature women, racialized individuals, and disabled people do better than C-suites and boards of directors that are dominated by white men. “Diverse and inclusive groups make better decisions,” Macklem said. “That’s because they can avoid groupthink that happens when decision-makers all have similar backgrounds and approach problems the same way.”
FP - Julie Gordon and David Ljunggren (2021-05-18)
The Bank of Canada said on Thursday that some of the monetary policy tools it is using to address the COVID-19 pandemic, such as quantitative easing (QE), could widen wealth inequality and that it was looking closely at the issue.
BOC - BOC (2021-05-17)
The Financial System Review will be released on Thursday, May 20, 2021. The Financial System Review (FSR) summarizes the Governing Council’s judgment on the main vulnerabilities and risks to the stability of the Canadian financial system and highlights the efforts of the Bank and other Canadian and international regulatory authorities to mitigate those risks. After a brief survey of macrofinancial conditions, the principal vulnerabilities and risks are examined.
Bobsguide - Tom Lemmon (2021-05-13)
Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has said that money market funds (MMFs) proved in the early stages of the pandemic that they were “not sufficiently resilient”. That is despite efforts to increase the stability of MMFs after their involvement in the demise of Lehman Brothers and the crash in 2008.
BOC - Tiff Macklem (2021-05-13)
Diversity and inclusion are core to our success as a central bank that serves all Canadians.
G&M - BILL CURRY AND PATRICK BRETHOUR (2021-05-12)
Conservative and NDP MPs questioned the minister about a Globe and Mail investigation, which found that hundreds of publicly traded companies, or their wholly owned subsidiaries, together received at least $3.6-billion in Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy payments as of late January. Among those companies were some of the biggest names in corporate Canada, as well as dozens of hedge funds and wealth managers.
G&M - Adam Radwanski (2021-05-12)
The federal government is set to launch a public-private advisory body aimed at accelerating the adoption of sustainable-finance measures, on which Canada risks lagging behind its trading partners.
Reuters - Reuters (2021-05-12)
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron repeatedly contacted senior ministers over a four-month period in 2020 to lobby for the now-failed, supply-chain finance firm Greensill Capital, according to documents published on Tuesday.
Bloomberg - Brian Swint (2021-05-12)
American Banker - Brendan Pedersen, Kevin Wack (2021-05-12)
For nearly a decade, the Federal Reserve avoided choosing sides in the protracted, high-stakes dispute between banks and retailers over debit card fees.
Reuters - Reuters (2021-05-11)
1MDB raised billions of dollars in bonds, ostensibly for investment projects and joint ventures, between 2009 and 2013.
Bloomberg - Esteban Duarte (2021-05-11)
The North American country plans to sell five-year bonds in the first benchmark-sized transaction in the currency since January 2020, Bloomberg data show. The bonds, which are expected to be priced Tuesday, are being marketed at around 8 basis points over U.S. Treasuries, according to people familiar with the matter.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2021-05-10)
The central bank published a paper examining the operation of Canada’s electronic funds transfer system for large payments, the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS), during the pandemic.
G&M - Patrick Brethour (2021-05-07)
But that comforting scenario rests on some optimistic to highly optimistic long-term assumptions about productivity growth, economic expansion, interest rates and inflation. If all of those factors don’t turn out as favourably as the Finance department is forecasting, then that steady march to stability could instead turn into a permanently elevated debt burden – or even an upward spiral.
G&M - Bill Curry (2021-05-06)
The Liberal government’s 2021 budget underestimates the likely size of federal deficits by about $5.6-billion a year and puts Ottawa on a long-term path of higher debt, says Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux.
WSJ - Opinion (2021-05-05)
Regarding Mickey D. Levy and Michael D. Bordo’s “The Fed in the Sand as Inflation Threatens” (op-ed, April 27): I have been calling on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to release his plan to curb the effects of inflation for several months. Last month, I finally heard back from him. He told me that he doesn’t want inflation that substantially exceeds 2%, or inflation for a prolonged period.
FP - Ann Saphir and Dan Burns (2021-05-05)
Overall the programs, which include stepped-up spending on infrastructure, childcare and education, will make a “big difference” to inequality, Yellen said.
Bloomberg - Christopher Condon and Saleha Mohsin (2021-05-05)
Discover what’s driving the global economy and what it means for policy makers, businesses, investors and you with The New Economy Daily. Sign up here
WSJ - Judy Shelton (2021-05-05)
In the aftermath of an economic and financial challenge that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell recently likened to Dunkirk—the urgent rescue of British and other Allied troops from France in World War II—there’s a remarkable uniformity of opinion on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Apparently, they all agree on the appropriateness of the Fed’s monetary-policy decisions. That’s what worries me.
G&M - Patrick Brethour (2021-05-04)
In 2015, the federal Liberal platform committed the party to reversing a Conservative plan to gradually raise the retirement age (or at least the eligibility age for Old Age Security payments) to 67 from 65, arguing that seniors needed the money more than Ottawa.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2021-05-04)
“I would say, ‘Governor, I’m sure glad we’re learning from the lessons of history,’” Easter, a Liberal, said during Macklem’s testimony at his committee on April 27. “I’m one, and there may be others on this committee, who faced a 23-per-cent interest rate in the 1980s and I’ll tell you we paid for that for a very long time.”
Better Dwelling - Stephen Punwasi (2021-05-04)
The BoC’s April Monetary Policy Review (MPR) said inflation data would be unreliable. More specifically, the three measures — CPI-trim, CPI-median, and CPI-common would be unreliable. Arseneau says, “last week’s imbroglio [embarrassing situation] over inflation in Canada comes at a bad time.”
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2021-05-03)
The combination of the Bank of Canada’s loose monetary policy and the federal government’s massive spending is a necessary response to an epic catastrophe. There’s an echo of the 1960s and 1970s, a period that inspired the music of Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, but ended in one of the worst recessions in Canadian history.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2021-04-29)
David Dodge has had a few days to take a look at the budget that the federal Liberal government unveiled last week. He’s not a fan – of the math or the substance.
G&M - Reuters (2021-04-29)
"Amid progress on vaccinations and strong policy support, indicators of economic activity and employment have strengthened," the U.S. central bank said in a unanimous policy statement at the end of a two-day meeting.
CBC - Ivan Angelovski, Zach Dubinsky (2021-04-29)
That's been the case in British Columbia, where a government-commissioned report estimated money launderers parked $5.3 billion in real estate in 2018 alone — enough that it drove up housing prices by five per cent.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2021-04-28)
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said the central bank is not concerned about a temporary spike in inflation that is expected to take Consumer Price Index growth to around 3 per cent in the coming months.
G&M - MARK RENDELL AND WENDY STUECK (2021-04-28)
The Bank of Canada is looking to improve how it researches and analyzes economic issues relating to Indigenous communities as part of a joint initiative with the central banks of New Zealand and Australia.
G&M - James Bradshaw (2021-04-28)
New threats that increasingly keep banking regulators up at night present a fresh set of challenges because they fall outside the traditional boundaries of financial risk management. They include global threats such as climate change, fast-moving innovations in technology and cybersecurity and the emergence of new asset classes such as crypto assets – an uncharted and largely unregulated area for financial institutions that is “growing in importance,” Mr. Gully said.
Bloomberg - Kait Bolongaro (2021-04-27)
In a Monday evening vote, lawmakers from the New Democratic Party backed Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s plan to help the Canadian economy recover from its pandemic-induced losses. The vote in the House of Commons was 178 to 157 in favor.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis and Ye Xie (2021-04-23)
In a surprise move, it accelerated the timetable for a possible interest-rate increase and began paring back its bond purchases on Wednesday. That made Canada the first major economy to signal its intent to reduce emergency levels of monetary stimulus.
It’s a turn in policy by Governor Tiff Macklem that shows there’s a limit to how much he’s willing to test the upper boundaries of inflation, with new forecasts showing the central bank expects the biggest persistent overshoot of its 2% target in at least two decades. The question is whether Canada’s situation is unique, or foreshadowing the start of a global exit from stimulus.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2021-04-22)
Canada’s inflation-targeting central bank just acknowledged that inflation is headed above its 2-per-cent target in the post-COVID-19 recovery. And you know what? It’s okay with that.
CBC - Don Pittis (2021-04-22)
New signs of a strong recovery — including the bank's prediction of a stunning global growth rate of nearly seven per cent this year — plus indications that the underlying foundation of the Canadian economy has not suffered serious damage from the COVID-19 pandemic, mean the central bank is scaling back on monetary stimulus.
FP - Martin Pelletier (2021-04-22)
Nothing makes our central bankers, academics and government officials sound more out of touch with Main Street these days than when they talk about low levels of inflation. The problem is that ultra-low interest rate policies justified by CPI tracking don’t seem to help much when income levels are stagnating and asset prices are surging.
Reuters - Reuters (2021-04-22)
Bloomberg - Susanne Barton (2021-04-22)
“I thought the bank might try to complain about or argue against CAD strength -- it didn’t,” Anderson said. “The bank merely made the factual statement that CAD had rallied alongside commodity prices. Based on that, I’m slightly less worried about the BOC trying to push back against CAD strength in the future.”
G&M - David Rosenberg (2021-04-21)
There was a time in this fair land when a federal budget was an economics document. These days, it is a social policy document aimed to buy votes. It’s actually quite sad.
Reuters - Reuters (2021-04-21)
Bloomberg - Daniel Moss (2021-04-21)
The Treasury Department has a warning for the emerging world: The export-your-way-to-prosperity template has fallen out of favor. Once thought to be in U.S. interests — as a way of getting plentiful cheap goods — this model of development is now meeting more skepticism. The message for Asia should be loud and clear, even if some economies got a pass last week.
In its semiannual assessment of trading partners’ foreign-exchange policies, Treasury stopped short of labeling Taiwan, Vietnam and Switzerland as currency manipulators, even though they met the criteria. In normal times, they would have been branded with a Scarlet M for deliberately holding their currencies down. But officials couldn’t determine whether their less-than-ideal practices were done to seek a trade advantage, or simply to buttress markets and alleviate recession. The pandemic skewed capital flows globally, and many countries — the U.S. among them — responded in kind. This time, the trio got away with a rap on the knuckles. The softer approach is a shift from the Trump administration, which tagged Hanoi and Bern as manipulators, and admonished a bunch of others, including India, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2021-04-20)
The federal government is pinning its new “fiscal anchor” to a rapid postpandemic recovery, with economic growth expected to put the government’s debt-to-GDP ratio on a downward trajectory over the next few years, despite continuing deficits.
Ottawa added more than $350-billion to its accumulated debt last year, and expects to run another deficit of $154.7-billion this year. Federal debt now stands at $1.08-trillion or 49 per cent of GDP, up from $721-billion or 31.2 per cent before the pandemic.
Heading into Monday’s budget,
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economists and business groups were calling for the government to adopt a fiscal anchor – that is a target, such as a debt-to-GDP ratio, to moderate deficit spending and debt accumulation. The government responded with a loosely defined commitment to unwind its emergency spending and reduce the size of its debt relative to the size of the economy “over the medium term.”
Bloomberg - Bloomberg (2021-04-20)
The outlook suggests officials still want to guarantee the recovery from last year’s coronavirus recession by maintaining ultra-low borrowing costs and asset-buying programs. That may require them to accept any accompanying bounce in inflation.
Better Dwelling - Stephen Punwasi (2021-04-20)
Canadian real estate prices are rising at rates even the banks are warning about. There’s a lot of reasons this is happening, but one rarely discussed is the supersized borrowing from the Government of Canada (GoC). A lot of cash was needed during the pandemic, but Canada’s discretionary spending topped the G20. To help facilitate this spending, the Bank of Canada (BoC) made use of quantitative ease (QE). The unconventional policy tool’s use is debated, but its impact is well established.
FP - Jack M. Mintz (2021-04-19)
If I were finance minister, I’d be asking myself the following question: With a recovery just getting going following a deep recession, should I act like Marc Lalonde in 1983 or Paul Martin in 1994? Or should I chart my own course?
Bloomberg - Kait Bolongaro and Theophilos Argitis (2021-04-19)
Justin Trudeau is set to unveil a vision for Canada’s post-pandemic recovery that will double as an election platform, heavy on new spending and assurances the mounting debt is affordable.
G&M - Vanmala Subramaniam (2021-04-15)
Internal documents from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FinTRAC) obtained through freedom of information legislation paint a picture of substantial disruption at the agency, especially in the first few months of the pandemic, when hundreds of employees were abruptly forced to work from home.
Bloomberg - Bloomberg (2021-04-15)
How should a central bank respond to global warming? In Sweden, a body created to monitor government efforts to fight climate change says the law that guides monetary policy needs a serious overhaul.
Cecilia Hermansson, the vice chair of the Swedish Climate Policy Council, is advising the government to include environmental considerations in the Riksbank Act, which is currently under review. She also says an existing proposal to amend the law doesn’t go nearly far enough.
FT - Henry Foy, Katrina Manson, Michael Peel (2021-04-15)
On Wednesday, the US for the first time formally blamed SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service, for the SolarWinds hack, which affected at least nine federal agencies and 100 companies. One senior administration official told reporters the hack gave Russia “the ability to spy on or potentially disrupt more than 16,000 computer systems worldwide”.
G&M - Reuters Video (2021-04-13)
According to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, the U.S. economy is at an "inflection point" with expectations that growth and hiring will pick up speed in the months ahead, but some risks remain, particularly any resurgence in the coronavirus pandemic.
Bloomberg - Editorial Board (2021-04-12)
Europe faces a predicament. Even as it struggles to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s setting itself up for another crisis — this one financial. To ensure the viability of the common currency at the heart of the European project, the EU’s leaders will have to cooperate in ways they’ve so far resisted.
Bloomberg - Ray Zdlovu (2021-04-12)
Mnangagwa has previously issued warnings to private companies he blames for undermining his efforts to turn around an economy plagued by annual inflation of 241% and foreign-currency shortages. Last year, his government closed the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange for five weeks and singled out the largest mobile operator, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Ltd., for undermining the nation’s currency through its mobile money service
BOC - BOC (2021-04-12)
Most respondents also said they would prefer an approach that balances the level of interest rates to benefit both savers and borrowers. Additionally, the majority viewed inflation targeting as the most easily understood approach.
OSFI - OSFI (2021-04-12)
For OSFI, our focus in these matters is prudential. That is to say that our unique role is to ensure that Canadians continue to enjoy financial stability as climate-related risks manifest themselves. This is a very important role, and one that we take very seriously, especially as we are the only arm of the Government of Canada that is equipped to meet this prudential responsibility.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2021-04-12)
Last fall, as Chrystia Freeland began laying the groundwork for a postpandemic recovery strategy that would heap more debt onto the federal government’s already immense pile, she felt obliged to assure Canadians that, no, she hasn’t invited a three-initialled economic bogeyman to live under our bed.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2021-04-09)
Carolyn Wilkins, the former second-in-command at the Bank of Canada, has been appointed to the Bank of England committee that oversees financial stability in Britain.
WSJ - WSJ Video (2021-04-08)
The federal government has been borrowing a lot of money to fight the pandemic. But with national debt rising, lawmakers disagree on how to deal with that debt and pay for priorities going forward. WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib explains. Photo illustration: Emma Scott
FP - Mark Zelmer (2021-04-07)
The massive increase in government spending in Canada and around the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a siren song in the form of a new economic theory: “Modern Monetary Theory,” or MMT for short. But as we begin to emerge from the acute phase of the pandemic we need to turn a deaf ear to that song. Now that inflation concerns are beginning to stir it is hard to imagine governments raising taxes or cutting spending anytime soon to keep inflation in check — yet that’s how MMT advocates would control inflation, with what traditionally have been regarded as fiscal policies rather than the customary monetary tools of interest rates and liquidity measures.
Reuters - Gina Chon (2021-04-07)
That would put America’s headline rate above many Western nations. Biden’s blueprint also includes a minimum tax of 21% on the income U.S. companies earn on assets like patents and trademarks outside the United States, up from the current floor of around 10%.
Investment Executive - Rudy Mezzatta (2021-04-07)
Last week, the CMAIO, which was established in 2015 to guide the launch of a national capital markets regulatory authority, put its operations on pause and laid off its staff. The organization said that it could resume its work in the future “when there is greater certainty around cooperative system launch timelines.”
FP - Reuters (2021-04-06)
Yellen said it was important to make sure governments “have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenues in essential public goods and respond to crises, and that all citizens fairly share the burden of financing government.”
FP - Steve Ambler, Jeremy M. Kronick and William B.P. Robson (2021-04-06)
On March 23, the Bank of Canada announced the upcoming suspension of some of its major asset-purchase programs. This is good news. Financial stresses at the beginning of the pandemic a year ago led the bank to buy the debt of provincial governments and private companies. Those stresses are now in the past and Canadians should welcome the bank’s retreat from a role fraught with economic and political risks.
G&M - Joan Bryden (2021-04-05)
Mark Carney, long touted as a potential Liberal leader one day, will be a keynote speaker at the federal party’s convention later this week.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2021-04-01)
In 2019, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, which in 1989 became the first central bank to adopt a formal inflation target, was told by Jacinda Ardern’s government to include “maximum sustainable employment” as an objective. Earlier this year, Ardern added “sustainable house prices, including dampening investor demand for existing housing” to governor Adrian Orr’s agenda.
Reuters - Steve Holland, Jarrett Renshaw (2021-04-01)
“It’s a once-in-a-generation investment in America, unlike anything we’ve seen or done since we built the interstate highway system and the space race decades ago,” Biden said in unveiling the program in Pittsburgh.
Bloomberg - Ari Altstedter and Erik Hertzberg (2021-04-01)
The Bank of Canada is seeing “worrying” signs that some Canadians are taking on too much debt to buy into the nation’s hot housing market.
In an
interview with the Financial Post, Governor Tiff Macklem said there is evidence that loan levels relative to home values are growing -- an indication that some borrowers could be overextending. He also warned people have begun to make purchases based on the belief prices will continue rising.
“Canadians are stretching and that is worrying.” Macklem said. “If Canadians are basing their decisions on the kinds of price increases that we’ve seen recently are going to continue indefinitely, that would be a mistake. They’re not sustainable.”
At the same time, Macklem indicated the central bank can do little given interest rates need to stay low to support the recovery.
BNTV - Poussin Boots (2021-03-31)
CIBC clients are exempt from the Covid-19 pet owners tax. In effect from March 31st, municipal authorities require Canadian's to adhere to strict lockdown measures with the excpetion of pet owner that must walk their pets regularly. Therefore, dog and cat owners have been exempt from curfews. Consequently, a Canadian pet owners will be required to pay a dog and cat tax that would require every cat owner in to pay $40 (about $35) a year. But fear not, because you get a cat licence, complete with a picture of your cat, to show the tax man that you and your kitty are law-abiding citizens. CIBC clients are exempt because they have decided to compensate clients that own pets.
G&M - Andrew Willis (2021-03-31)
The federal government and seven provinces and one territory are shutting down the organization charged with creating a national securities regulator due to waning political support for the project in jurisdictions such as Ontario and British Columbia.
G&M - Howard Schneider (2021-03-29)
The Federal Reserve won’t bend its interest rate or bond-buying policies to help finance the federal government’s rising deficits, Christopher Waller said on Monday in his debut speech as a member of the U.S. central bank’s board of governors.
G&M - MARK RENDELL AND DAVID PARKINSON (2021-03-27)
It was Mar. 27, 2020, and the central bank had just unveiled a plan to buy Canadian government bonds at the astounding pace of at least $5-billion a week.
G&M - Bill Curry (2021-03-24)
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced Tuesday that the next federal budget will be tabled on April 19.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2021-03-24)
In a speech on Tuesday, deputy bank governor Toni Gravelle said the central bank will let its commercial paper, provincial bond and corporate bond buying programs expire in the coming months, now that debt markets are functioning normally. It will also end two sales and repurchase agreement – or “repo” – programs launched last March to pump cash into financial institutions that faced a liquidity crunch early in the pandemic.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2021-03-24)
“I want to be clear here: moderating the pace of purchases while adding to our holdings would simply mean that we are still adding stimulus through QE, but at a slower pace,” Gravelle said. “It would not mean we are removing stimulus. We would be easing our foot off the accelerator, not hitting the brakes.”
OSFI - Press Release (2021-03-24)
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) plays an essential role in building and preserving resiliency in Canada’s financial system. OSFI’s commitment to implementing the international Basel III Framework has strengthened Canadian banks and improved their ability to handle financial shocks, so they can continue to support economic growth while remaining competitive.
G&M - ANN SAPHIR AND DAVID LAWDER (2021-03-24)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday said U.S. banks look healthy enough to be allowed to pay dividends and repurchase stock, an updated view that reflects top economic officials’ growing confidence in the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
G&M - Peter Brethour (2021-03-22)
Chris Chezepock thought he was making a simple call to unlock his online taxpayer account when he rang up the Canada Revenue Agency on Wednesday morning.
G&M - Patrick Brethour (2021-03-19)
Consumers pare back spending as they either lose their jobs, or worry about the prospect of unemployment. That hurts sales at businesses, which then cut back on payroll, and those workers then reduce their spending. And for 80 years, the typical political response to myriad typical recessions has been to dump a lot of money into the economy to break that cycle of misery.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2021-03-19)
Canada’s inflation rate edged up in February on rising gasoline prices, coming in below analysts’ estimates but setting the stage for a jump in consumer price index growth in the coming months.
Reuters - Staff (2021-03-19)
Turkey is paying for past errors that cost it credibility and let inflation accelerate to nearly 16%, over three times its target. In the UK, prices have been rising too slowly rather than too fast. And even if they overshot for a bit, public and market expectations of inflation remain firmly anchored. The contrast explains why using monetary policy to support economic recovery is a luxury not available to all. (By Swaha Pattanaik)
Bloomberg - Bloomberg (2021-03-19)
The trial of a Canadian man detained in China since late 2018 on espionage charges has ended after about two hours, a lawyer said, one day after relatives pleaded for his release.
Bloomberg - Staff (2021-03-18)
Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig will face their first court hearings Friday and Monday respectively, Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said in an emailed statement, adding that diplomats have requested to attend. “We believe these detentions are arbitrary, and remain deeply troubled by the lack of transparency surrounding these proceedings,” Garneau said.
Bloomberg - Emily Barrett (2021-03-18)
The central bank envisages keeping rates near zero to the end of 2023 despite a significantly brighter assessment of growth and higher inflation over the near term. After the release, traders trimmed some of the more-aggressive positioning they’ve been building for a “lift-off” by earlier in 2023.
FT - Tom Mitchell (2021-03-18)
Like many small businesses across China, Zheng Weijun’s freight company had struggled to obtain credit from the state-dominated banking system. But in 2018 the 12-lorry business discovered Fincera, a peer-to-peer platform in Hebei province that collected money from retail investors starved of returns and channelled it to borrowers, mainly small trucking and logistics companies.
CBC - Ryan Patrick Jones (2021-03-17)
CRA's move comes in the middle of one of the most complicated tax seasons in recent memory, as millions of Canadians prepare to file taxes after receiving COVID-19 benefits.
FP - Fergal Smith (2021-03-17)
A reduction of purchases by the BoC could be supportive of the Canadian dollar, which has been the best performing G10 currency this year, with a gain of about 2 per cent against the U.S. dollar. The central bank said this month that the currency has been relatively stable against the greenback.
Bloomberg - Mohamed A. El-Erain (2021-03-17)
By raising its 2021 growth forecast to 6.5%, the Fed joined others in substantially improving its outlook for the U.S. economy. The forecast for the unemployment rate was reduced to 3.5%. Meanwhile, the Fed moved its favored measure of inflation — the PCE — up from 1.8% to 2.4%, for this year, with the core measures rising more moderately to 2.2%.
Despite these historically large revisions, the central bank’s policy statement remained virtually unchanged. The implied message — that the Fed will be even more ready to support an economy running ever hotter — was more than confirmed by Powell’s ultra-dovish comments at his press conference.
OSFI - Press Release (2021-03-16)
These measures included a reduction in the Stressed Value at Risk (“SVaR”) multiplier, a component of the market risk capital requirements that ensures that a minimum amount of capital is held against stress periods. At the beginning of the pandemic, the volatility in capital markets increased such that the level of additional conservatism achieved through the SVaR multiplier was temporarily not needed and banks were permitted to reduce the level of the multipliers used.
Finextra - Finextra (2021-03-15)
The new technology platform uses custom-built algorithms to monitor, in real-time, a mix of data points from official emergency sources and weather alert systems to offer one-to-one, personalised support for customers impacted by natural disasters.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2021-03-15)
The Bank of Canada has expanded the size of its daily bond sale and repurchase program, making more securities available to dealers in an attempt to counteract the impact that its large ownership of Government of Canada bonds is having on short-term funding markets.
G&M - Matt Lundy (2021-03-12)
Policy makers in Canada need to keep supportive measures in place as the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic before turning to debt management, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said Thursday.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2021-03-12)
OSFI launched a consultation on measures to implement the remaining features of the latest edition of the global capital adequacy regime, known as Basel III — which includes capital, liquidity, leverage and disclosure requirements — that was developed in response to the global financial crisis.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2021-03-11)
The Bank of Canada has set a high bar for the eventual raising of interest rates. But that doesn’t mean the central bank is equally reluctant about scaling back its quantitative easing program, even if it’s not yet willing to say so out loud. They’re two separate and distinct questions.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2021-03-11)
The Bank of Canada acknowledged it had underestimated the economy’s ability to power through the second wave of COVID-19 infections, scrapping its January prediction that gross domestic product (GDP) would contract in the first quarter of 2021.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2021-03-10)
Economists unanimously predict policy makers led by Governor Tiff Macklem will leave their key interest rate unchanged at 0.25% at a 10 a.m. decision Wednesday in Ottawa. There’s speculation, however, they could signal plans to pare back the central bank’s asset purchases at the next meeting in April.
Better Dwelling - Stephen Punwasi (2021-03-10)
Central banks are flooding economies with cheap credit, and trying to prevent bubbles. Well, some countries are trying to prevent bubbles. Canada has decided home price inflation is an uncontrollable consequence of the environment. In fact, the country’s central bank welcomed the rapid home price growth as “needed.”
BOC - Press Release (2021-03-10)
The Bank of Canada today held its target for the overnight rate at the effective lower bound of ¼ percent, with the Bank Rate at ½ percent and the deposit rate at ¼ percent. The Bank is maintaining its extraordinary forward guidance, reinforced and supplemented by its quantitative easing (QE) program, which continues at its current pace of at least $4 billion per week.
Bloomberg - Yuko Takeo (2021-03-09)
Junko Nakagawa, a Nomura Holdings executive picked by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to join the Bank of Japan’s board, is seen as a policy moderate who’s likely to support the board’s current direction after her trailblazing rise in Japan’s male-dominated finance industry.
Nakagawa, now 55, was the first woman appointed to Nomura’s board, where she served as the group’s chief financial officer in the early 2010s, before becoming head of the asset management unit in 2019. If approved, she would replace Takako Masai, another former banker, as the only woman on the BOJ’s nine-member board.
BOC - BOC (2021-03-09)
On Wednesday, March 10, 2021, the Bank of Canada will announce its decision on the target for the overnight rate. A press release will provide a brief explanation of the decision.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2021-03-08)
The Bank of Canada will be walking a tightrope when communicating its rate decision this week, as rising bond yields and strong economic data have put its downbeat forecast at odds with brightening market expectations for a postpandemic recovery.
Bloomberg - Lizzy Burden and Andrew Atkinson (2021-03-08)
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said risks to the U.K. economy remain tilted to the downside, a remark that may rein in expectations that policy makers may soon shift toward containing inflation.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2021-03-08)
“To us, it now appears likely that the U.S. output gap will be closed by the end of 2021 — an astonishing feat given just how ugly things were a year ago and highlighting once more how fundamentally different this latest recession has been from all those that have gone before it,” the report said.
G&M - ANDREW WILLIS AND TIM KILADZE (2021-03-05)
Mark Machin already had one foot out the door of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board when he was forced, under pressure, to resign as chief executive officer last week after receiving a COVID-19 vaccination in the United Arab Emirates.
G&M - PAUL WALDIE (2021-03-04)
The British government has announced the country’s biggest corporate tax hike in almost 50 years in a bid to slowly fill the fiscal hole left by the pandemic.
Finextra - Finextra (2021-03-03)
The People's Bank of China wants access to Ant's consumer data to help state-owned banks assess credit worthiness.
G&M - Rachelle Yungai (2021-03-03)
Evan Siddall, the outspoken housing agency chief who once told Canadians not to worship homeownership, is stepping down in April, ending his controversial and combative tenure.
Better Dwelling - James Langton (2021-03-03)
Most sectors have almost reached pre-crisis levels, and the laggards that were hit hardest by the pandemic “are also the ones with potentially the most to gain should behaviour start to respond favourably to vaccinations over 2021 into 2022,” the report said.
G&M - Bill Curry (2021-03-03)
Federal subsidies for wages and rent will be extended at current levels until June 5, a move Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said will cost about $16-billion.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis (2021-03-02)
Justin Trudeau was more committed to borrowing his way out of the Covid-19 crisis last year than almost any other leader in the developed world. That cushioned the blow of the pandemic, but raises some hard questions about what Canada got for all that spending.
SEC - Press Release (2021-03-01)
Today's order states that trading is being suspended because of questions about recent increased activity and volatility in the trading of these issuers, as well as the influence of certain social media accounts on that trading activity. The order also states that none of the issuers has filed any information with the SEC or OTC Markets, where the companies' securities are quoted, for over a year. As a result, the SEC suspended trading in the securities of: Bebida Beverage Co. (BBDA); Blue Sphere Corporation (BLSP); Ehouse Global Inc. (EHOS); Eventure Interactive Inc. (EVTI); Eyes on the Go Inc. (AXCG); Green Energy Enterprises Inc. (GYOG); Helix Wind Corp. (HLXW); International Power Group Ltd. (IPWG); Marani Brands Inc. (MRIB); MediaTechnics Corp. (MEDT); Net Talk.com Inc. (NTLK); Patten Energy Solutions Group Inc. (PTTN); PTA Holdings Inc. (PTAH); Universal Apparel & Textile Company (DKGR); and Wisdom Homes of America Inc. (WOFA).
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2021-02-25)
Statistics Canada took a pratfall this week on some key inflation calculations, and it couldn’t have come at a much more inopportune time. So why doesn’t Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem – whose central responsibility is all about inflation – sound more bothered?
FT - Philip Stafford and Delphine Strauss in London and Sam Fleming (2021-02-25)
Its stance has increasingly drawn criticism from the UK’s central bank governor, who on Wednesday focused on the tussle over clearing houses, which sit between deals and prevent defaults from creating a chain reaction across markets.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2021-02-24)
Macklem, who took over as Bank of Canada governor in June, is making inequality the focus of policy, as Powell in the United States and Christine Lagarde at the European Central Bank have also done. On Feb. 23, Macklem made it clear that he intends to let the economy run hotter for longer than most mainstream economists would have thought safe only a few years ago, reinforcing both the likelihood that interest rates will remain extremely low for at least another couple of years and that more people will potentially get to participate in the recovery.
CIB-BIC - CIB-BIC (2021-02-24)
2021 statement of priorities and accountabilities.
G&M - Howard Schneider (2021-02-23)
Over the past year Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has engineered the largest economic rescue in U.S. history, thrown a controversial lifeline to companies hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic and steered a sweeping labour-friendly revamp of monetary policy that any presidential administration would welcome.
Reuters - David Milliken (2021-02-22)
Asked by students at Durham University when interest rates might return to the level of 4% to 5% common before the financial crisis, Vlieghe replied: “Maybe not in my lifetime.”
FT - Miles Johnson (2021-02-22)
Draghi, one of Europe’s most highly regarded public officials, was unexpectedly called in by Mattarella earlier this month after the previous coalition collapsed in the middle of the latest pandemic wave.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2021-02-22)
The sudden revision surprised economists, causing some to question whether Statscan had an accurate picture of inflation. The change was made amid growing concern about higher-than-expected inflation, which is driving bond yields up and sending jitters through the market.
OSFI - OSFI (2021-02-18)
When Guideline B-20 revisions were introduced, lenders made changes that reduced the proportion of mortgages approved for the most highly indebted or over-leveraged borrowers (e.g. mortgage loans that exceed 450% of a borrower’s income.)
Reuters - Staff (2021-02-17)
The contribution from government development bank the Japan International Cooperation Agency will support efforts to improve African countries’ economic resilience at a time when many are struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, the AfDB said in a statement.
FT - Philip Stafford (2021-02-17)
Hedge fund managers, professional investors and specialists in the more arcane corners of trade processing are clearing their diaries and checking popcorn supplies for a session that could determine how regulators deal with an explosion in trading by amateurs for years to come.
FT - David Waddill (2021-02-17)
In a time of global crisis, the persistent excess savings of the Asian nations need to be drawn down to help stimulate global growth — otherwise why were they accumulating these reserves other than for “beggar thy neighbour” purposes?
Bloomberg - Rich Miller and Liz McCormick (2021-02-16)
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is giving Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell a bit of a headache when it comes to managing the money markets.
Securities Finance - Alex Pugh (2021-02-15)
Speakers include Robinhood CEO Vladâ¯Tenev, hedge fund Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin,â¯Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman, Melvin Capital CEO Gabrielâ¯Plotkin, and day trader Keith Gill, who is credited with rallying the retail interest in GameStop through Reddit forum WallStreetBets.
FP - Shelly Hagan (2021-02-11)
A top Bank of Canada official called the recent spike in cryptocurrency prices “speculative mania,” and said such assets don’t have the qualities to become the money of the future.
WSJ - Josh Mitchell and Eliza Collins (2021-02-05)
The Biden administration is considering using executive action to forgive Americans’ federal student debt, the White House’s chief spokeswoman said Thursday, responding to pressure from Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups.
G&M - KRISTY KIRKUP AND BILL CURRY (2021-02-04)
The federal government has directed the Canada Infrastructure Bank to invest at least $1-billion in revenue-generating projects that benefit Indigenous peoples as part of a new statement of priorities for the Crown corporation.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2021-02-04)
Bank of Canada deputy governor Lawrence Schembri is expecting little change to the central bank’s current inflation targeting regime, even as it examines alternative monetary policy targets, including a potential “dual mandate” that would put a more explicit focus on employment.
CBC - CBC (2021-02-04)
Businesses can qualify for between $25,000 and $1 million if they meet the eligibility requirements, the main one being that they must show their revenues have fallen by at least 50 per cent for at least three months out of the previous eight.
FP - Geoff Zochodne (2021-02-02)
A major tax battle between the Canada Revenue Agency and the country’s six biggest banks has more than doubled in size over the past few years, with the lenders saying they are being reassessed for in excess of $6 billion due to a disagreement over dividends.
Finextra - Finextra (2021-01-29)
Bitcoin is "more of a speculative asset than money" that should perhaps "be seen more like a community of online gamers, who exchange real money for items that only exist in cyber space," says Carstens in a speech on digital currencies to the Hoover Institute.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2021-01-28)
Central bankers around the world are ramping up research into digital currencies, according to the Bank of International Settlements, even as cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are likely to remain niche products with little use as payment methods.
Investment Executive - CP (2021-01-28)
The federally backed loan can be used for rent, utilities and help with payroll, among other costs, to keep operations running through public health restrictions, but can’t be used to pay or refinance existing loans.
FT - Chris Flood and Emma Agyemang (2021-01-27)
The government has outlined far reaching proposals to strengthen the international competitiveness of the UK’s £9.9tn asset management industry with tax reforms and innovative fund structures, providing a road map for the sector’s future outside of the EU.
Reuters - Staff (2021-01-25)
Australia’s securities regulator said on Monday there was a cyber security breach at a server it used to transfer files including credit licence applications where some information may have been viewed.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2021-01-25)
Among other things, the task force called for a restructuring of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), including spinning out its adjudicative function, separating the chair and CEO roles, expanding its mandate to include promoting growth and even changing its name — to the Ontario Capital Markets Authority.
Finextra - Finextra (2021-01-25)
Set up in 2019 the BIS Innovation Hub has centres in Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore, with locations in Toronto, London, Frankfurt and Paris, and Stockholm on the horizon.
Finextra - Finextra (2021-01-25)
The centre will shape and steer the ECB’s climate agenda internally and externally, building on the expertise of all teams already working on climate-related topics. Its activities will be organised in workstreams, ranging from monetary policy to prudential functions, and supported by staff that have data and climate change expertise.
G&M - James Bradshaw (2021-01-21)
For an avowed fiscal hawk like Peter Bethlenfalvy, it’s hard being thrust onto centre stage in the midst of a global pandemic.
G&M - Tara Deschamps (2021-01-21)
A W-shaped recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic could trigger a nearly 50 per cent drop in housing prices and a peak unemployment rate of 25 per cent, if the government doesn’t offer relief, says the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2021-01-20)
To be sure, these are future considerations. There won’t be any talk of higher interest rates when the Bank of Canada’s leaders conclude their latest round of policy deliberations on Jan. 20. The most pressing concerns for the central bank at this stage are whether a grim winter will cripple the recovery, and when to slow its multi-billion-dollar bond-purchase program, which could create asset-price bubbles if left in place too long.
Reuters - Huw Jones (2021-01-20)
The Bank of England said on Wednesday the aim of its banking stress test this year is to check if banks can continue helping the economy during the pandemic and if a return to more normal levels of dividends is possible.
WSJ - Kate Davidson (2021-01-20)
Janet Yellen made the case for another sweeping economic aid package at her hearing to be the next U.S. Treasury secretary Tuesday, pushing back against Republican skepticism of the need for more deficit spending to bolster the recovery.
WSJ - James Langton (2021-01-19)
Foreign investors added $11.8 billion worth of Canadian securities during the month, “largely purchases of federal government debt,” the agency said Monday. Canadian investors acquired $7.6 billion of foreign securities, led by U.S. equities.
FP - Geoff Zochodne (2021-01-18)
The concerns were laid out in a memorandum addressed to then-finance minister Bill Morneau from his deputy in early 2020. The document, which was recently obtained by the Post via access-to-information request, explored the drivers of rising numbers of consumer insolvencies.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2021-01-18)
Few economists and market analysts expect the central bank to trim its overnight target rate on Wednesday. But they say the possibility can’t be ruled out as the bank tries to balance the near-term pain of lock-downs against better-than-expected vaccine news and robust fiscal stimulus.
Investment Executive - Christopher Rugaber (2021-01-15)
During an online discussion hosted by Princeton University, from which Powell earned his undergraduate degree, the Fed chair said the recovery of the economy from the pandemic recession “is far from our goals.” The Fed had said after its last policy meeting last month that it would continue to buy $120 billion in bonds each month until the economy made “substantial further progress” toward the Fed’s goals of maximum employment and stable 2% inflation.
FT - James Politi (2021-01-15)
Joe Biden pleaded for Congress to “act now” on a new $1.9tn economic rescue plan, setting it up as his top legislative priority as he prepares to enter the White House next week.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2021-01-14)
Boosting Canada’s long-term economic growth by reducing interprovincial trade barriers and introducing programs such as universal daycare may be the best way to manage ballooning federal and provincial government debt, former Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz says.
Investment Executive - Martin Crutsinger (2021-01-14)
The U.S. government’s deficit in the first three months of the budget year was a record-breaking $572.9 billion, 60.7% higher than the same period a year ago, as spending to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic pushed outlays up while revenue declined. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.)
Reuters - Julie Zhu (2021-01-11)
China plans to push tech giants including Ant Group, Tencent and JD.com to share consumer loan data to prevent excess borrowing and fraud, two people with knowledge of the matter said, in Beijing’s latest tightening of scrutiny.
Reuters - Reuters (2021-01-06)
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday (January 5) signed an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese software applications, including WeChat Pay and Alipay. Gloria Tso reports.
Bloomberg - ANchalee Warrachate (2021-01-05)
The world’s biggest economies shouldering record debt burdens are about to confront an unwelcome legacy of the financial crisis: a $13 trillion debt bill.
Reuters - Neil Unmack, Anna Szymanski (2021-01-04)
Central bankers will spend 2021 trying to tame the debt monsters they made in 2020. The pandemic-induced market meltdown forced Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell to buy corporate debt for the first time, while European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde unveiled plans to spend an unprecedented 1.85 trillion euros propping up markets. Yet in helping resolve the crisis, rate-setters sowed the seeds of the next one.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2021-01-04)
Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips stepped down from the position amid public outrage that he was vacationing in the Caribbean over the holidays, despite travel restrictions.
CBC - Reuters (2020-12-29)
Britain and the European Union signed a Brexit trade deal late on Thursday, preserving several trade provisions for both sides and limiting the scale of disruption resulting from the divorce.
G&M - CP (2020-12-23)
“With this announcement, our government will ensure Canadian businesses that trade goods with the United Kingdom continue to have preferential access,” Freeland said in a statement.
FP - Erik Wasson, Laura Litvan and Billy House (2020-12-23)
The Senate followed the House late Monday in passing by overwhelming margins the US$2.3 trillion bill, just hours after lawmakers got their first look at the 5,593 pages of text. The White House has said President Donald Trump will sign it.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-12-21)
“I still have a picture, I’ll go get it afterwards,” said Macklem, who was the Finance Department’s top international official at the time. “I keep this picture of the beginning of the meeting. I’m in the picture and I look terrible. I was pretty stressed. I keep that in my office as a little reminder of that feeling in the pit of your stomach.”
G&M - Nathan Vanderklippe (2020-12-21)
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank plays a useful role in burnishing China’s image, its president acknowledges, even as he warns that Canada would hurt itself by leaving an international institution that critics have called a tool of Beijing.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-12-21)
“We do have very low interest rates, and we have given extraordinary forward guidance,” Tiff Macklem, the current Bank of Canada governor, said in an exclusive year-end interview on Dec. 16. “That’s partly how monetary policy works. It stimulates, lowers the cost of credit, so you’re probably going to see more spending on things that people use credit for. Housing would be high on that list.”
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-12-21)
In the end, the dollar played only a minor role in the Poloz story. He devoted a speech to the subject in 2014, but the currency rarely featured in interest-rate discussions. In his final interview as governor last May, Poloz said he thought that he had been unfairly tagged as being “soft on the dollar,” when all he was doing was trying to keep deflationary forces at bay.
Bloomberg - Saleha Mohsin and Liz McCormick (2020-12-21)
The greenback’s tumble this year -- it’s heading for the second-biggest drop in the past decade and a half -- has already stoked foreign policy makers’ concerns, thanks to the competitive advantage it gives the U.S. Even a tacit endorsement of a weakening dollar could spur tensions with trading partners.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-12-18)
The Bank of Canada may be forced to wind down its bond purchases next year because its holdings are getting too large, but don’t expect the move to drive up domestic borrowing costs.
Investment Executive - IE (2020-12-18)
A QE taper likely won’t lead to “severe” tightening of financial conditions, particularly if other larger central banks maintain their bond-purchasing volumes, the
G&M - James Bradshaw (2020-12-18)
The head of Canada’s banking regulator, Jeremy Rudin, will not seek a second term and will step down from his post next June.
G&M - GUY FAULCONBRIDGE AND KATE HOLTON (2020-12-18)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said on Thursday that trade talks with the European Union were in a “serious situation” and that no agreement would be reached unless the bloc changed its position substantially.
Youtube - Jeremy Rudin (2020-12-18)
OSFI hosted the 2020 Risk Management Webcast for Deposit-Taking Institution on November 23, 2020. Please click the timestamps below to jump to specific topics in the video:
G&M - HOWARD SCHNEIDER, ANN SAPHIR AND JONNELLE MARTE (2020-12-17)
“The parts of the economy that are weak are the service-sector businesses that involve close contact,” such as restaurants and the travel industry, Powell said in a news conference following the two-day policy meeting.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-12-16)
“Near term, rising COVID-19 infections will dampen growth and could even deepen our economic hole,” Mr. Macklem said in a speech via video-conference Tuesday to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade.
G&M - KONRAD YAKABUSKI (2020-12-16)
Some experts believe the Bank of Canada and its counterparts in the United States and Europe have embarked on a course of debt monetization as their economies lurch from crisis to crisis. And they worry that domestic politics will make it very hard to reverse course.
FP - Barbara Shecter (2020-12-16)
“I really encourage governments around the world that have got massive deficits to really consider at this point privatizing, you know, selling operating brownfield infrastructure assets, if they can, because they’re going to get extraordinary prices for it, given the wall of money that’s interested in it, and it will help (bring down) deficits.”
Reuters - Howard Schneider (2020-12-16)
In the end, the guard-rails mostly held. The Fed on Wednesday concludes the last Federal Open Market Committee meeting with Trump in the White House. The bank has avoided the sort of reputational damage suffered by many federal agencies, like the Centers for Disease Control or the Environmental Protection Agency, where politics seemed to gain a foothold over technical expertise and original mission.
Bloomberg - Steve Matthews (2020-12-16)
Economists say the Fed may deliver fresh guidance on its asset purchases, now $120 billion a month, tying how long the buying will continue to substantial progress in meeting its goals of full employment and 2% inflation. That would be a stronger commitment than the existing pledge to maintain purchases “over coming months.”
FT - FT (2020-12-14)
When members of the Federal Open Market Committee convene for their final meeting of the year on Tuesday and Wednesday, the fate of the US central bank’s asset purchase programme will be in focus.
G&M - JAN STRUPCZEWSKI AND KATE ABNETT (2020-12-11)
European Union leaders unblocked on Thursday a 1.8 trillion euro financial package to help the economy recover from the pandemic-induced recession after reaching a compromise with Poland and Hungary, the chairman of EU leaders Charles Michel said.
Reuters - David Milliken, Huw Jones (2020-12-11)
The Bank of England took steps on Friday to keep banks lending through 2021 as Britain grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic and braces for any market disruption from a big change in the UK’s trading relationship with the European Union.
Investment Executive - ANITA BALAKRISHNAN (2020-12-11)
The central bank has purchased a little more than $180 billion in Government of Canada bonds since March as part of its quantitative easing, or QE, program. Over the same period, the federal government has rolled out a slew of spending programs to support businesses and consumers amid job losses tied to the Covid-19 pandemic.
FP - Ruchir Sharma (2020-12-10)
Before the U.S., only five powers had enjoyed the coveted “reserve currency” status, going back to the mid-1400s: Portugal, then Spain, the Netherlands, France and Britain. Those reigns lasted 94 years on average. At the start of 2020, the dollar’s run had endured 100 years. That would have been reason to question how much longer it could continue, but for one caveat: the lack of a successor.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-12-10)
Governor Tiff Macklem and his deputies on the Governing Council made explicit mention of the exchange rate for the second consecutive time while updating their interest-rate stance, a signal that the dollar’s recent strength could reduce what Canada might otherwise expect to earn from exports.
BOC - Media Relations (2020-12-10)
The Bank of Canada today maintained its target for the overnight rate at the effective lower bound of ¼ percent, with the Bank Rate at ½ percent and the deposit rate at ¼ percent. The Bank is maintaining its extraordinary forward guidance, reinforced and supplemented by its quantitative easing (QE) program, which continues at its current pace of at least $4 billion per week.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-12-10)
The Bank of Canada has now officially said it could potentially drop the benchmark interest rate below its current setting of 0.25 per cent, while emphasizing that it remains deeply skeptical of negative interest rates.
FP - Diane Francis (2020-12-10)
The bill is part of the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual omnibus defence bill that passed in the House of Representatives by a veto-proof margin, which means that neither the sitting nor future president can overrule it. The Senate is expected to follow.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-12-10)
Bank of Canada deputy governor Paul Beaudry used a key speech Thursday to defend the central bank’s quantitative easing program, seeking to dispel the notion that it is printing money to finance the federal government’s huge deficit.
FP - Reuters (2020-12-09)
“Canada’s recently released medium-term financial roadmap reinforces the likelihood of a rising public debt burden and expansionary fiscal policy without precise details of a return to a fiscal anchor and consolidation,” Fitch Ratings said in an article posted on its website on Monday.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-12-09)
Economists predict the central bank will restate a pledge to hold its overnight interest rate at 0.25% until at least 2023, while continuing bond purchases at the current pace of C$4 billion ($3.1 billion) per week. The bank releases its December policy decision at 10 a.m. in Ottawa.
Bloomberg - Bloomberg (2020-12-09)
China’s yuan weakened minutes before Wednesday’s official close, reversing an earlier gain that had pushed the currency to its strongest level in more than two years.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis and Kait Bolongaro (2020-12-08)
Michael Sabia, a big-name corporate leader who has run the nation’s largest phone company and second-largest pension fund, was appointed deputy minister of finance Monday. The move formalizes the role he’s played since the early days of the pandemic as a top adviser to both Trudeau and his finance minister, Chrystia Freeland.
It also illustrates the extent to which an ambitious fiscal agenda has prevailed in Trudeau’s administration. Sabia has called for spending taps to remain open and isn’t too worried about higher debt. His ambitions are to reshape the economy after the pandemic, in line with the prime minister’s plan to put the state at the center of any recovery.
“If I had a choice between dealing with the deficit of weak infrastructure, or the deficit of a digital divide, or the deficit of significant social inequality, those are all deficits that matter and I think addressing those right now is at least as important as managing our fiscal situation,” Sabia said in a
September interview with TVOntario.
FT - Sam Fleming and Mehreen Khan (2020-12-08)
Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic have reinforced the need to solidify the single currency’s foundations, said the president of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, who will seek to revive the bloc’s long-stalled banking union project this week.
G&M - James Bradshaw (2020-12-08)
Canada’s banking regulator has chosen to leave a key threshold for large banks’ capital reserves unchanged, even as it warned that the country’s financial system still has vulnerabilities and faces uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Canadian Underwriter - David Gambrill (2020-12-07)
Canada’s solvency regulator has come out with a softer version of its proposed rule regarding the property and casualty insurance industry’s issuance of high-limit policies.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-12-07)
Decisions on the calibration of the buffer are based on OSFI supervisory judgement, informed by its monitoring and analytical work on a range of vulnerabilities, and are made in consultation with OSFI's federal financial regulatory partners.
FP - Jack M. Mintz (2020-12-04)
The fiscal update does not say by how much each dollar of government spending increases GDP but during the pandemic it must be low. Household incomes rose by 13 per cent during the downturn, more than in any other OECD country (even the U.S. during its election year). But despite all this new money, households did not spend more. Instead, our household saving rate jumped by 23 per cent of personal disposable income, more than in any other country. The update spins this embarrassing fact by saying Canadians were getting a “down payment” now to spend later.
Reuters - Pete Schroeder (2020-12-04)
The largest U.S. bank lobby group is spending $1 million on television ads to boost Republican Senator David Perdue, in a bid to ensure the Senate remains in Republican hands after Georgia runoffs in January, according to federal filings.
Reuters - Paul Sandle (2020-12-04)
More than 400 lawmakers from 34 countries have signed a letter to Amazon.com Inc boss Jeff Bezos backing a campaign that claims the tech giant has “dodged and dismissed … debts to workers, societies, and the planet,” organisers said.
G&M - Andrew Willis (2020-12-03)
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is looking outside her own department for the new second-in-command who will help steer Canada’s economy through the pandemic and the $100-billion stimulus spending campaign that will follow.
Reuters - Leika Kihara (2020-12-03)
Under its yield curve control policy, the BOJ seeks to keep short-term interest rates at around -0.1% and 10-year bond yields around zero as part of efforts to revive the economy with low borrowing costs.
G&M - Patrick Brethour (2020-12-02)
Statistics Canada data show that primary household income, or private-sector earnings, barely dropped between the first quarter of 2020 and third quarter, falling by just 1 per cent, or $15.2-billion to $1.52-trillion. But transfers from government, which include existing programs such as employment insurance plus new coronavirus-era programs, made up for that drop many times over. Those transfers rose by $103.8-billion from the first quarter to the third quarter, meaning that the government effectively gave households nearly $7 for each dollar of lost private-sector income. Those figures are seasonally adjusted and stated on an annualized basis.
G&M - Rob Carrick (2020-12-02)
In a year of plenty, we’d shrug off the coming increase in the amount of our paycheques that goes toward Canada Pension Plan premiums.
FP - Barbara Shecter (2020-11-30)
In Manitoba, for example, businesses are permitted to sell only essential items such as food and pharmaceuticals regardless of the full inventory they carry, she said. Meanwhile, Ontario’s restrictions for the hot zones Toronto and nearby Peel permit big-box businesses to be fully open as long as they also sell some items deemed essential.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-11-30)
Governor Tiff Macklem brushed off accusations the Bank of Canada is financing Justin Trudeau’s deficits and fueling inflation risks, even as he acknowledged there are limits to how much government debt it can buy.
Investment Executive - Rudy Mezzetta (2020-11-30)
Under OTIP, a whistleblower program launched in 2014, the CRA provides financial rewards to individuals who come forward with information related to major international tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance that lead to the collection of taxes owing.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-11-30)
“We already see some stimulus bleeding into next year, with current announcements bringing the deficit to at least $90 billion in 2021-2022,” it said, noting that extensions of existing government supports could add $40 billion to deficits through the end of 2021 “even before new spending announcements.”
G&M - Kathleen Harris (2020-11-30)
The short-term stimulus package is valued at $70 billion to $100 billion over roughly three years. The government says the stimulus spending — intended to build a greener, more inclusive, more innovative and competitive economy — will launch after a vaccine is distributed and life begins to return to normal.
FP - CP (2020-11-27)
Provincial finance ministers have quietly prodded Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to pause planned increases in premiums workers and businesses pay into the Canada Pension Plan.
Reuters - Pete Schroeder, Michelle Price, Katanga Johnson (2020-11-27)
The CFPB director is a critical role for progressives such as Senator Elizabeth Warren who believe the agency can help tackle wealth inequality and racial injustice. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June handed Biden the power to fire Republican President Donald Trump’s CFPB director, Kathy Kraninger, and many policy experts expect the former vice president to quickly remove her after he takes office on Jan. 20.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-11-27)
In parliamentary testimony on Thursday, Macklem faced questions from opposition Conservative Party lawmakers over the central bank’s quantitative easing program, which has been used to buy nearly C$200 billion ($154 billion) in federal government bonds since April.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-11-27)
The Basel Committee noted that it began working on the capital rules for non-performing loan securitizations before the onset of Covid-19.
G&M - Staff (2020-11-25)
Canada’s banking regulator is cautioning against lifting restrictions on banks’ dividend payments and share buybacks too soon as cases of the novel coronavirus spike again.
G&M - KONRAD YAKABUSKI (2020-11-25)
In nominating Janet Yellen to become his Treasury secretary, president-elect Joe Biden has opted for a steady hand and consensus-builder to steer U.S. fiscal policy just as economists increasingly warn the country is poised to slip back into recession.
FP - Shelly Hagan (2020-11-25)
Signs of overwhelming financial strain are few, and the risk of a wave of consumer defaults seems low, Deputy Governor Toni Gravelle said in remarks via video conference to the Autorite des marches financiers. Almost all of the households with expired debt deferrals have resumed repayments, and government measures are helping businesses in many sectors manage cash flows, he said.
Irish Times - Aime Williams, Hannah Murphy, Victor Mallet (2020-11-25)
FT - Mehreen Khan, Siobhan Riding (2020-11-25)
Emily O’Reilly, the EU’s independent ombudsman, on Wednesday said the European Commission’s decision to give the world’s largest fund manager a contract worth €280,000 had exposed the weakness of Brussels procedures on conflicts of interest when hiring from the private sector to advise on major policy areas.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-11-25)
In the first quarter that was reported after the onset of the pandemic, we hit what I like to call the “downturn trifecta”: [1] Loan growth rose (supporting the economy). [2] Loan loss provisions went up (because of the downturn). And [3] market participants were unconcerned by the decline in bank capital levels. This was a textbook example of how the capital regime should work during a downturn, one where the banking system is able to absorb shocks rather than forced to amplify them.
G&M - Bill Curry (2020-11-24)
The federal government has spent nearly $5-million on outside consultants to set up a COVID-19 emergency support program for large companies that has delivered just two loans since launching six months ago.
FP - Kate Bolongaro (2020-11-24)
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told lawmakers Monday that her department will release new deficit projections on Nov. 30. The economic statement could also include details of new permanent spending on long-term priorities including childcare.
Reuters - Jeff Mason, Trevor Hunnicutt (2020-11-24)
After weeks of waiting, President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday cleared the way for President-elect Joe Biden to transition to the White House, giving him access to briefings and funding even as Trump vowed to continue fighting the election results.
Reuters - Trevor Hunnicutt, David Lawder (2020-11-24)
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to nominate former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as U.S. Treasury secretary, breaking a 231-year gender barrier and putting a seasoned economist and labor market expert in charge of leading the country out of the steepest downturn since the Great Depression.
Bloomberg - Joe Mayes, Kait Bolongaro, Tim Ross, and Shelly Hagan (2020-11-19)
The agreement would be a major boost to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson in his efforts to plot a new course for Britain as a global trading nation outside the EU. An announcement is expected within days, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition they not be identified.
CBC - Jordan Press (2020-11-18)
Canada's top central banker is making a plea for the country to more quickly address the impacts of climate change to avoid any economic ripple effects on households and businesses.
Bloomberg - Chiara Albanese and Sonia Sirletti (2020-11-18)
The government decided not to extend into 2021 a tax benefit introduced earlier this year to facilitate the disposal of non-performing loans held on the balance sheets of Italian banks. Lenders and customers have been severely hit by the pandemic crisis.
G&M - Robert Fife (2020-11-18)
Facing parliamentary pressure to stand up to Beijing’s use of covert agents to target Canadians, Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne says Ottawa is planning new measures to crack down on these kinds of intimidation tactics.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-11-16)
Ms. Wilkins sat down for an interview via video conference just days after she had informed the bank’s board that she would step down Dec. 9, five months before the end of her seven-year term – ending a nearly 20-year career at the central bank.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-11-16)
The most skittish currency traders will have taken note. The Bank of Canada has only mentioned the dollar in nine of its 23 policy statements since the start of 2018, so policy-makers might have been sending a signal that they thought the dollar was getting too strong: a form of stimulus known as “jawboning” or “jaw-jaw” that has been known to to move markets in favourable directions.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-11-16)
The Bank of Canada and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) today announced plans for a pilot project to use climate-change scenarios to better understand the risks to the financial system related to a transition to a low-carbon economy. A small group of institutions from the banking and insurance sectors will participate voluntarily in the project.
FP - Alexander Weber (2020-11-13)
The ECB took a major step last month by launching a public consultation that runs until the middle of January. Policy makers intend to decide around mid-2021 whether to initiate a full-fledged project and prepare for a possible launch.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-11-13)
The Bank of Canada’s top deputy said the country is likely to come out of the pandemic with a lower outlook for potential growth and permanent labor force scarring, and that conventional wisdom must be challenged to find solutions.
Investment Executive - David McHugh (2020-11-13)
Speaking at an online conference held by the European Central Bank, Powell, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey and European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde emphasized the longer-term threat to the economy from the pandemic while welcoming the preliminary results showing a vaccine by BioNTech and Pfizer was highly effective.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-11-13)
“Our analysis indicates that maintaining current fee levels and leveraging our cash position will ensure that we can continue to deliver on our priorities,” the OSC said.
Reuters - Staff (2020-11-12)
The European Union called on Beijing on Thursday to immediately reverse new rules to disqualify elected legislators, saying the decision was a “severe blow” to the former British colony’s autonomy.
FT - Claire Jones (2020-11-12)
The Bank of Amsterdam is to central banking history what Little Richard is to rock ‘n’ roll. While the public might like to think it was Elvis or the Fab Four that invented it, the purists know they merely popularised it.
FP - Gabriel Friedman (2020-11-11)
In terms of Canada’s economic recovery, Poloz said that the government’s income support programs have been critical because it’s people on the lower end of the income scale who have been hurt the worst in this crisis. He sees a K-shaped economic recovery — in which some parts of the economy bounced back, but other parts may be in serious trouble.
Bloomberg - Masaki Kondo (2020-11-10)
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s growing dominance of its bond market is sparking unfavorable comparisons with Japan.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-11-10)
Citing further improvement in financial market conditions, the Bank of Canada is continuing to pull back liquidity support programs that were adopted in response to the disruptions caused by Covid-19.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-11-10)
Among other things, the report warned that the registry’s identification information isn’t actively verified, that the searchability and discoverability of information is “unreasonably restricted,” and that the penalties for filing false information are unlikely to serve as a meaningful deterrent.
Investment Executive - CP (2020-11-09)
Based on the budget officer’s calculations, the government could increase spending, reduce taxes, or a combination of the two to the tune of $19 billion and still reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio over time to pre-pandemic levels.
Youtube - Nigel Farage video (2020-11-09)
I am back in the UK giving my latest update on lockdown Britain and the US election.
G&M - Andrew Willis (2020-11-09)
The federal Liberals are embracing support for Canada’s airlines after being told domestic carriers are losing their most lucrative line of business – international flights – to government-backed rivals.
G&M - Mark Rendell, James Bradshaw (2020-11-05)
Canadian business leaders are preparing to navigate political gridlock south of the border, with the U.S. Congress appearing to split between the Democrats and Republicans, reducing the likelihood of a strong policy shift to the left.
G&M - AP (2020-11-05)
Democrat Joe Biden moved closer to victory in the U.S. presidential race on Thursday as election officials tallied votes in the handful of states that will determine the outcome and protesters took to the streets.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-11-05)
With Carolyn Wilkins moving on when her term ends May 1, the Ottawa-based central bank published the job posting Wednesday. The search for her replacement will be undertaken by recruiting firm Boyden.
Bloomberg - Why Central Bankers Got Serious About Digital Cash (2020-11-05)
What central banks once sneered at, they’re now scrambling to master. Back when Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency, was seen as the province of anarchists and drug dealers, it was easy for the world’s central bankers to keep their distance. That changed in a hurry after Facebook Inc. proposed creating its own digital currency, Libra. Suddenly, the concept was seen as both practical and as a potential threat to existing monetary regimes. The central banks of China, the euro area, the Bahamas and others have been experimenting in the field, while others, including the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of England, are conducting research but not plunging in, at least for now.
1. What was so alarming about Libra?
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-11-05)
Carolyn Wilkins, the Bank of Canada’s second-in-command, has decided to leave the bank in early December, five months before the end of her term.
G&M - HOWARD SCHNEIDER AND ANN SAPHIR (2020-11-05)
The Federal Reserve kept its loose monetary policy intact on Thursday and pledged again to do whatever it can in coming months to sustain a U.S. economic recovery threatened by a spreading coronavirus pandemic and facing uncertainty over a still undecided presidential election.
Investment Executive - Martin Crutsinger (2020-11-05)
The Fed announced no new actions after its latest policy meeting but left the door open to provide further assistance in the coming months. The central bank again pledged to use its “full range of tools to support the U.S. economy in this challenging time.” The economy in recent weeks has weakened after mounting a tentative recovery from the deep pandemic recession in early spring.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-11-05)
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) continues to actively monitor the evolving pandemic and assess its impacts on the financial and operational capacity of deposit-taking institutions, or DTIs.
G&M - Patrick Brethour (2020-11-05)
Ontario’s finances were sustainable, if only narrowly, before the pandemic hit.
G&M - Patrick Brethour (2020-11-04)
The United States is already on a perilous fiscal path, with unending deficits forecast and the national debt headed to its highest level in the history of the republic by the end of the decade.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-11-04)
Those comments will have bothered a lot of people. Poilievre politicized a Crown institution that worries a great deal about its independence from the whims of partisan politics. Much of its credibility relies on the assumption that policy-makers will set interest rates based on economic conditions, not the electoral needs of their political masters.
BankNews.TV - Mark Sibthorpe (2020-11-04)
This video is intended to give viewers an understanding of the economic ideas behind Canada's potential housing bubble. This video also explains why Siddal, President and CEO of the CMHC, was likely pushed from his post.
G&M - Clare O'Hara (2020-11-04)
This is the view of several former chairs of the Ontario Securities Commission and the current head of the province’s modernization task force, on the future of the two self-regulatory organizations (SROs) that oversee Canada’s investment advisory industry.
Bloomberg - Dana Khraiche (2020-11-03)
FT - Joseph Cotterill (2020-11-03)
When South African president Cyril Ramaphosa recently extolled in parliament his government’s provision of R500bn ($31bn) to steer the nation’s battered economy through the pandemic, there was some awkward fine print for the country’s banks.
FT - Tommy Stubbington (2020-11-03)
Investors are beginning to question how long the Bank of England can rely on bond buying as its main tool for stimulating the UK economy. Markets are braced for the BoE to announce a fresh round of quantitative easing at its policy meeting on Thursday, with many economists pencilling in an extra £100bn of purchases on top of the £300bn announced so far this year, to tackle the economic impact of a resurgence of Covid-19.
G&M - Andrew Coyne (2020-11-01)
First, the good news. The Finance Minister of Canada is not, contrary to rumours, an advocate of Modern Monetary Theory. Neither is she a disciple of Ayn Rand.
Banking Exchange - Jeffrey Wagner (2020-11-01)
On October 8, 2020, the SBA and Treasury issued an Interim Final Rule eliminating forgiveness reductions resulting from either a reduction in a borrower's number of full-time equivalent employees or individual employee pay if the borrower's loan (when aggregated with PPP loans to any of its affiliates) does not exceed $50,000.
CBC - Kory Teneycke (2020-10-30)
Despite these limitations, the Buffalo Party finished third overall in the popular vote and scored strong second-place victories in four bedrock Conservative ridings.
FP - Barbara Schecter (2020-10-30)
A charter unveiled Thursday by a newly created branch of the Ontario Securities Commission lays the groundwork for new forms of capital raising, more avenues for innovators and a reduced regulatory burden.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-10-29)
The Bank of Canada is setting up to run a high-pressure economy until at least 2023, a delicate operation that will require lots of tinkering along the way.
Coindesk - Sebastian Sinclair (2020-10-29)
In an interview with Reuters published Thursday, Bank of Canada (BoC) Governor Tiff Macklem said his institution is working with G7 member states on its plans for a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
FP - Terence Corcoran (2020-10-28)
The last monetary report in July was a grim synopsis of looming economic decline. To quote one passage: “The large declines in both demand and supply are extraordinary. Over a longer horizon, the pandemic could cause large and lasting changes in consumer preferences and other sources of demand. Similarly, the scope of possible structural changes to a post-pandemic economy is vast, and the timing of adjustments will remain unknowable as long as COVID-19 continues to be a threat.”
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-10-28)
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-10-28)
The Bank of Canada said it will reduce its Canadian government bond purchases to $4-billion a week while shifting more of its purchases to longer-term bonds, as the bank recalibrates its quantitative easing to deliver stimulus to an economy that it cautions is headed into a slowing and less certain phase of recovery.
Central 1 - Helmut Pastrick (2020-10-28)
The Bank of Canada’s monetary stance was little changed following today’s announcement except for an adjustment to its bond-buying program. The Bank is focusing on longer-term bond maturities, which have more infl uence on household and business borrowing costs, than shorter-term bonds and treasury bills. In addition, their weekly bond purchases will be reduced to four billion per week from fi ve billion. The Bank purchased shorter-term fi nancial assets in the early stage of the pandemic to provide liquidity to the market but that is no longer required and the Bank’s shift to longer-term bonds is intended to support and promote economic growth.
G&M - Josh O'Kane (2020-10-26)
Canadian news publishers want government approval to seek compensation from digital giants such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google for using their content, including the power to bargain as an industry to negotiate the terms.
WSJ - Greg IP, Ken Thomas (2020-10-26)
Many executives see the Democratic nominee as less adversarial than Sanders or Warren, and less unpredictable than Trump. Yet political attitudes vary considerably by industry and type of business.
FT - Robert Armstrong, Joe Rennison (2020-10-26)
These are tough times in the real estate market. The Covid-19 crisis has hit asset values, particularly commercial real estate in cities such as New York. Investors holding debt with upcoming maturities are preparing for tricky negotiations with their debtors. The negotiations will be trickier if the debtor is the president of the United States. Virtually all of Donald Trump’s debt — there is at least $1.1bn of it, according to his government financial disclosures and other documents — is backed by real estate, mostly linked to a small number of buildings and golf courses that form the core of the Trump business empire. About $900m of that debt will come due in Mr Trump’s second term, should he win the November 3 presidential election.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-10-26)
Balancing a stronger-than-expected economic rebound with a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank of Canada looks unlikely to make any dramatic moves in this week’s monetary policy decision. But the financial markets will nevertheless be looking for hints on where the central bank will take its highly stimulative policy position from here.
FP - Theophilos Argitis (2020-10-26)
Market operation data from the Bank of Canada show benchmark bonds — those currently being sold by the government, as opposed to older debt — are making up a growing share of the central bank’s secondary market purchases.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-10-26)
In a research note, NBF said the bank’s policy rate is expected to remain at its rock-bottom level of 0.25% at its rate decision on Wednesday, and likely until 2023 at least.
FP - Martin Pelletier (2020-10-22)
That appears to be the case here in Canada, where the Liberal minority government — backstopped by the NDP — is looking to implement massive, costly programs including a national daycare system, pharmacare, affordable housing and green initiatives.
Reuters - David Henry (2020-10-22)
Banks were big beneficiaries of tax cuts under President Donald Trump, making a reversal seem ominous. But a second look at what might happen if Biden were to win the election and Democrats were to win control of the U.S. Senate suggests the pain might not be so bad.
G&M - JASON CLEMENS AND MILAGROS PALACIOS (2020-10-22)
The federal government and several prominent economists have played down the near-term risks to federal finances. Some have actually characterized Ottawa’s financial position as basically “sound.” Such analyses are premised on questionable assumptions and ignore the country’s past experiences with perennial deficits.
Investment Executive - AP (2020-10-22)
The government borrowed a net 36.1 billion pounds (US$47.1 billion) in September, pushing the total for the first six months of the year to 208.5 billion pounds, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Wednesday. That’s the highest figure since records began in 1993.
G&M - Patrick Brethour (2020-10-20)
The Liberal government’s expansive spending plans would push the federal debt burden back to the dangerous levels of the 1990s over the next decade, according to a report from one of the architects of Ottawa’s successful effort to defuse Canada’s debt crisis a quarter century ago.
G&M - MARIEKE WALSH, PAUL WALDIE (2020-10-20)
The Liberals are threatening opposition parties with an election if the Conservatives move ahead Tuesday with their attempt to create a special “anti-corruption” committee in the House of Commons.
G&M - MICHAEL BALSAMO AND MARCY GORDON (2020-10-20)
The Justice Department on Tuesday sued Google for antitrust violations, alleging that it abused its dominance in online search and advertising to stifle competition and harm consumers.
Bloomberg - Kait Bolongaro (2020-10-20)
Justin Trudeau warned opposition lawmakers they will trigger an election in Canada if they approve the creation of an “anti-corruption” committee.
CBC - Don Pittis (2020-10-19)
New research by two of Canada's most credible analytic agencies appears to prove that critics — who have complained that inflation data has been distorted by COVID-19 both here and in the U.S. — actually got it right.
CBC - CBC (2020-10-19)
The mortgage bond program accomplished this by having the central bank buy up billions of dollars worth of insured mortgages from lenders and move them on to its balance sheet, which makes it easier for lenders to go out and lend money to someone else.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-10-19)
The Bank of Canada’s mandate is up for renewal next year, and this time will be different. The central bank has set a new standard for how an arm’s length Crown corporation should engage with the people it ultimately serves.
Bloomberg - Kait Bolongaro and Theophilos Argitis (2020-10-19)
Justin Trudeau’s Covid-19 support programs gave Canada one of the world’s largest budget deficits, and now the prime minister is ready to test public appetite for more red ink.
Bloomberg - Rich Miller (2020-10-19)
The Federal Reserve and other central banks will eventually discover that breaking up isn’t easy after partnering with their governments and the financial markets to avert a pandemic-driven depression.
G&M - Barry R Campbell (2020-10-19)
A group of seven central banks, including Canada’s, have issued a statement indicating they are working together on common principles and key features for a viable central bank digital currency, or CBDC.
Investment Executive - Alizee Calza (2020-10-19)
Every five years, the Bank of Canada renews its agreement on the country’s inflation-control target. The BoC is due to announce its new framework in 2021, and this time around, it has asked Canadians for their opinions.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-10-19)
In a release, the bank said that while new risk-free rates (such as CORRA) are expected to become the primary financial benchmarks around the world, they are not necessarily ideal for all products, “so having robust credit-sensitive benchmarks may also be desirable,” it said.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-10-19)
OSFI said this new approach to AML supervision reflects an effort to “eliminate duplication” and reduce the regulatory burden.
BBC - BBC (2020-10-19)
Reality Check verdict: It's true the economy was doing well prior to the pandemic - continuing a trend which began during the Obama administration - but there have been periods when it was much stronger.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis and Kait Bolongaro (2020-10-16)
Canada’s main opposition party is cautioning the central bank against financing Justin Trudeau’s spending plans beyond immediate pandemic emergency measures, thrusting the Bank of Canada into a political firestorm.
BILL CURRY AND CHRIS HANNAY - Canada Infrastructure Bank paid $3.8-million for terminations amid leadership shakeup (2020-10-14)
The Canada Infrastructure Bank paid $3.8-million in termination benefits as part of a major shakeup of the organization’s senior management, documents show.
G&M - Reuters (2020-10-14)
The IMF forecasts a partial and uneven recovery in 2021, with global growth expected to reach 5.2 per cent, but warns that significant risks remain, including the resurgence of the virus.
G&M - David Lawder (2020-10-14)
Massive government spending to battle the coronavirus pandemic will push public debt to a record of nearly 100 per cent of global economic output this year, but the run-up may be a one-off event if growth rebounds next year, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.
CBC - CP (2020-10-14)
A Bank of Canada official says pandemic-related shifts in how people shop means central banks must speed up work on creating their own digital currencies.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-10-14)
“Relying on the conventional media to diffuse their message to the public can be ineffective because many households no longer read newspapers and even if they do, individuals discount reports from the news media,” the authors said in their paper.
FP - Shelly Hagan (2020-10-13)
The former governor, who stepped down from the Bank of Canada after his term ended in June and is currently a special adviser at law firm Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP, cited a report on Tuesday by the International Monetary Fund that estimated Canada’s general government gross debt will rise to 115 per cent of gross domestic product this year, from 89 per cent in 2019. Policy makers don’t have much experience with such large numbers, but provided interest rates stay low, it’s more of a “debt service issue,” Poloz said.
Reuters - Mark Sobel (2020-10-13)
Earlier this year, the U.S. Commerce Department issued a regulation that allows duties to be applied on imports from countries whose currencies are deemed to be undervalued. Already, with the help of a Treasury Department undervaluation finding against the Vietnamese dong, Commerce is pursuing such a case against Vietnamese tires. A Treasury finding in a Chinese tie-twist case may soon be reached. Others may be next in line.
Bloomberg - Esteban Duarte (2020-10-13)
Sky News - Video (2020-10-13)
The advanced governments of the world are conducting an extraordinary economic experiment and think there’s no cost to debt, but “it’s not going to end well”, according to the Australian’s Adam Creighton.
G&M - Reuters (2020-10-12)
Britain’s government on Sunday urged businesses to prepare for the end of the Brexit transition period, saying that they need to take action whether or not a trade deal with the European Union is clinched.
G&M - HUW JONES AND WILLIAM SCHOMBERG (2020-10-12)
The Bank of England asked banks on Monday how ready they are for zero or negative interest rates, following up its announcement last month that it was considering how to take rates below zero if necessary.
Reuters - Huw Jones (2020-10-12)
Central banks set out to regulate cross-border stablecoins like Facebook’s planned Libra with a common approach on Tuesday, saying more rules may later be needed to ensure stability.
Bloomberg - Alaa Shahine (2020-10-12)
A rare regime-change in economic policy is under way that’s edging central bankers out of the pivotal role they have played for decades.
Fiscal policy, which fell out of fashion as an engine of economic growth during the inflationary 1970s, has been front-and-center in the fight against Covid-19. Governments have subsidized wages, mailed checks to households and guaranteed loans for business. They’ve run up record budget deficits on the way -- an approach that economists have gradually come to support, ever since the last big crash in 2008 ushered in a decade of tepid growth.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-10-08)
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem acknowledged that the central bank’s adoption of record-low interest rates to fight the COVID-19 economic crisis has elevated the country’s financial risks, warning that “the next few months will be crucial” in determining how well Canadian households and businesses weather the strains from the crisis.
G&M - Jeremy Kronick (2020-10-08)
A global pandemic that has crushed the economy. A stock market improbably rising in an economic downturn. Is it the job of the Bank of Canada to address this contradiction, and the inequality that arises?
G&M - Iain Withers, Anna Irrera, Tom Wilson (2020-10-08)
China is seeking to win a first-mover advantage in its efforts to develop a digital version of its currency, Japan’s top financial diplomat said on Thursday.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-10-08)
“As much as a bold policy response was needed, it will inevitably make the economy and financial system more vulnerable to economic shocks down the road,” Tiff Macklem said in a speech on Oct. 8.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-10-08)
“We are not actively discussing negative interest rates at this point but it’s in our toolkit and never say never,” Macklem said Thursday via videoconference, after a speech to the Global Risk Institute.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-10-07)
Starting Oct. 20, the central bank will allow buy-side firms, such as portfolio managers and pension funds, to participate in its corporate bond purchase program (CBPP).
Investment Executive - Martin Crutsinger (2020-10-07)
The Fed’s statement incorporated a policy change the central bank announced in August in which it will allow inflation to rise above its 2% target for a period of time to make up for the extended period over the past decade that annual inflation has been below the 2% target. That change is seen as allowing to keep interest rates lower for a longer period.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-10-07)
According to a new report from the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the pandemic has created “significant challenges” for the ongoing effort to improve oversight of the global financial system — a project known as the G20 Data Gaps Initiative (DGI).
OSFI - OSFI (2020-10-07)
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) today released its Annual Report. The report covers OSFI’s activities from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020 and also details the progress made in delivering the first year of OSFI’s 2019-2022 Strategic Plan
BOC - Tiff Macklem (2020-10-07)
The Global Risk Institute and the evolution of risks during a pandemic - Tiff Macklem, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, speaks by videoconference at the Global Risk Institute’s 10th anniversary Summit. (8:30 (Eastern Time) approx.)
Investment Executive - Christopher Rugaber (2020-10-06)
Powell said that government support — including expanded unemployment insurance payments, direct payments to most U.S. households and financial support for small businesses — has so far prevented a recessionary “downward spiral” in which job losses would reduce spending, forcing businesses to cut even more jobs.
RT - RT (2020-10-06)
Arguing that the Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are not negotiating in good faith, US President Donald Trump has broken off talks on the new coronavirus stimulus package, saying he will pass one after he wins re-election.
FT - Nicholas Megaw, George Hammond, Matthew Vincent and Jim Pickard (2020-10-06)
The banking industry on Tuesday warned against irresponsible lending after Boris Johnson pledged to “turn generation rent into generation buy” through a big increase in low-deposit mortgages for first-time buyers.
G&M - KONRAD YAKABUSKI (2020-10-06)
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem shares with his counterparts in the developed world the burden of having to compensate for the failures of markets and governments.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-10-05)
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem warned that the spectre of rising inequality in employment and incomes poses the biggest threat to a healthy, broad-based recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, as the economy stages what he called an “uneven” rebound from its pandemic lows.
Macleans - Paul Wells (2020-10-05)
It’s funny the various ways expectations can shrink. Here were Justin Trudeau and Catherine McKenna announcing a new plan for the Canada Infrastructure Bank, which is a novel organization designed to turn $35 billion from the federal government into widespread confusion and apathy.
Reuters - Julie Gordon (2020-10-05)
The throwback game, along with the Bank of Jamaica’s reggae music videos and the European Central Bank’s podcast series, is an example of how global central banks are getting creative in delivering their messages directly to the public they serve.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-10-03)
Tiff Macklem, the Bank of Canada’s new Governor, knows that his reputation for cool in the face of a crisis was one of the things that won him the job. He earned it in the trenches of the previous global financial crisis, where, as part of the country’s inner circle dealing with the emergency, his clear thinking and international Rolodex helped safely steer Canada’s economy and financial system from potential disaster.
G&M - Bill Curry (2020-10-01)
The priority investment areas are part of the bank’s new corporate plan, which is called the “Growth Plan.”
FP - Jack M. Mintz (2020-10-01)
Judging from Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s Sunday interview on Global TV, I suspect she did not have a good week. She was stuck defending the throne speech’s breathtaking permanent spending plans. Her replies, almost refuting the Liberal promises, failed to allay concerns over the growing mountain of debt and taxes implied by the burgeoning federal budget.
Reuters - Stanley White, Noel Randewich (2020-09-30)
Many investors view Biden as more likely to raise taxes, and see a second term for Trump, who favors tax cuts and deregulation, as better for the overall stock market. At the same time, a Trump win could spark concerns over ramped up tensions between Washington and Beijing.
G&M - Pete Schroeder (2020-09-30)
The U.S. Federal Reserve will curb big bank capital distributions through the end of the year, meaning the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. will be barred from share buybacks and will have to cap dividends.
FP - JEREMY KRONICK AND STEVE AMBLER (2020-09-30)
On Aug. 27, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board announced an important modification of its monetary policy framework, moving towards “average-inflation targeting” (AIT). As the Fed’s announcement said: “following periods when inflation has been running persistently below two per cent, appropriate monetary policy will likely aim to achieve inflation moderately above two per cent for some time.” The obvious question for Canadian policy-makers is whether the Bank of Canada should follow suit. Our answer is: Perhaps, but the bar for changing the policy regime should be set high.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-09-28)
The U.S. entered the Great Recession with a lower jobless rate — five per cent in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared with 5.8 per cent in Canada, according to Statistics Canada’s comparable measure of unemployment — but fortunes reversed in June, as the global financial system started to tremble.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-09-28)
This reform agenda is made up of five inter-related areas: first, building more resilient financial institutions; second, ending too-big-to-fail; third, making derivatives markets safer; fourth, enhancing resilience of non-bank financial intermediation; and fifth, making progress in other areas, such as the rollout of new accounting standards for expected credit losses and a focus on audit quality.
G&M - Jeffrey Jones (2020-09-28)
Proponents of a $22-billion railway linking Alberta and Alaska can start work on a host of Canadian and U.S. approvals it will require after Donald Trump announced that he will issue a presidential permit allowing the border crossing.
FP - FP (2020-09-24)
Canadian media groups say they are cautiously optimistic after the Liberal government pledged in Wednesday’s Throne Speech to make internet giants pay for content they use from local newspapers, broadcasters and other creators such as musicians.
FP - Terence Corcoran (2020-09-24)
Even the deficits are downplayed on the grounds that with interest rates near zero, the cost of raising total government debt to $1.2 trillion can be kicked down the road. Tomorrow is another day, when the debt can be paid off as the economy blossoms from massive distributions of government fertilizer.
Bloomberg - Estaban Duarte (2020-09-23)
As Justin Trudeau prepares to reveal his new policy agenda, credit rating companies and investors including BlackRock Inc. are looking for his plan for pulling Canada out of a record borrowing binge.
FP - Colin McClelland (2020-09-22)
The government forecast in July the country’s fiscal deficit will hit $334 billion or 15.9 per cent of gross domestic product by March. Yet, the economy has recovered around two-thirds of jobs lost at the height of the pandemic’s economic impact in March and April while reports show improving retail sales and robust housing market in most regions.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-09-22)
Wilkins, who had been elevated from the rank of adviser to second-in-command two years earlier, delivered the opening statement at the central bank’s quarterly press conference as Stephen Poloz, the governor, sat quietly by her side.
G&M - Josh O'Kane (2020-09-21)
More than 1,200 restaurants have banded together to ask Ottawa for more robust and long-term pandemic programs, including wage subsidies and rent relief, in next Wednesday’s Speech from the Throne, as they repeat a warning that three in five Canadian restaurants could close for good this fall.
Bloomberg - Kait Bolongaro (2020-09-21)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to unveil a new plan to try to contain the spread of Covid-19 and recharge Canada’s pandemic-battered economy, according to a senior government official.
The broad themes in this week’s so-called Throne Speech -- which outlines his government’s priorities -- will be a focus on the immediate task of tackling the coronavirus, a medium-term commitment to support Canadians through the pandemic and a “resiliency agenda” to spur recovery and reconstruction.
Trudeau’s agenda won’t establish budget targets, which will be left for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to detail later this year in a fiscal update, the official said, speaking on condition they not be identified because the document isn’t yet public.
Wednesday’s speech is one of the most anticipated in Trudeau’s five years in power, with questions mounting over how his governing Liberals plan to navigate their next policy steps amid surging Covid-19 case numbers and soaring budget deficits.
FT - Tommy Stubbington (2020-09-21)
European banks have loaded up on more than €200bn of their own governments’ bonds since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, in a move that could reawaken fears about the sector’s growing stockpiles of risky sovereign debt.
FT - James Politi (2020-09-18)
The US Federal Reserve is considering whether to extend restrictions on dividends and share buybacks that it imposed on large banks after determining that the pandemic could trigger up to $700bn in losses for the lenders. The US central bank had acted in June to ban share buybacks by the banks and cap their dividends for the third quarter. It said at the time that the large banks were “sufficiently capitalised” but that “heightened economic uncertainty” meant they should act “to preserve their capital levels in the third quarter”.
WSJ - Andrew Ackerman (2020-09-18)
The Federal Reserve will analyze large banks’ ability to withstand two coronavirus-related recession scenarios as part of a second round of stress tests later this year, the central bank said.
CBC - AP (2020-09-17)
The U.S. Federal Reserve adjusted its inflation target to seek price increases above two per cent annually, a move that will likely keep interest rates low for years to come.
Reuters - Staff (2020-09-17)
“With PM Johnson likely to continue his high-stakes negotiating strategy, we no longer think a deal can be struck before year-end. We now see an 80% probability of a No Deal,” they said in a note.
Reuters - Leika Kihara, Tetsushi Kajimoto (2020-09-17)
The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Thursday and slightly upgraded its view on the economy, suggesting that no immediate expansion of stimulus was needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
Bloomberg - Nicholas Comfort and Alexander Weber (2020-09-17)
The coronavirus pandemic “has resulted in an ongoing need for a high degree of monetary policy accommodation, which in turn requires the undeterred functioning of the bank-based transmission channel of monetary policy,” the Governing Council said in an opinion laying the ground for the decision.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-09-17)
Carolyn Wilkins, the highest-ranking woman in the Bank of Canada’s history who was passed over for the top job of governor this year, has decided to leave the bank when her term as senior deputy governor ends next May.
G&M - Steven Chase (2020-09-15)
Canada this week will unveil the retaliatory measures it’s taking against the United States after President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on Canadian aluminum in August.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-09-15)
For the second time in two months, the Bank of Canada has slashed its buying of federal government treasury bills and similar short-term provincial debt as it continues to scale back some of the emergency market supports it put in place to lean hard against the COVID-19 crisis.
G&M - KONRAD YAKABUSKI (2020-09-15)
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem last week provided a further illustration of the disturbing mission creep under way at the central bank by wading into the political debate over income inequality.
G&M - Diane Bellemare (2020-09-15)
Many economists, including myself, believe that it is time to broaden the Bank of Canada’s mandate to include the pursuit of maximum levels of employment or full employment. It’s not a new idea. Australia, the United States and New Zealand have legislated that the mandate of their central banks is both price stability and full employment.
G&M - Reuters (2020-09-14)
“Confidence in the private sector rests to a very large extent on confidence in fiscal policies,” Ms. Lagarde said in a speech. “Continued expansionary fiscal policies are vital to avoid excessive job shedding and support household incomes until the economic recovery is more robust.”
G&M - Geoffrey York (2020-09-14)
Canada’s export bank says it will not disclose the findings of an internal review of business dealings by Paul Lamontagne, chief executive of its development finance subsidiary, who left last week after less than three years in the post.
FT - Robert Armstrong (2020-09-14)
The prospect of a Joe Biden presidency — or, more to the point, a Democratic sweep of the presidency, the House and the Senate — should worry executives who run banks and anyone who invests in them.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-09-11)
The Bank of Canada plans to maintain extraordinary stimulus for as long as needed to help the nation’s economy fully recover from the crisis, Governor Tiff Macklem said.
Bloomberg - Natalie Obiko Pearson (2020-09-11)
A high-profile charity that spawned a political uproar in Canada after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government put it in charge of a nearly C$1 billion program for student pandemic aid has decided to shut down.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-09-10)
In a decision Wednesday from Ottawa, policy makers led by Governor Tiff Macklem held the bank’s benchmark rate at 0.25% and said they’ll leave it unchanged until economic slack is absorbed so that the 2% inflation target is “sustainably achieved.” The central bank also retained a pledge to buy government bonds at the current pace and maintain extraordinary monetary policy stimulus throughout what it calls the recuperation phase of the recovery.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-09-10)
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem warned that the spectre of rising inequality in employment and incomes poses the biggest threat to a healthy, broad-based recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, as the economy stages what he called an “uneven” rebound from its pandemic lows.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-09-09)
The Bank of Canada will probably brush off the economy’s stronger-than-expected rebound and stick to its narrative of a long and bumpy recovery that will require extraordinary support for years to come.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-09-07)
Correction of an error in U.S. stress tests has produced modest reductions in capital requirements for two big banks — Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and Morgan Stanley.
G&M - Giuseppe Valiante (2020-09-07)
Italian Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri has signed off on a government decree listing options to sell Italy’s controlling stake in Monte dei Paschi di Siena, two sources close to the matter told Reuters.
Reuters - Balazs Koranyi, Leika Kihara (2020-09-07)
The U.S. Federal Reserve’s landmark shift to a more tolerant stance on inflation will be a drag on the dollar for years and will raise hard questions about the role of central banking, challenging policymakers from Frankfurt to Tokyo.
Reuters - Video (2020-09-07)
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned the EU he's prepared to walk away from Brexit talks if there's no free trade deal by mid-October. Julian Satterthwaite reports.
Bloomberg - Birgit Jennen and Nicholas Comfort (2020-09-07)
Germany’s spending to counter the coronavirus crisis and modernize its economy means the country shouldn’t return to a balanced budget anytime soon, according to a senior Finance Ministry official.
WSJ - Chester Tay (2020-09-04)
Malaysia has dropped criminal charges against units of Goldman Sachs over the bank’s role in the alleged theft of billions of dollars from a government investment fund, a key step under the terms of a recent $3.9 billion settlement.
Reuters - Reuters (2020-09-04)
JPMorgan said there was about a one third chance of a no-trade deal Brexit at the year end but that brinkmanship between Britain and the European Union over coming months would make it appear a much greater risk.
Reuters - Reuters (2020-09-03)
Wirecard had filed charges against the newspaper on suspicion of market manipulation, accusing them of cooperating with short sellers to help them to profit from share price falls after the reports on the company became public.
FT - Joe Rennison (2020-09-02)
Companies have raised more debt in the US bond market this year than ever before, as a dash for cash during the coronavirus crisis took issuance past previous full-year totals with months left to go.
G&M - Reuters (2020-08-31)
Treasury officials in Britain are pushing for tax hikes to plug holes blown in public finances by the coronavirus pandemic, two leading British newspapers said.
Bloomberg - Editorial Board (2020-08-31)
For the most part, it describes what the central bank was already doing.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-08-31)
Today the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) announced that it is lifting the temporary freeze on portability transfers for private pension plans. As well, OSFI is gradually phasing out the special capital treatment of loan and insurance premium payment deferrals that was provided to banks and insurers at the start of the global pandemic.
G&M - Julie Gordan (2020-08-31)
Canada’s statistical agency is paying close attention to the “pot of cash” that Canadians have saved up amid the COVID-19 pandemic as it looks to understand who is saving and how that money may contribute to the shape of the recovery.
G&M - CP (2020-08-30)
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. is bracing for further impacts on the housing market from the COVID-19 pandemic.
G&M - CP (2020-08-28)
A major global credit rating agency is issuing a new warning about federal debt that it says may become more difficult to tackle once the pandemic passes.
Reuters - Linda Sieg, Kiyoshi Takenaka (2020-08-28)
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving premier, announced his resignation because of poor health on Friday, ending a stint at the helm of the world’s third-biggest economy in which he sought to revive growth and bolster its defences.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-politics-abe-factbox/international-reaction-to-resignation-of-japans-pm-abe-idUSKBN25O131 - Reuters (2020-08-28)
“We have FTAs and he also tackled a lot of difficult problems. Just thinking about relations with China, relations also with Russia, and also the difficult relationship with the U.S. at least since Trump came into power.
Bloomberg - Craig Torres, Christopher Condon, and Steve Matthews (2020-08-28)
Following a more than yearlong review, Powell said Thursday that the Fed will seek inflation that averages 2% over time, a step that implies allowing for price pressures to overshoot after periods of weakness. It also adjusted its view of full employment to permit labor-market gains to reach more workers.
G&M - KONRAD YAKABUSKI (2020-08-26)
For almost three decades, the Bank of Canada has conducted monetary policy with the singular goal of keeping inflation low and stable. But that may soon change.
G&M - Jordan Press (2020-08-26)
The second-in-command at the Bank of Canada said Wednesday that any changes to the underpinning of its monetary policy will be judged against how they affect the distribution of income and wealth in this country.
Reuters - Susan Heavey, Lawrence White, Anne Marie Roantree (2020-08-26)
Pompeo cited reports of Hong Kong-based executives at Next Media being unable to access their HSBC bank accounts and said the bank was “maintaining accounts for individuals who have been sanctioned for denying freedom for Hong Kongers, while shutting accounts for those seeking freedom.”
Reuters - Anna Szymanski (2020-08-26)
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has been too effective. His pledge to purchase corporate debt, including some with a junk credit rating, has boosted bond and equity prices since March, despite lousy economic projections. Backstopping asset prices is the unspoken precept that underlies the new policy framework he will soon unveil.
Bloomberg - Rich Miller (2020-08-26)
The Federal Reserve looks likely to keep short-term interest rates near zero for five years or possibly more after it adopts a new strategy for carrying out monetary policy.
FT - James Politi in Washington and Chris Giles (2020-08-26)
Central bankers’ annual gathering at the Rocky Mountain resort of Jackson Hole in late August has often served as a crisis-fighting forum — from the currency meltdowns of the 1990s to the Great Recession a decade ago.
Investment Executive - CP (2020-08-26)
“Monetary policy is ill-equipped to deal with sector-specific issues. We need to take them into account in our monetary policy decisions, but our focus must be on the macro economy to support sustainable growth and price stability,” Wilkins said, according to the prepared text of her opening remarks.
FT - Marietje Schaake (2020-08-25)
With a series of executive orders, US president Donald Trump has quickly changed the digital regulatory game. His administration has adopted unprecedented sanctions against the Chinese technology group Huawei; next on the list of likely targets is the Chinese ecommerce group Alibaba.
G&M - Clare O'Hara (2020-08-25)
Investment dealers who sell both mutual funds and securities could see industry savings of nearly half a billion dollars over a decade if Canada’s self-regulatory organizations were merged into a single entity.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-08-25)
The last time that happened, the central bank only made a half-hearted effort to involve the public, dispatching a deputy governor to give a speech on the subject in November 2014, and then barely mentioning it again until October 2016, when Stephen Poloz, then governor, and Bill Morneau, then finance minister, announced they were re-upping Canada’s approach to monetary policy without any changes.
Reuters - Moira Warburton (2020-08-25)
Although Canada released some documents requested by Meng and her team, lawyers for the Canadian attorney general declined to release all of the documents, claiming that some would threaten national security if disclosed.
CBC - Kathleen Harris (2020-08-24)
O'Toole claimed victory after taking support from Leslyn Lewis, who finished with a surprisingly strong performance but dropped off on the second ballot. Derek Sloan dropped off after the first ballot.
G&M - Reuters (2020-08-24)
The regional branch of West Africa’s BCEAO central bank has reopened in Mali for the first time since a military coup last week, Hamadoun Ba, the president of Mali’s banking lobby, told Reuters on Monday.
FP - Geoff Zochodne (2020-08-24)
The coming mortgage-deferral cliff has received lots of attention since Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. flagged the threat in the spring. But there also are approximately one million Canada Student Loans borrowers who had their repayments and interest on loans worth more than $11 billion automatically paused by the federal government from March 30 to Sept. 30, when forecasts suggest the economy will still be struggling.
BIS - Raphael Auer, Giulio Cornelli and Jon Frost (2020-08-24)
Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are receiving more attention than ever before. Yet the motivations for issuance vary across countries, as do the policy approaches and technical designs. We investigate the economic and institutional drivers of CBDC development and take stock of design efforts. We set out a comprehensive database of technical approaches and policy stances on issuance, relying on central bank speeches and technical reports. Most projects are found in digitised economies with a high capacity for innovation. Work on retail CBDCs is more advanced where the informal economy is larger. We next take stock of the technical design options. More and more central banks are considering retail CBDC architectures in which the CBDC is a direct cash-like claim on the central bank, but where the private sector handles all customer-facing activity. We conclude with an in-depth description of three distinct CBDC approaches by the central banks of China, Sweden and Canada.
Investment Executive - CP (2020-08-24)
The comfort zone the bank sets for its inflation target will help determine what happens to its key policy interest rate, which can affect the rates charged for mortgages and loans.
Investment Executive - IE (2020-08-24)
Bureaud was most recently working as a financial industry expert at the World Bank, helping countries raise their regulatory standards, a release from FAIR said. Previously, he held a number of roles at the OSC, including senior legal counsel and director of the regulator’s Office of Domestic and International Affairs.
G&M - PATRICK BRETHOUR AND ADAM RADWANSKI (2020-08-23)
After she was announced as Bill Morneau’s replacement on Tuesday, Ms. Freeland signalled in very broad terms what sort of economic recovery she hopes to help steer – telling reporters that it needs to be “green,” “equitable,” “inclusive” and focused on “jobs and growth.”
WSJ - Jimmy Vielkind and Katie Honan (2020-08-23)
New York City faces a $9 billion deficit over the next two years, high levels of unemployment and the prospect of laying off 22,000 government workers if new revenue or savings aren’t found in the coming weeks.
WSJ - Josh Zumbrun (2020-08-23)
As countries world-wide boost spending to battle the new coronavirus, government debt has soared to levels not seen since World War II.
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2020-08-21)
Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting are likely to shed more light on how central bank officials will wrap up their yearlong strategy review by effectively abandoning their past practice of pre-emptively lifting interest rates to head off higher inflation.
FP - Phillip Cross (2020-08-20)
Having clearly lost the support of the prime minister, former finance minister Bill Morneau accepted the inevitable, informing the nation Monday evening he was leaving his job in order to campaign to become head of the OECD. Morneau’s obvious legacy is one of recurring deficits, both ethical and financial. His most enduring impact, however, may be installing Tiff Macklem as Governor of the Bank of Canada.
FP - Joe Oliver (2020-08-20)
With changing technology, wind and solar are slowly becoming competitive with other sources of power. Unfortunately, the previous government’s obsessive pursuit of them as mainstream electricity resources resulted in long-term financial commitments at well above market prices. Nuclear power, which supplied 60 per cent of Ontario’s electricity last year, cost 8.3 cents per kilowatt (kWh) hour, while hydro, representing 25 per cent of the total, cost 6.1 cents. The cost of wind and solar averaged 13.5 and 42.0 cents per kWh, respectively.
Bloomberg - Kait Bolongaro, Theophilos Argitis, Erik Hertzberg, and Shelly Hagan (2020-08-20)
In Freeland, Trudeau has found an ally on aggressive fiscal policy, but someone with enough political clout in cabinet to maintain discipline on how the money is spent. The former journalist has arguably been Trudeau’s most successful minister, assigned to some of the government’s toughest files such as negotiating a new North American free trade agreement with President Donald Trump’s administration. Freeland keeps her current role as deputy prime minister.
G&M - James Bradshaw, Josh O'kane (2020-08-19)
Upheaval in the federal Finance Ministry has created renewed uncertainty for business leaders awaiting the next steps in the government’s economic response to the pandemic, as control shifts to Chrystia Freeland, a close ally of the Prime Minister whose mastery of business issues is relatively untested.
Reuters - Joseph Ax (2020-08-19)
Democrats formally nominated Joe Biden for president on Tuesday, vowing his election would repair a pandemic-battered America and put an end to the chaos that has defined Republican President Donald Trump’s administration.
Investment Executive - Rudy Mezzetta (2020-08-19)
“We haven’t had a [federal] budget, we never had a coherent fiscal plan [under Morneau], and there’s now a deficit of $343 billion.”
G&M - KRISTY KIRKUP AND BILL CURRY (2020-08-18)
Finance Minister Bill Morneau resigned suddenly from the Trudeau cabinet Monday evening, saying he never intended to run in the next election and that a new finance minister is needed to oversee the long-term economic recovery from the pandemic.
G&M - Nicolas Van Praet (2020-08-18)
Canadian pension fund giant Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec doubled its investment in Cirque du Soleil in February to increase its influence within the shareholder base, according to its chief executive who insisted there was no evidence at the time that the entertainment company was headed for a crippling shutdown.
CBC - Ryan Patrick Jones (2020-08-18)
Fraudsters exploited a security vulnerability in the Government of Canada website and took advantage of login credentials exposed through previous hacks to conduct a series of cyberattacks that compromised the personal information of thousands of Canadians, federal officials say.
Bloomberg - Tyler Pager (2020-08-18)
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris received their first joint economic briefing on Thursday, which included former Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen.
Bloomberg - John Authers (2020-08-18)
Back in the city after a week in which I paid as little heed to the markets as I could, what exactly have I missed? The most startling item of economic news (a much higher U.S. inflation reading than anyone had expected) and the most startling market event (a sudden 10.2% fall for gold) tended to counteract each other. Isn’t gold supposed to benefit from higher inflation? Meanwhile, the U.S. stock market remains agonizingly close to setting an all-time high, but comically unable to get there, as yet.
FP - CP (2020-08-17)
A total of 5,500 CRA accounts were targeted in what the federal government described as two “credential stuffing” schemes, in which hackers use passwords and usernames from other websites to access Canadians’ accounts with the revenue agency.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis and Kait Bolongaro (2020-08-17)
Multiple officials in Morneau’s finance department described how they were overruled in key debates -- how their concerns about cost or lack of analysis were ignored and how they wound up on the losing end of many policy arguments.
WSJ - Eva Xao (2020-08-14)
China’s Commerce Ministry said it would expand a pilot program for its digital currency to include a number of large cities, advancing a pioneering initiative by a major central bank to launch an electronic payment system.
G&M - KONRAD YAKABUSKI (2020-08-14)
Back in 2012, when he was still governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney managed to irritate much of the country’s corporate elite with what many considered a tedious lecture on how to do their jobs from someone who had never himself run a business.
G&M - Laura Stone (2020-08-13)
Ontario’s deficit will balloon to a record $38.5-billion in 2021, almost double the size predicted in March, and Finance Minister Rod Phillips declared the province is in a recession as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
G&M - Stephanie Levitz (2020-08-13)
Outgoing Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says his replacement must quickly put together a strong team in the Commons and for the next campaign, and he’s happy to offer whatever advice needed on that score.
Reuters - Samuel Shen, Winni Zhou, Kevin Yao (2020-08-13)
“Yuan internationalisation was a good-to-have. It’s now becoming a must-have,” said Shuang Ding, head of Greater China economic research at Standard Chartered and a former economist at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).
FP - Geoff Zachodine (2020-08-13)
“Interac eâTransfer has become central to the Canadian payments system,” the Bank of Canada said in a news release. “A disruption or failure of the Interac eâTransfer system could cause a significant adverse effect on economic activity in Canada, potentially leading to a general loss of confidence in the overall Canadian payments system.”
FP - Doug Alexander (2020-08-13)
Evan Siddall, chief executive officer at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., said the government-backed insurance provider has lost market share due to restrictions it imposed on high-risk borrowers earlier this summer, according to an Aug. 10 letter addressed to lenders and obtained by Bloomberg.
G&M - Tara Deschamps (2020-08-13)
House-hunting Canadians saw their buying power increase this week as the benchmark five-year mortgage rate reported by the Bank of Canada fell for the third time this year, easing a key stress test faced by borrowers.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-08-13)
“Do you remember who replaced Wayne Gretzky when he retired?” Polozsaid during a televised event hosted by Maclean’s in April 2019. “I run into people on the street and they ask me, `Hey, how’s Mark?’” I’m like, `Great. And I’m doing OK too.’”
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis and Kait Bolongaro (2020-08-12)
CityNews - MARTIN MACMAHON AND MIKE HALL (2020-08-12)
“The all-time low was 4.64. That was in July of 2017. So this is just 15 basis points above that. So we are getting very close to the all-time low.”
G&M - Matt Ott (2020-08-12)
The U.S. budget deficit climbed to US$2.81-trillion in the first 10 months of the budget year, exceeding any on record, the Treasury Department said Wednesday.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-08-11)
Starting Aug. 24, the central bank will reduce the limits on non-mortgage loans and securities that can be used as collateral for its standing liquidity facility (SLF) from 100% back to pre-crisis levels by Sept. 21.
FP - CP (2020-08-11)
In the statement, the Prime Minister’s Office praises Morneau’s record, including his “lead role” in creating emergency aid programs to help individuals and businesses survive the economic shutdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
FP - Matthew Lombardi and Max Seltzer (2020-08-10)
It’s now widely accepted that the stall in GDP growth, real wages and overall productivity that characterized the 2010s was the unintended side effect of the U.S.-led fiscal and monetary policy bailouts of 2008 — bailouts that, to be fair, probably did prevent a second Great Depression, but whose unhealthy side effects lingered.
CBC - David Cochrane (2020-08-10)
The Liberals are under pressure to rein in the economy after pandemic spending helped drive the projected deficit for 2020-21 to $342.2 billion — some ten times higher than expected before COVID-19 — according to a financial snapshot provided last month by Finance Minister Bill Morneau.
NY Times - Eshe Nelson and Daniel Politi (2020-08-05)
Under the agreement, creditors will be paid 54.8 cents on the dollar, according to an Argentine government official who has taken part in the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.
Reuters - Reuters (2020-08-04)
“The overall envelope of PEPP (Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme) purchases is a core determinant of the ECB’s overall monetary stance,” Lane said in a blog post.
Reuters - Reuters (2020-08-04)
“Agence France Trésor (AFT), on behalf of the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Economic Recovery, has decided to suspend Morgan Stanley from its status of SVT (Spécialiste en Valeurs du Trésor - Primary Dealer) for a minimum period of three months, with effect from 4 August, 2020,” the AFT said late on Monday.
WSJ - Serena Ng in Hong Kong and Nick Timiraos in Washington (2020-08-04)
When the coronavirus halted the global economy in March, the U.S. central bank lent massively to counterparts abroad. The action—among its most significant expansions of power yet—cemented the dollar’s dominance.
BOC - Media Relations (2020-08-04)
The Bank of Canada today published its 2021 schedule for policy interest rate announcements and the release of the quarterly Monetary Policy Report. It also reconfirmed the scheduled interest rate announcement dates for the remainder of this year.
FP - Howard Levitt (2020-08-03)
Like deers caught in the headlights, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his hapless finance minister Bill Morneau have attempted to deflect the blame for the WE Charity scandal to their senior civil service. Most pundits derisively scoffed at that effort. But, just maybe, they have a point.
G&M - Colin Packham (2020-07-31)
Australia will force U.S. tech giants Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google to pay Australian media outlets for news content in a landmark move to protect independent journalism that will be watched around the world.
FP - Bloomberg (2020-07-31)
In its statement announcing the policy decision, the Federal Open Market Committee repeated prior language that the pandemic “poses considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term” and that the federal funds rate would remain near zero “until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals.”
G&M - ANN SAPHIR AND HOWARD SCHNEIDER (2020-07-30)
The surge in U.S. coronavirus cases and the restrictions aimed at containing it have begun to weigh on the economic recovery, the head of the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday, pointing to an apparent pullback by consumers and a slowdown in the rehiring of furloughed workers, particularly by small businesses.
Finextra - Finextra (2020-07-30)
Accenture was chosen as the technology delivery partner following a procurement process begun in February 2019 and will work with the central bank on a renewed system that is slated to start to be delivered in 2022.
CBC - Don Pittis (2020-07-29)
No one will be surprised if Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell uses part of his news conference on Wednesday to scoff at the idea of the U.S. dollar losing its place as the world reserve currency.
FP - Victor Ferreira (2020-07-29)
The Ontario government appointed a task force with the purpose of updating securities laws and, two weeks ago, it proposed introducing a Canadian equivalent of 13F disclosure.
Economist - Economist (2020-07-28)
It is sometimes said that governments wasted the global financial crisis of 2007-09 by failing to rethink economic policy after the dust settled. Nobody will say the same about the covid-19 pandemic. It has led to a desperate scramble to enact policies that only a few months ago were either unimaginable or heretical. A profound shift is now taking place in economics as a result, of the sort that happens only once in a generation. Much as in the 1970s when clubby Keynesianism gave way to Milton Friedman’s austere monetarism, and in the 1990s when central banks were given their independence, so the pandemic marks the start of a new era. Its overriding preoccupation will be exploiting the opportunities and containing the enormous risks that stem from a supersized level of state intervention in the economy and financial markets.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-07-27)
When the Bank of Canada launched a program in mid-April to begin buying corporate bonds, it was embarking on a journey into unknown territory for a Canadian central bank. It’s turned out to be little more than a day trip.
CBC - Reuters (2020-07-27)
The deal includes a $2.5 billion cash payout by Goldman and a guarantee by the bank to return at least $1.4 billion in assets linked to 1MDB bonds, Malaysia's finance ministry said in a statement.
Bloomberg - Lionel Laurent (2020-07-27)
When the European Union first suggested a tax on financial transactions a decade ago, the idea was savaged by banking lobbyists and nixed by many of the bloc’s members. The U.K. said it was “madness.” The initial ambition to raise up to 35 billion euros ($40.6 billion) a year was reduced to a mere 3.5 billion euros, with only 10 countries agreeing to take part. As of last year, the project was barely alive.
G&M - Nandita Bose (2020-07-26)
In May, Representative David Cicilline, chair of the judiciary committee’s antitrust panel, had demanded Jeff Bezos testify and threatened Amazon with a subpoena after reports surfaced that Amazon employees tapped data from small sellers in the company’s marketplace to make decisions about the online retailer launching its own competing products, despite telling lawmakers it did not engage in such practices.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-07-24)
OSFI has prepared the following questions and answers for federally regulated financial institutions about measures it has taken to address issues stemming from COVID-19.
FT - Ryan Morreau (2020-07-24)
China has announced the closure of the US consulate in Chengdu, just days after Washington gave Beijing 72 hours to vacate its Houston consulate.
FT - Editorial Board (2020-07-24)
How safe are the banks? It is a question that was asked during the financial crisis in 2008 and is again rearing its head as the economic cost of the coronavirus crisis becomes clearer.
Bloomberg - Kate Bolongaro (2020-07-23)
Bill Morneau, facing questions from lawmakers studying the issue in Ottawa, apologized Wednesday for not repaying more than C$41,000 ($31,000) to the WE Charity until now.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-07-21)
The Bank of Canada has decided to cut its purchases of short-term government debt in half, saying that strains in both the federal and provincial markets “have diminished significantly” from when the bank ramped up its buying in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis.
FP - Bloomberg (2020-07-21)
The debt deluge comes after a flurry of interest-rate cuts and expanded asset-purchase plans by central banks left investment playbooks in shreds. With a net surplus of $980 billion in expected issuance beyond central-bank purchases, here’s a look at the supply and demand dynamics in the world’s major markets in the second half of the year.
Bloomberg - Kate Bolongaro (2020-07-21)
Justin Trudeau parried hostile questions from lawmakers over a mishandled student grant program that’s tarnishing the Canadian prime minister’s reputation.
FT - James Politi (2020-07-21)
The chairman of the Senate banking committee sought to fend off criticism that Judy Shelton, Donald Trump’s pick for a seat on the Federal Reserve board, held extreme views and lacked independence, as her nomination advanced past a key hurdle in the Senate on Tuesday.
Yahoo Finance - Stephanie Hughes (2020-07-19)
A spokesperson for Generation Squeeze said in an e-mail to Yahoo Finance Canada, “The 18-month project is currently in the design stage, with sessions expected to begin in September 2020. The specific solutions of focus will be determined by the stakeholders themselves once the process begins. More information about this project will become available once the sessions are underway. A final report outlining the Solutions Lab activities and participants will be published at the end of the project in early 2021.”
FP - Barbara Schecter (2020-07-17)
Under the scheme, which was detailed in a white paper this month, the government would provide a guarantee or backstop and would be “two layers away” from initial capital outlays, which would largely be taken care of by pooled insurance industry funds and private capital, said Neal.
FP - Reuters (2020-07-17)
A policy pause is underpinned by a string of better than expected economic data after a double-digit fall in gross domestic product in the three months to June, suggesting the 19-country eurozone’s economic contraction may not have been as bad as some feared.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-07-16)
Central banks generally like to maintain some mystery around their intentions so they don’t overly influence market behaviour. But in exceptional circumstances, they will deploy “forward guidance” based on the understanding that greater clarity should boost confidence. The path ahead remains highly uncertain, but at least executives and investors should now have a sense of how long they have to take advantage of exceptionally low interest rates.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-07-16)
On March 13, as signs of strain due to COVID-19 began to emerge, OSFI reduced the DSB from 2.25% to 1% of total riskâweighted assets. This decision provided banks with roughly $300 billon of additional lending capacity. On June 23, OSFI announced that the DSB would remain at 1%, unchanged from the level set on March 13, reflecting OSFI's assessment that the current DSB level remains effective in supporting the resilience of the Canadian banking system and the overall economy. OSFI will continue to monitor economic and financial conditions, vulnerabilities and signs of risks to the banking system, and the impact of COVID-19 policy responses. If conditions warrant, OSFI is prepared to release the DSB further.
Bobsguide - Bobsguide (2020-07-16)
During his years as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan became the icon of a communication style that later took the name of "Greenspeak": he made wordy and ambiguous statements. "Since I’ve become a central banker," he said on one occasion, "I have learned to mumble with great incoherence. If I seem unduly clear to you, you must have misunderstood what I said". Until the 1980s, communicating à la Greenspan was common for central bankers, based on the idea that the effectiveness of monetary policy required an element of surprise for the markets.
FP - Bloomberg News (2020-07-14)
“We know what issuance is going to look like now and the Bank of Canada may react to that and adjust” their bond buying program, Royce Mendes, an economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, said by phone.
FP - Jamie Golombek (2020-07-14)
If you own U.S. real estate, whether for personal use or for investment purposes, now may be a good time to ensure that you’re fully compliant with your Canadian tax filing obligations, as it appears that the Canada Revenue Agency may soon be doing some mass sleuthing of publicly-available U.S. property records.
Investment Executive - Katie Kier (2020-07-13)
Shenfeld said the BoC’s “path will speak volumes about the medium-term rate outlook.”
Investment Executive - Rudy Mezzetta (2020-07-13)
What we’ve tried to achieve is supplementing the critical policing function of our capital markets regulator with a public policy imperative of growing the capital markets,” said Walied Soliman, task force chair and Canadian chair of law firm Norton Rose Fulbright in Toronto, in an interview.
G&M - Reuters (2020-07-13)
The Bank of Canada is moving to help keep down long-term bond yields as Ottawa cranks up issuance to pay for COVID-19-related spending, analysts say, with the central bank raising the amount of 30-year bonds it buys in its quantitative easing program.
CBC - Ryan Patrick Jones (2020-07-13)
The Liberals originally saw the wage subsidy as a key tool to help cushion the economic blow from COVID-19 by helping workers stay tied to their employers while businesses remained closed due to the pandemic.
Canadian Underwriter - Kate McCaffrey (2020-07-10)
Calling COVID-19 “the challenge of our generation,” Finance Canada says the toll of COVID-19 on the broader economy in 2020 is expected to be the largest and most sudden economic contraction since the Great Depression. Private sector economists, they add, expect an annualized decline of over 40 per cent in Canada’s real GDP in the second quarter of this year. “The drop in real GDP is expected to be at its deepest in the second quarter of 2020,” they write. They also expect the economy to contract by 6.8 per cent in 2020, before rebounding 5.5 per cent in 2021.
G&M - Patrick Brethour (2020-07-09)
The federal government is aiming to take full – and lasting – advantage of rock-bottom interest rates as it borrows record amounts to fund its COVID-19-driven spending.
G&M - Jeffrey Jones (2020-07-09)
Alberta Investment Management Corp., known as AIMCo, failed to properly gauge the potential for huge losses from a derivative trading strategy that involved betting against market volatility. In fact, AIMCo expanded the program two years ago and was too late to cut its losses before markets whipsawed in March, said the board’s report into the trading rout, released on Thursday.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-07-09)
Fitch’s downgrade foreshadowed the finance minister’s update, the government’s most comprehensive tally to date on the tremendous costs associated with fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis, Esteban Duarte, and Kait Bolongaro (2020-07-09)
Justin Trudeau’s government made every effort on Wednesday to convince Canadians the country can afford a budget deficit that will soar to 16% of economic output this year. Its actions suggest there’s some worry.
G&M - Bill Curry (2020-07-08)
Finance Minister Bill Morneau will forecast a deficit in excess of $300-billion Wednesday, sources say, as the government announces for the first time how shutting down large swaths of the economy and spending billions on emergency pandemic programs is affecting Ottawa’s bottom line.
Bloomberg - Kate Bolongaro (2020-07-08)
While the massive shortfall has broad political support, it’s dramatic departure for a country with a longstanding aversion to debt and leaves Canada with the prospect of running large deficits for years to come. Morneau, the first finance minister to oversee a credit rating downgrade in 25 years, is under pressure to provide at least cursory assurances the government will return to a more fiscally prudent path once the coronavirus crisis has passed.
G&M - Patrick Brethour (2020-07-08)
The federal government is aiming to take full – and lasting – advantage of rock-bottom interest rates as it borrows record amounts to fund its COVID-19-driven spending.
G&M - Bill Curry (2020-07-08)
That one-year deficit figure is nearly the same size as total federal spending in a normal year.
Bloomberg - Kait Bolongaro and Justin Villamil (2020-07-07)
Justin Trudeau declined to attend a trilateral summit in Washington this week to inaugurate the new trade pact between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-07-07)
“Based on our economic forecasts out to 2024, deficits could be close to double those predicted by the government just six months ago, as weaker tax revenues take a significant toll,” it said. “We expect the revenue shortfall over the same period could total nearly $120 billion, largely this year and next.”
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-07-06)
The Bank of Canada’s quarterly surveys show a sharp drop in both business and consumer confidence, as the COVID-19 pandemic casts a cloud of uncertainty and caution over both workers and their employers.
Reuters - Ebru Tuncay, Jonathan Spicer (2020-07-02)
Some Turkish banks are concerned that a “bad bank” plan to house billions of dollars of non-performing loans could require them to book large losses, and they want foreign stakeholders involved, seven industry sources told Reuters.
Reuters - Howard Schneider (2020-07-02)
Minutes from the U.S. central bank’s June 9-10 meeting indicate policymakers held a lengthy debate about the critical next steps they may take in setting monetary policy for what they hope will be a continued recovery from a pandemic-driven health and economic crisis.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-07-02)
The rating agency said that it expects Alberta to record a deficit of around $20 billion in fiscal 2021, up from the $6.8 billion deficit originally anticipated in the provincial budget
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-07-02)
The CFRF, which was jointly established by the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in 2019, aims to develop best practices among regulators and the industry for dealing with the financial risks from climate change.
Reuters - Reuters (2020-07-02)
The U.S. Federal Reserve’s massive stash of bonds and other assets slipped for a third straight week to its smallest size since mid-May, data released by the central bank on Thursday showed.
G&M - ARNO SCHUETZE AND ALEXANDER HÃBNER (2020-07-02)
Police and public prosecutors raided Wirecard’s headquarters in Munich and four properties in Germany and Austria on Wednesday as they widened their investigation into the financial payments company that collapsed last week.
G&M - Reuters (2020-07-02)
Tax authorities in nearly 100 countries saw 10 trillion euros ($11.2 trillion) in offshore assets come to light last year due to the automatic exchange of details for 84 million bank accounts, the OECD said on Tuesday.
FP - Geoffrey Morgan (2020-06-30)
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says he’s recently been reading about former U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt’s stimulus-spending response to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
G&M - James Mccarten (2020-06-29)
If the long-awaited debut of Canada’s new trade pact with the United States and Mexico heralds a new dawn in North American relations, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer sure has a funny way of showing it.
Bloomberg - Jennifer A Dlouhy and Todd Shields (2020-06-29)
The U.S. and China are moving beyond bellicose trade threats to exchanging regulatory punches that threaten a wide range of industries including technology, energy and air travel.
WSJ - James Glynn (2020-06-29)
With the Fed considering a new monetary policy tool to help hold interest rates low amid the downturn, clues to the tactic’s effectiveness can be found far away: in Australia.
FT - Jim Brunsden and Sam Fleming (2020-06-26)
Brussels will call for a probe into whether BaFin, Germany’s banking regulator, failed in its supervision of Wirecard, warning that the payment company’s collapse poses a threat to investor trust in the EU.
Bloomberg - Erik Hertzberg (2020-06-25)
The Canadian government is considering a shift to longer-term borrowing to finance a ballooning budget deficit, a strategy that would help it reduce potential pitfalls associated with short-term debt but which could also disrupt the balance in the country’s bond markets.
Bloomberg - Sandrine Rastello (2020-06-25)
The government has recently acquired preferred shares in private companies, Fitzgibbon said, declining to name them. “We’d be minority for sure and hopefully at one point we can be replaced by other equity holders,” he said.
FT - Laura Noonan (2020-06-25)
Its trio of announcements includes the annual stress tests showing how the top 34 banks would fare in a hypothetical crash, and another exercise examining whether the top 18 should be allowed to execute their dividend plans.
FT - Philip Stafford (2020-06-25)
Austria has sold another “century bond” three years after its first, seizing on the ultra-low borrowing costs available in the market after unprecedented stimulus efforts from the European Central Bank.
G&M - JEANNA SMIALEK, PETER EAVIS AND KATE KELLY (2020-06-25)
The Federal Reserve on Thursday temporarily restricted shareholder payouts by the country’s biggest banks, barring them from buying back their own shares or increasing dividend payments in the third quarter as regulators try to ensure banks remain strong enough to keep lending through the pandemic-induced downturn.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-06-24)
The DSB was lowered by 1.25% on March 13, providing banks in excess of $300 billion of additional lending capacity. This action was taken to support banks' ability to continue to provide loans and services to Canadians. OSFI expects banks to continue to draw on this capacity to support Canadian businesses and households.
FP - Geoff Zochodne (2020-06-24)
“This decision reflects OSFI’s assessment that the current DSB level remains effective in supporting the resilience of the Canadian banking system and the overall economy,” the regulator said in a press release.
Bloomberg - Suttinee Yuvejwattana and Chester Yung (2020-06-24)
With interest rates close to zero, the central bank is slowly running out of conventional policy space to support the economy. Officials have said they are studying unconventional steps, such as asset purchases and some form of yield curve control.
Investment Executive - Greg Dalgetty (2020-06-24)
Securities regulators concluded 75 enforcement matters in the past year, leading to almost $60 million in sanctions, according to the Canadian Securities Administrators’ (CSA) latest enforcement report.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-06-23)
The Bank of Canada expects consumer demand to recover more slowly than output as the economy claws its way back from the COVID-19 crisis, a combination that could put “a lot of downward pressure” on inflation, Governor Tiff Macklem said Monday.
CBC - CP (2020-06-23)
Canada's top central banker says there will be long-term economic damage from the COVID-19 pandemic as the country charts a "prolonged and bumpy" course to recovery.
FP - Bank of Canada's Macklem defends inflation targeting, despite lockdown-induced price distortions (2020-06-23)
“The message I want to leave you with is that while we are using different tools in these extraordinary times, our policy remains grounded in the same framework,” Macklem said. “The inflation target is our beacon that is guiding our actions as we help bring the economy from crisis, through reopening, to recuperation and recovery.”
G&M - Fergal Smith (2020-06-21)
“If you think that the economy did hit bottom in April, a rate hike in two years … is a plausible outcome I think,” Mr. Kelvin said.
Reuters - Fergal Smith (2020-06-21)
Investors, looking past the COVID-19 pandemic, are betting that the Bank of Canada could be among the first major central banks to hike interest rates, signaling new governor Tiff Macklem’s success so far convincing the market not to expect negative rates.
WSJ - Paul Kiernan (2020-06-21)
The Federal Reserve will use an analysis of large banks’ ability to withstand various coronavirus-related recession scenarios as it forms policies on capital requirements, dividends and stock buybacks, a top central bank official said.
FT - BERND ZIESEMER (2020-06-21)
Bernd Ziesemer 6 HOURS AGO Print this page The writer, a former editor of Handelsblatt, is chairman of the Cologne School for Journalists
Bloomberg - Ferdinando Giugliano (2020-06-20)
Nevertheless, Lagarde and her colleagues would be wise to read the staff paper closely. Among all the carefully worded language, one can clearly see the contours of a monetary framework that would work for the ECB’s third decade. These include changing the inflation target to 2%, and maintaining all of the instruments — asset purchases, long-term loans to the banking system and negative interest rates — that the central bank used throughout the presidency of Lagarde’s predecessor, Mario Draghi.
The argument for a symmetric inflation target is rooted in the power of expectations. The ECB at the moment aims to reach an inflation rate “close to but below 2%.” This means that, as price pressures start climbing toward 2%, investors and consumers expect the ECB to react aggressively, tightening monetary policy to push inflation back. The authors believe this served the ECB well during its first decade, when it had to establish its reputation and fight off inflationary forces.
However, the objective has been less useful in today’s era of persistently low inflation. It may even be counterproductive. Consumers and investors don’t expect the central bank to act so decisively to counter deflation.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-06-18)
The Bank of Canada expects a two-phase recovery for the Canadian economy, with the initial “reopening” phase from COVID shutdowns to be followed by a slower, bumpier and more unpredictable “recuperation” phase, deputy governor Lawrence Schembri said Thursday.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-06-18)
The Bank of Canada is taking a more cautious tone on the recovery, with expectations for a bumpy and gradual road toward full recuperation.
WSJ - Jason Douglas in London and Tom Fairless (2020-06-18)
The Bank of England launched another burst of stimulus and the European Central Bank said lenders across the region had tapped its loan program for a record $1.5 trillion, signs that central banks’ efforts to fuel a recovery aren’t yet done.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-06-17)
It didn’t take long in Tiff Macklem’s first public appearance as Governor of the Bank of Canada to give us a small window into the character of the central bank’s new leader. Seven seconds, to be exact.
G&M - Bill Curry (2020-06-17)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to release a “snapshot” of federal finances on July 8, but said his government “will continue to reflect” on when it will release a full fiscal update or a 2020 budget.
CBC - Peter Zimonjic (2020-06-17)
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has been expelled from the House of Commons for calling a Bloc Québécois MP racist and for refusing to apologize and withdraw his comments.
CBC - Kathleen Harris (2020-06-17)
It's a heavy blow for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne and other high-level officials who had been reaching out to political leaders around the world in a campaign to secure one of the two available rotating seats.
FP - David Rosenberg (2020-06-17)
But the central bank is now becoming a hedge fund. Adding low-quality corporate credits to its balance sheet is a whole different game: keeping zombie companies alive, rendering fundamental analysis and price discovery obsolete, and leading to a complete misallocation of resources.
Reuters - Video (2020-06-16)
U.S. stocks ditched losses to rally into the close after the Federal Reserve announced it would start buying individual corporate bonds in another attempt to protect the U.S. economy. Conway G. Gittens reports..
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-06-16)
The bank, which takes over as benchmark administrator from Refinitiv Benchmark Services (UK) Ltd., said that it’s committed to ensuring that CORRA is “a robust, reliable and representative measure” of overnight funding rates.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-06-16)
After unleashing a barrage of measures early in the COVID-19 crisis to successfully stabilize financial markets and keep credit flowing, the Bank of Canada is about to pivot to bolstering the burgeoning economic recovery, new governor Tiff Macklem said Tuesday.
G&M - Don Drummond (2020-06-16)
The Prime Minister rejected the idea of a fiscal update last week, arguing that “in this situation any prediction we make will be widely unreliable from one week to the next.”
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-06-16)
The new Bank of Canada governor has been on the job for barely two weeks, so there’s lots of time to build a legacy. But early signs suggest Tiff Macklem intends to pick up where his predecessor left off, rather than change course or revert to the way things were done a decade ago.
FT - Matthew Vincent (2020-06-16)
Britain’s financial regulator has warned UK banks that they will need an entirely new way of dealing with personal and business debt, as the coronavirus pandemic pushes ever more borrowers into arrears or default.
BOC - BOC (2020-06-15)
Heightened uncertainty can cause liquidity in markets to dry up because the people who trade start behaving differently than they would in normal times. Buying and selling either slows quite a bit or it tilts firmly in one direction.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-06-15)
OSFI has prepared the following questions and answers for federally regulated financial institutions about measures it has taken to address issues stemming from COVID-19.
WSJ - Nathaniel Taplin and Mike Bird (2020-06-14)
If the U.S. chooses to, it could seriously damage China in the financial realm—and China has little capacity to retaliate. Using such powerful tools carries risks, however.
Bloomberg - Marcus Ashworth (2020-06-12)
European sovereign debt issuers are in the land of milk and honey, racing to get as much as possible of this year’s issuance completed before the summer lull. With so much monetary stimulus sloshing about, governments even have an eye on getting ahead of next year’s budget plans as well.
G&M - Reuters (2020-06-11)
Governments around the world have spent $10 trillion in fiscal actions to respond to the novel coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout, but significant further efforts are needed, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.
G&M - Clare O'Hara (2020-06-10)
A merger of the two regulatory organizations that oversee Canada’s investment industry could save hundreds of millions of dollars in regulatory fees over the next decade, according to a new report from Canada’s brokerage industry regulator.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-06-10)
You know, for appearances, just in case the more cynical among us conclude he was looking out for No. 1 instead of fixating on the COVID-19 crisis.
Reuters - Howard Schneider (2020-06-10)
An employment report showing 2.5 million jobs were created in May surprised economists with the speed at which firms started rehiring workers laid off en masse as virus-containment efforts forced businesses to close and consumers to stay home.
Bloomberg - Steve Matthews (2020-06-10)
“People are very anxious to see what the policy projections look like,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities, though Powell may emphasize uncertainty. “He is likely to stress this isn’t any kind of ironclad commitment. We’re very foggy on how things are going to play out.”
Bloomberg - Noah Smith (2020-06-09)
The Federal Reserve has stepped in to save the economy again, this time from the coronavirus pandemic. Not only did it cut interest rates to almost zero, but it unleashed a barrage of new programs to prop up financial markets, and bail out investors and businesses that borrowed too much before the U.S. economy shut down to contain the outbreak. There is precedent for this: On a smaller scale, the Fed came to the rescue in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis. Few know more about central bank bailouts than Ben Bernanke, who led the Fed during that time. Bloomberg Opinion columnist Noah Smith interviewed him online last week. Below is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
WSJ - Nick Timiroas (2020-06-09)
The central bank reduces minimum and raises maximum loan limits in an effort to reach more small and midsize businesses.
WSJ - Liz Hoffman (2020-06-09)
Japanese regulators have warned the nation’s banks for the first time about the risk of investing in overseas securitized corporate loans, which have run into trouble from a wave of U.S. bankruptcies.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-06-08)
Following a week of widespread protests across the U.S., the rating agency said that the explosion of social tensions revealed long-standing social risks for governments, particularly states and governments of major cities.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-06-08)
In light of the recent developments, the Financial Information Committee (FIC) have made the following changes to the 2020 regulatory return implementation deadlines.
Bloomberg - Molly Smith and Craig Torres (2020-06-08)
The Federal Reserve may have stoked one of the strongest corporate debt market rallies in decades, but it’s too soon to declare an all-clear for credit with the economy facing a potentially rocky road ahead.
FT - Bryan Harris (2020-06-08)
Brazil’s central bank chief says that newly granted quantitative easing powers are intended more for “market stabilisation and not an alternative form of monetary policy”.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-06-05)
The rating agency reported that, so far, governments have provided direct fiscal stimulus of US$5 trillion, which represents about 7% of GDP, in the 20 major economies (both developed and emerging markets) covered by its economics review
Finextra - Finextra (2020-06-04)
The Fed notes the discussions around this change “have considered cross-border interoperability issues that may occur if the Federal Reserve Banks and other high-value payment system operators have not implemented the ISO 20022 messaging standard by the time SWIFT enables its participants to start sending data-rich ISO-20022 messages over its global network.”
American Banker - Kevin Wack (2020-06-04)
Under a $150,000 threshold, some 26% of all PPP loan dollars would qualify for automatic forgiveness, according to the banking trade groups. But 85% of PPP loan recipients would benefit.
CBC - Pete Evans (2020-06-04)
Canada's central bank has dropped its rate dramatically since the pandemic began, cutting its rate from 1.75 per cent in late February to 0.25 per cent barely a month later.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-06-04)
“As market function improves and containment restrictions ease, the bank’s focus will shift to supporting the resumption of growth in output and employment,” the statement said. “The bank maintains its commitment to continue large-scale asset purchases until the economic recovery is well underway. Any further policy actions would be calibrated to provide the necessary degree of monetary policy accommodation required to achieve the inflation target.”
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-06-04)
The Bank of Canada said the country’s economy appears to have avoided the worst case scenario, prompting policy makers to wind down some market operations and pare back estimates of the downturn.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-06-03)
“I don’t expect any policy changes,” Derek Holt, an economist at Bank of Nova Scotia, said by phone from Toronto. “They’ll leave that to Macklem not only because of the transitional issue but they haven’t firmed up” a full set of forecasts, which won’t come until the bank’s next monetary policy report in July.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-06-03)
Stephen Poloz concluded the public portion of his tenure as Bank of Canada governor on May 28 with a visit to the Senate finance committee, where he told senators he was confident the central bank’s response to the COVID-19 crisis was working, but that policy-makers could do more if required.
CBC - Don Pittis (2020-06-01)
But just as when Poloz replaced media darling Mark Carney, who set off to an even more glamorous and demanding job at the Bank of England only to be replaced by a relatively stodgy and unknown replacement, changes of leadership style at the top matter.
Reuters - Reuters (2020-06-01)
“April SAMA data offers the first indication of the magnitude of the curfew with consumer spending tumbling 35% y/y despite 2x surge in food spending on Ramadan season and household stocking,” Arqaam Capital said in a research note.
FP - Geoffrey Morgan (2020-06-01)
Athabasca’s banking syndicate reduced its credit facility to $42 million after a review, which represents a 65 per cent cut from $120 million previously, the company said.
Press Release - Cdn Govt (2020-05-30)
Due to the pandemic’s effects on the economy, some federally regulated pension plan sponsors are facing significant financial constraints. To provide temporary relief to sponsors of federally regulated, defined benefit pension plans, on April 15, 2020 the government announced a moratorium on solvency special payments.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-05-29)
Sample faq question: What does OSFI mean when it says banks can treat mortgage borrowers who apply for payment relief as performing loans? When does a bank now have to designate a mortgage loan as non-performing?
BOC - Stephen S. Poloz (2020-05-29)
In the face of this uncertainty, our priorities are helping people and the economy and sticking with our inflation target.
CBC - Kyle Bakx, Tony Seskus (2020-05-28)
One of those details is a built-in safeguard for taxpayers which requires participating companies to give the government either an ownership stake or cash equivalent of 15 per cent of the principal loan amount.
BNN - Ferdinando Giugliano (2020-05-28)
The Commission president outlined a 750 billion-euro ($825 billion) rescue program to help the bloc cope with the fallout from Covid-19. EU governments still have to agree to the plan, and some northern member states — especially the Netherlands and Austria — are likely opponents. But if the final deal looks even close to Von der Leyen’s proposal, it will mark a radical transformation of Europe.
Investment Executive - CP (2020-05-27)
Speaking to the Senate finance committee Tuesday, Giroux said the government has added about $7.6 billion in spending since his last report, pushing the potential deficit ever deeper.
G&M - Daniel Leblanc (2020-05-26)
Although Mr. Trudeau has called the bank CEOs on occasion in the past, such direct discussions are not common. In the fall of 2018, Mr. Trudeau briefed them in separate calls at a key juncture in negotiations to redraw the North American free-trade agreement.
G&M - CP (2020-05-26)
Parliament’s spending watchdog says the estimated federal deficit for the year has likely risen to about $260-billion with new measures rolled out in recent weeks.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-05-26)
One point he likes to make is that policy-makers learn from their mistakes, so errors of the past won’t be repeated. He went so far as to tell the House finance committee last month that he would welcome inflation because upward price pressure would imply the economy was recovering from the COVID-19 recession.
G&M - Eric Reguly (2020-05-25)
Governments lunged into the nationalization game in the autumn of 2008, when the financial crisis shredded banks alive. The novel coronavirus crisis will force them to make a repeat performance.
G&M - David Milliken (2020-05-25)
The Bank of England will begin to phase out weekly emergency support for financial markets that it introduced in response to coronavirus fears in March, now that markets have calmed and banks no longer have difficulty accessing cash.
OSFI - Jeremy Rudin (2020-05-25)
One of OSFI's most important tools in the current situation is setting capital levels. You may wish to think of capital as a form of self-insurance, which provides both a buffer against unforeseen losses and an incentive to manage risk taking. Strong capital levels allow a financial institution to operate normally even if it experiences losses.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-05-22)
Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz believes Canada’s economy remains on track for a healthy recovery this year from the COVID-19 crisis, despite the steady flow of discouraging economic headlines in recent weeks.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis (2020-05-22)
The governor has been forced to take unprecedented action just to keep credit markets from seizing up -- cutting the benchmark rate to near zero, injecting more than C$300 billion ($210 billion) of cash into financial markets and undertaking the central bank’s first-ever foray into large-scale purchases of government debt.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-05-22)
Total economic support during the pandemic equals about 10.2% of Canada’s GDP versus 12.7% south of the border, RBC said in a note published Wednesday. Canada’s measures lean more heavily toward repayable loans and short-term tax deferrals instead of direct spending and grants.
G&M - Bill Curry (2020-05-21)
The federal government will be able to take an ownership stake in public companies and will block executives from earning more than $1-million, according to newly released details of Ottawa’s loan program for struggling large companies.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-05-21)
“The shutdown is not typical,” Timothy Lane, the longest-serving deputy governor on the Bank of Canada’s policy committee, said in a speech on May 20. “These shifts mean the standard consumer price index, based on the cost of a fixed basket of goods, is less meaningful.”
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis and Shelly Hagan (2020-05-21)
The Bank of Canada believes weaker demand from the global pandemic will outweigh any supply side impacts, putting downward pressures on prices.
WSJ - Andrew Ackerman (2020-05-20)
Joseph Otting is expected to step down this week as comptroller of the currency after completing an overhaul of rules governing billions of dollars of lending in low-income neighborhoods.
Investment Executive - Greg Dalgetty (2020-05-20)
CEBA offers interest-free, partially forgivable loans of up to $40,000 for qualifying businesses. Previously, the program was available only to businesses with payrolls between $20,000 and $1.5 million.
WSJ - Nick Nimiraos (2020-05-19)
The Federal Reserve is preparing to lend directly to middle-market businesses, filling a hole left by the government’s economic-crisis relief efforts, and it is shaping up to be one of the trickiest things it has ever done.
Bloomberg - Jacqueline Thorpe (2020-05-15)
Wilkins, the central bank’s second-in-command, was the most qualified woman ever to compete for the position. The government’s decision to name Tiff Macklem was a disappointment to those who say it underscores slow progress in advancing women to executive roles in economics and finance. Canada may have a reputation as a progressive country, but no woman has ever been finance minister, central bank governor, chief executive of one of its six biggest banks, or head of a large public pension fund.
FP - Murad Hemmadi (2020-05-14)
On Monday, Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced the Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF), through which Ottawa will give credit of $60 million or more to firms with at least $300 million in annual revenue that “make meaningful investments in Canada, and provide jobs to Canadians.”
Investment Executive - Rudy Mezzetta (2020-05-14)
In recent years, the CRA has made it a greater priority to target the “hidden economy” by dedicating more resources toward combatting non-compliance. According to an Ontario Ministry of Labour study cited in the decision, 28% of the construction industry’s economic activity was unreported or underreported, and as much as one-fifth of residential construction takes place unreported.
G&M - Ian McGugan (2020-05-13)
Growing talk of negative interest rates in Canada and the United States is stirring fear about what such a dramatic move by central banks might mean for savers and investors.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan and Kait Bolongaro (2020-05-13)
The Canadian government is in talks to hire Lazard as the financial adviser for its new loan program for large companies, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Bloomberg - Charles Daly and Christian Wienberg (2020-05-12)
The government of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven plans to spend about 2.2 billion kronor ($220 million) on ratcheting up staff levels to help protect the country’s oldest citizens. Another 2 billion kronor will go toward compensating local authorities for the extra costs they’ve incurred in dealing with the pandemic, the government said on Tuesday.
G&M - KONRAD YAKABUSKI (2020-05-11)
Despite the awesome powers invested in the person who leads the country’s central bank, most Canadians do not know what that person does and most probably do not care. Their blissful ignorance spares the head of the Bank of Canada from much scrutiny.
FP - Terence Corcaran (2020-05-11)
A few weeks ago The Globe and Mail cited a source who said Poloz was not offered an opportunity to stay beyond his June retirement to allow for some leadership continuity as the bank tackled the COVID-19 crisis. Instead, the Morneau/Trudeau team moved swiftly to appoint Tiff Macklem, a former Bank of Canada deputy governor who will return to the bank after serving for six years as dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2020-05-11)
Federal Reserve officials are unlikely to consider using negative interest rates to stimulate economic growth after concluding the tool’s clear costs outweigh its uncertain benefits.
WSJ - Avantika Chilkoti and Caitlin Ostroff (2020-05-11)
Citigroup, BNP Paribas and UBS are blocked from processing lira transactions as Turkey’s currency hits a record low against the dollar.
Economist - Economist (2020-05-11)
between 2004 and 2012 bnp Paribas helped funnel $30bn into Sudan, Cuba and Iran, all then under American sanctions. It hid its tracks using a network of “satellite” banks and by stripping payment messages of incriminating references. Whistleblowers tipped off American prosecutors. The bank pleaded guilty, expecting to pay €1.1bn ($1.2bn). It was fined $8.9bn by American authorities in 2014, and the case escalated to a diplomatic row.
BOC - BOC (2020-05-07)
The Bank opened and staffed a new operational site in Calgary, which is designed to take over all essential operations in case of a major disruption in Ottawa. Already, critical operations are being routinely managed jointly or being rotated between the two locations. We launched and began to implement a new cyber security strategy, integrating the Bank’s critical role within the Canadian financial system.
FT - Laurence Fletcher (2020-05-06)
One of the hedge fund industry’s longest-standing bears has ditched his holdings in government bonds, saying the central bankers who have helped propel their stratospheric rise over recent years are “fruit loops”.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-05-05)
“Whether it’s a risk of inflation or deflation, central bank credibility is critical. This requires keeping our eye on the ball in terms of our mandate, and retaining the operational independence to achieve it,” she said.
WSJ - Tom Fairless (2020-05-05)
The European Central Bank rolled out its cheapest ever loans for eurozone banks and said it would consider expanding a €750 billion bond-buying program, amplifying its firepower to contain the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
WSJ - Greg IP (2020-05-05)
If the central bank is too concerned about getting its money back, it may shun the weaker firms where the money will make the biggest difference.
WSJ - Kate Davidson and Richard Rubin (2020-05-05)
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he expects the government will recover much of the funds it has committed to backstop the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending programs, suggesting he doesn’t anticipate widespread losses on the loans.
Investment Executive - Greg Dalgetty (2020-05-05)
Still, even with the government being able to borrow so cheaply, it’s possible the feds may introduce post-pandemic austerity measures. But Mendes noted that 2011 research from Olivier Blanchard, then the chief economist with the International Monetary Fund, found that “austerity could actually be self-defeating when attempting to lower debt-to-GDP ratios.”
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis (2020-05-04)
If anyone can empathize with the disappointment that Carolyn Wilkins must be feeling about being passed over for the top job at the Bank of Canada, it’s Tiff Macklem, the man who just beat her to it.
WSJ - Vipal Monga and Cezary Podkul (2020-05-04)
The Federal Reserve has scrapped plans to use a $600 billion aid program for small and midsize businesses to promote the use of its preferred replacement for the troubled London interbank offered rate.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-05-04)
Since the global financial crisis, OSFI has raised capital requirements for DTIs and further required DTIs to exceed those requirements under normal conditions by building robust capital buffers.
Canadian Bankers Association - CBA (2020-05-04)
Summary of measures taken by Canadian banks with respect to covid.
G&M - Ian McGugan (2020-05-01)
The world’s central banks have responded to the pandemic with massive programs to support financial markets. But are their policies just setting us up for more trouble down the road?
G&M - Robert Fife, David Parkinson (2020-05-01)
Finance Minister Bill Morneau is expected to announce a replacement for Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz on Friday.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-05-01)
Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said “life has been a blur” over the past two months, as he has steered the country’s central bank through perhaps the most difficult, hectic and complicated period in its history in response to COVID-19.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis (2020-05-01)
Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz dismissed the possibility his emergency measures could trigger an inflationary spike, providing assurances the central bank’s balance sheet expansion will reverse once the economy improves and financial markets return to normal.
Policy makers were compelled to respond aggressively to the crisis in order to avoid a credit crunch and counter a deflationary shock in the economy, Poloz said, according to the text of remarks he gave by video conference to students at Western University’s Ivey Business School. That makes the injection of cash into the economy, which would be inflationary in normal circumstances, simply a stabilizing force.
“Crisis conditions argue for vigorous, even outsized, responses because maintaining confidence is critical to the recovery,” said Poloz, who’s due to step down in June after serving a seven-year term. “Gradualism is unlikely to succeed.”
OSFI - OSFI (2020-05-01)
OSFI has prepared the following questions and answers for federally regulated financial institutions about measures it has taken to address issues stemming from COVID-19.
Bloomberg - Brian Chappatta (2020-04-29)
The corporate bond market reacted with nothing short of euphoria each time the Fed unveiled how it would go about backstopping debt from U.S. companies. The largest exchange-traded fund tracking the investment-grade market, known by its ticker LQD, surged 7.4% on March 23, the biggest gain in more than a decade. That was the day the Fed announced the terms in which it would wade into credit markets to an unprecedented degree. LQD popped an additiona 4.7% on April 9, when the central bank expanded its program to include “fallen angels” and even junk-bond ETFs. The largest high-yield bond ETF (ticker: HYG) benefited the most, jumping by 6.6%, the most since January 2009.
G&M - Editorial (2020-04-28)
But national finance isn’t household finance. A person’s lifespan is constrained, as is their capacity for income growth; a country is a very different creature.
Reuters - Rich McKay (2020-04-28)
Georgia, at the vanguard of states testing the safety of reopening the U.S. economy in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, permitted restaurant dining for the first time in a month on Monday while governors in regions with fewer cases also eased restrictions.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis (2020-04-28)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s search for a successor to Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz is entering its final days with the government having already reduced the shortlist of candidates to two, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bloomberg - Brian Chappatta (2020-04-27)
It’s occasionally surreal to write about Federal Reserve policy alongside former Fed officials.
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2020-04-27)
Fed leaders have suggested they are comfortable with their current policy stance, but big questions will dominate deliberations at their two-day policy meeting next week, including how to manage bond-buying efforts and how long to extend those easy-money policies.
Bloomberg - Narayana Kocherlakota (2020-04-24)
Unprecedented situations require unprecedented actions. That’s why the U.S. Federal Reserve should fight a rapidly deepening recession by taking interest rates below zero for the first time ever.
G&M - Reuters (2020-04-23)
This suggested the ECB would continue hoovering up bonds only on the secondary market even if it comes close to owning a third of the debt of countries such as Germany and Portugal.
FP - STEVE AMBLER AND JEREMY KRONICK (2020-04-23)
The exact design of the wide array of emergency facilities the Bank has set up in recent weeks is open to debate. The sheer size of these facilities is not. It is a fact — and unprecedented. In less than a month (March 11 to April 8), the Bank’s balance sheet more than doubled — from $120 billion to $275 billion. By contrast, its largest one-month increase in 2008 was a mere 20 per cent. Even the Fed didn’t move that fast or that much, either in 2008 or during this pandemic, for that matter.
Bloomberg - Michelle Jamrisko and Gregor Stuart Hunter (2020-04-23)
As governments dedicate more than $8 trillion to fight the coronavirus pandemic, a further widening in the gap between rich and poor countries threatens to exacerbate the global economy’s pain.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-04-23)
OSFI has prepared the following questions and answers for federally regulated financial institutions about measures it has taken to address issues stemming from COVID-19.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2020-04-22)
A new federal program to backstop loans to small and mid-sized energy companies could cut the number of producers that fall into bankruptcy in the coming months as oil prices hit record lows, according to executives and analysts.
FP - Jack M. Mintz (2020-04-22)
The IMF predicts that Canada will be the second biggest budget-buster of all advanced countries. Our general government fiscal deficit is expected to be 11.8 per cent of GDP, surpassed only by the United States. Only oil-rich Norway is expected to run a fiscal surplus in 2020, though that will be down from its healthy surpluses of earlier years.
Insurance Portal - IIJ (2020-04-22)
“Canada has earned a reputation for strong adherence to international banking standards,” OSFI said in a statement released April 17. “At the same time, Canada has also earned a reputation for ‘going its own way’ on bank capital while respecting the international minimum standards.”
G&M - Ian McGugan (2020-04-21)
In the eyes of skeptics, these aggressive monetary manoeuvres risk an outburst of inflation down the road. Others, however, see the wave of money printing as simply an acknowledgment that drastic action is necessary to contain the stresses created by an imploding global economy.
G&M - Patrick Brethour (2020-04-21)
It took 12 minutes for Silvano Tocchi to know for certain that the Canada Revenue Agency had succeeded in its three-week scramble to get emergency benefits into the hands of millions of desperate Canadians.
NY Times - Desiree Rios (2020-04-21)
The Senate on Tuesday passed a $484 billion coronavirus relief package that would replenish a depleted loan program for distressed small businesses and provide funds for hospitals and coronavirus testing, approving yet another huge infusion of federal money to address the public health and economic crisis brought on by the pandemic.
WSJ - Ryan Dube, Matt Wirz (2020-04-20)
WSJ - Andrew Restuccia, Catherine Lucey (2020-04-17)
WSJ - Andrew Duehren (2020-04-17)
WSJ - Amara Omeokwe (2020-04-17)
As Congress stands at an impasse over how to replenish funds for a now-depleted small business loan program, Sens. Steve Daines and Cory Booker are pushing for the next round of coronavirus aid to allocate money that would enable local communities to assist very small firms.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-04-16)
The Bank of Canada expanded its new bond-buying program Wednesday to include purchases on the open market of long-term provincial and corporate debt, stepping in to aid provinces and big businesses in tapping strained credit markets for sorely needed funds.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-04-16)
OSFI has prepared the following questions and answers for federally regulated financial institutions about measures it has taken to address issues stemming from COVID-19.
CBC - Don Pittis (2020-04-15)
Momani says the world's poorest people, not just in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and South America but in U.S. inner cities, too, will suffer the most, and in ways that could lead to revolts. Places such as Venezuela, already chaotic, may collapse into something worse.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-04-15)
The central bank has already cut interest rates to near zero and injected C$150 billion ($108 billion) into financial markets with a program of asset purchases. Additional measures could include following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s recent move into yield curve control, introducing more explicit forward guidance on future policy intentions, or broadening asset purchases to include long-term provincial securities and corporate debt.
G&M - KONRAD YAKABUSKI (2020-04-14)
After seven years at the helm, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz would probably have preferred to go out with a whisper rather than a bang. Fate decided against that.
Bloomberg - Kait Bolongaro (2020-04-09)
The Canadian government will make it easier for companies to qualify for a wage subsidy program aimed at companies hit by the coronavirus after business groups said the rules were too restrictive.
WSJ - Andrew Ackerman (2020-04-08)
WSJ - Kate Davidson and Nick Timiraos (2020-04-07)
The Fed said it would create a new program to finance loans that banks and other lenders make through the government’s emergency small-business lending program.
G&M - James Bradshaw (2020-04-06)
Canada’s banks spent the weekend in intensive talks with Ottawa to iron out details of a program that will give interest-free loans to small businesses suffering due to the new coronavirus, but the length of time needed to process those loans has become a key point of discussion.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-04-03)
David Dodge has some candid things to say about the powerful weapons that the current leadership at the Bank of Canada has unleashed to fight the COVID-19 crisis.
WSJ - Yuka Hayashi (2020-04-03)
Faced with complaints from small banks, the federal government doubled the interest rate it will pay lenders—to 1%, up from 0.5%—under its emergency loan program for small businesses.
Bloomberg - John Ainger and James Hirai (2020-04-03)
Britain’s Debt Management Office will have to raise sales of government bonds to 285 billion pounds ($352 billion), according to Citigroup Inc. That’s over 50 billion pounds more than during the great financial crisis.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-04-02)
Canada’s central bank has a capable markets desk, but there’s only so much a relatively small group of 100 men and women can do at one time, especially when they have been forced to spread out in multiple locations to lower the odds that COVID-19 will infect their ranks.
G&M - Fergal Smith (2020-04-01)
The Bank of Canada is likely to buy about $200-billion of government debt after announcing its first quantitative-easing program, which would nearly triple the amount of assets on the central bank’s balance sheet, bond strategists estimate.
G&M - Reuters (2020-04-01)
The U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday broadened the ability of dozens of foreign central banks to access U.S. dollars during the coronavirus crisis by allowing them to exchange their holdings of U.S. Treasury securities for overnight dollar loans.
WSJ - Mike Bird (2020-04-01)
Allowing foreign central banks to access the Federal Reserve’s repo facilities is effectively cost-free, benefits American lenders and borrowers, and cements the dollar’s already-dominant role at the top of the hierarchy of currencies.
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2020-04-01)
The central bank launched its latest lending program to alleviate market strains by allowing foreign central banks to convert their holdings of Treasurys into dollars.
fsim.ca - Mark Sibthorpe (2020-04-01)
From 2014: Considering Bernanke is hated by the Republicans and hated even more by the Democrats, and is currently under scrutiny for saving AIG but not Lehman, (in hindsight) with respect to issues over solvency vs liquidity, the Montreal lovefest attended by 1,100 people yesterday must have been a welcome respite. Click the link to read the entire 2014 report.
G&M - James Bradshaw (2020-04-01)
Canada's banks are preparing to start offering government-backed loans to small businesses as soon as next week amid a flood of requests for relief from business owners.
G&M - Mike Blanchfield (2020-03-30)
Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne and International Development Minister Karina Gould confirmed the continuing campaigning in separate interviews with the Canadian Press this past week.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2020-03-30)
Canada’s banking regulator is giving financial institutions more flexibility on requirements such as capital buffers and filing deadlines to help banks, pension funds and insurers cope with the fallout of COVID-19.
Reuters - Reuters (2020-03-30)
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) announced on its website that it was lowering the 7-day reverse repo rate CN7DRRP=PBOC to 2.20% from 2.40%, but it did not give a reason for the move.
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2020-03-30)
The Federal Reserve quickly deployed a half-dozen emergency lending programs over the past two weeks. Now, Congress wants it to go much further, approving $454 billion to reload the Fed’s own ability to lend.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-03-30)
The regulator also said it’s tweaking banks’ capital and liquidity requirements so they’re suited for these “unprecedented circumstances.”
Reuters - Richard Cowan, David Morgan, Patricia Zengerle (2020-03-26)
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday unanimously backed a $2 trillion bill aimed at helping unemployed workers and industries hurt by the coronavirus epidemic, as well as providing billions of dollars to buy urgently needed medical equipment.
Reuters - William Schomberg (2020-03-26)
The Bank of England is expected to say on Thursday that it is ready to take further radical action to prop up the economy and Britain’s finance minister will announce help for self-employed workers hit by the coronavirus shutdown.
Reuters - Reuters (2020-03-26)
Short-time work is a form of state aid that allows employers to switch employees to shorter working hours during an economic downturn to keep them on the payroll. It has been widely used by industry, including Germany’s car sector, but not by banks.
G&M - Patrick Brethour (2020-03-26)
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. is tripling the size of its program to buy insured mortgage pools to $150-billion, more than double the amount the Crown corporation bought during the 2008 financial crisis.
Reuters - Dan Burns (2020-03-26)
The Fed’s total balance sheet size exploded by more than half a trillion dollars in a single week, roughly twice the pace of the next-largest weekly expansion in the financial crisis in October 2008. As of Wednesday, the Fed’s stash of assets totaled $5.3 trillion, according to data released on Thursday.
WSJ - Tom Fairless, Laurence Norman (2020-03-26)
The European Central Bank sent a powerful signal to investors that it will aggressively support Italy and other indebted eurozone countries that are battling the coronavirus, starting purchases under a new €750 billion ($812 billion) bond-buying program.
BOC - BOC (2020-03-25)
Learn about the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Bank’s actions to support the Canadian economy and financial system.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-03-25)
One of these requirements was the creation of the Domestic Stability Buffer (DSB) requirement for domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs). The DSB’s countercyclical design enables D-SIBs to use the capital they have built up during good times when it may be needed most.
G&M - Sajata Rao (2020-03-24)
Canada’s main stock index jumped on Tuesday, as hopes of further stimulus measures from major economies, after U.S. Federal Reserve offered unlimited bond buying, helped shore up demand for riskier assets.
G&M - Bill Curry, Robert Fife (2020-03-24)
The Liberal government announced late Monday that it has agreed to change draft legislation that proposed to grant itself wide-reaching new powers to tax and spend without parliamentary approval until Dec. 31, 2021, through an emergency spending bill.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis and Erik Hertzberg (2020-03-24)
The Bank of Canada said it will start acquiring provincially-issued money market securities, the latest in a series of steps to smooth friction from the nation’s financial system.
Reuters - David Lawder, Andrea Shalal (2020-03-23)
Mnuchin has closely followed the financial crisis playbook used by Paulson when he led the Treasury Department in 2008, reactivating Federal Reserve credit market backstops and asking Congress for $1 trillion to prop up companies and consumers as the economy grinds to a halt due to the spread of the virus.
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2020-03-23)
Wall Street’s biggest banks continued to seek far less temporary liquidity from the Federal Reserve on Friday than the central bank was willing to provide.
WSJ - Nick Timiroas (2020-03-23)
The Federal Reserve is likely to significantly boost its government-bond purchases beyond the $500 billion minimum it committed Sunday to buy amid market strains that sent interest rates higher in recent days.
FT - James Politi and Lauren Fedor (2020-03-23)
The negotiations hit an impasse on Sunday after Democrats on Capitol Hill said that the proposed deal offered big business an overly generous bailout with limited conditions and scant oversight.
G&M - Howard Schneider (2020-03-23)
“It’s their bazooka moment,” said Russell Price, chief economist at Ameriprise Financial Services in Troy, Michigan. “It’s their ‘we’ll do whatever it takes’ moment which should be a sign to financial markets and investors that the Fed will provide any and all liquidity necessary to support the economy through this period.”
Huffington Post - Lydia O'connor (2020-03-23)
Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, made the rounds on cable news Monday morning pushing that narrative. “The president is right,” he said on Fox News. “The cure can’t be worse than the disease, and we’re going to have to make some difficult tradeoffs.” Later on CNBC, he said, “At some point, you have to ask yourself whether the shutdown is doing more harm than good.”
G&M - Robert Fife, Emma Graney (2020-03-20)
One senior Alberta source said the province is expecting Ottawa to provide $15-billion in relief to an industry that has been hammered by the COVID-19 crisis and the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia that has cratered oil prices and energy-company stocks.
Reuters - Jamie Freed, David Shepardson (2020-03-20)
Conditions include provisions that loans may convert to government equity stakes, while U.S. airlines cannot increase executive pay or provide “golden parachutes” for two years. Air New Zealand’s (AIR.NZ) bailout also depends on the company suspending its dividend and paying interest rates of 7% to 9%.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-03-20)
Markets are certain the Bank of Canada will be forced to cut interest rates to near zero in coming weeks, and even days, to support an economy tumbling into recession. What happens after that is open to debate.
G&M - Robert Fife (2020-03-19)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled a sweeping emergency-aid package Wednesday aimed at helping Canadian workers and businesses survive the severe economic downturn caused by the new coronavirus pandemic.
Reuters - Marius Zaharia (2020-03-19)
Policymakers in the United States, Europe and Asia have slashed interest rates and opened liquidity taps to stabilise economies left almost comatose, with quarantined consumers, broken supply chains, paralysed transportation and depleted shops.
Bloomberg - John Authers (2020-03-19)
On one thing it seems that everyone agrees. The world has changed in the last two months, and by the time the pandemic subsides, it will have changed utterly. The Archbishop of Canterbury (who started his career as an oil executive before going into the church), has likened the impact to a nuclear explosion — “the initial impact is colossal but the fallout last for years and will shape us in ways we can’t even begin to predict at the moment."
FT - Martin Arnold (2020-03-19)
The European Central Bank has unveiled plans to buy an extra €750bn of bonds and issued a “no limits” commitment to defend the eurozone on Wednesday night in response to the worsening economic and financial turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
FT - James Politi (2020-03-19)
The US Federal Reserve increased its efforts to shore up financial markets late on Wednesday by setting up a facility that would make loans to banks secured by assets from money market mutual funds.
Bobsguide - Bobsguide (2020-03-19)
At its meeting on March 12, the Governing Council of the ECB unleashed new, unconventional monetary policy measures to support the liquidity of banks and credit to households and businesses. The new package includes, among other things, changes to the current longer-term auctions (TLTROs) and introduces new weekly auctions (LTROs) to steer banks towards the June TLTRO auction. The new conditions applied to transactions are quite complex: this article highlights the possible strategic responses of banks to maximise the benefits of the measures.
G&M - Robert Fife, Daniel Leblanc, Bill Curry (2020-03-18)
The federal government will unveil nearly $30-billion of emergency financial aid on Wednesday to help struggling Canadians and businesses cope with the economic fallout from the new coronavirus crisis, sources say.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-03-18)
After the Bank of Canada cut interest rates by a half-point on March 4, I wrote that the timing of its next move would be determined by oil prices. If I had thought to check the central bank’s measure of commodity prices, I might have been less surprised by the second cut nine days later.
G&M - Gordon Pape (2020-03-17)
A reader sent in a very relevant question last week: “If we head towards negative interest rates like some parts of the world, where does one invest their money to earn a decent return?”
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-03-16)
Minutes after the Bank of Canada slashed its key policy interest rate for the second time in nine days on Friday – with quite likely more cuts to come – Governor Stephen Poloz was asked in a press conference what more he could do to stimulate a threatened economy, with rates rapidly approaching zero.
CBC - Pete Evans (2020-03-16)
The Bank of Canada has made an unexpected rate cut, cutting the central bank's benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 0.75 per cent.
CBC - John Paul Tasker (2020-03-16)
Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced Friday that the government will establish a $10 billion credit facility to lend money to businesses under stress as a result of the spreading COVID-19 pandemic.
FP - Craig Torres, Rich Miller (2020-03-16)
The central bank also announced several other actions, including letting banks borrow from the discount window for as long as 90 days and reducing reserve requirement ratios to zero percent. In addition, it united with five other central banks to ensure dollars are available around the world via swap lines.
Reuters - Lewis Krauskoff (2020-03-16)
“This is an indication that the central bank is very scared about the environment we’re in,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Stamford, Connecticut. “The policy response is so strong, it’s likely to spook investors.”
Bloomberg - Daniel Moss (2020-03-16)
The coronavirus pandemic is giving birth to a new doctrine in central banking. What matters most isn't transparency or forecasts, but the ability to move quickly.
WSJ - Megumi Fujikawa (2020-03-16)
The Bank of Japan said it would double stock purchases and help companies get loans in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but the move failed to impress investors, who drove stocks down 2.5%.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-03-16)
The Bank of Canada unveiled new measures to keep Canada’s financial system flowing and support mortgage markets, as central banks step up efforts to avert a liquidity and lending crunch amid tumultuous markets.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-03-16)
To address the Covid-19 outbreak, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is suspending in-person hearings until the end of April, along with a variety of other operational changes.
Investment Executive - James Langton (2020-03-16)
Efforts by the world’s central banks to ensure that global financial markets continue to function, despite the fallout from the Covid-19 outbreak, provide banks with time and space to adjust to fast-changing conditions, says Fitch Ratings.
Bloomberg - Shelly Hagan (2020-03-13)
The Bank of Canada said Thursday after the closing bell that it plans to inject billions of dollars into markets to shore up stability, just eight days after it slashed interest rates by half a percentage point.
WSJ - Paul Vieira (2020-03-13)
The central bank said it was broadening its programs aimed at ensuring there is enough cash in the country’s financial system as the benchmark stock index posted one of its biggest one-day declines in decades.
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2020-03-13)
The New York Fed’s shock announcement Thursday that it was willing to offer up to $1.5 trillion in fresh short-term loans to big banks may have captured the most attention simply for the radical size of the number.
WSJ - Tom Fairless (2020-03-13)
The European Central Bank announced a package of bond purchases and cheap loans aimed at mitigating the economic shock of the pandemic and supporting the region’s banks.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-03-12)
The Bank of Canada will have to slash its key interest rate by another three-quarters of a percentage point in its next rate decision in mid-April, Bank of Montreal says, as plunging oil prices and mounting coronavirus fears prompt economists to rewrite their economic and rate forecasts.
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2020-03-12)
The New York Fed said it was raising to $175 billion the maximum amount of its overnight repurchase agreements that banks can collectively access.
Bloomberg - Michael Bellusci (2020-03-12)
Canadian stocks were flirting with the biggest drop since 1940 on Thursday after plunging at the opening on concerns about the spreading economic impact of the coronavirus.
Macleans - Leah McLaren (2020-03-11)
None of it is likely to hurt him in his new UN role, nor back home in Ottawa. Having been sneered at in a right-wing tabloid like the Daily Mail will only help Carney’s project if he does plan to take his long-rumoured run for the Liberals.
FP - David Milliken and Paul Sandle (2020-03-11)
In what amounts to a choreographed double-barrelled stimulus program, the BoE announced its unanimous emergency rate cut as London markets were opening and before Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government sets out its spending plans after midday.
Bloomberg - John Ainger and Greg Ritchie (2020-03-10)
U.K. bond issuance is set to surge to the highest level in nine years with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government expected to unveil a significant increase in budget spending.
Sales of gilts will rise to 166 billion pounds ($218 billion) in the 2020-2021 financial year, according to the median forecast of 13 bond dealers surveyed by Bloomberg.
The nation’s budget announcement on Wednesday coincides with an unprecedented bond rally that sent yields on short-term U.K. benchmark bonds below zero for the first time this week. If rates remain negative, investors may end up paying the government for the privilege of holding its bonds.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-03-10)
We will refine our regulatory frameworks for capital and liquidity to align with international reforms and tailor these for the Canadian market. We will also revise our regulatory and supervisory approaches to better suit small and medium-sized institutions. We will continue to prepare for the implementation of new financial and accounting reporting standards as well as regulatory returns and monitoring metrics where appropriate. We will assess institutions’ corporate governance practices to judge whether they are meeting our revised Corporate Governance Guideline. We will work with our federal partners to strengthen our crisis preparedness framework. We will explore threats associated with climate change and catastrophic events to determine appropriate regulatory and supervisory actions.
FSRA - FSRA (2020-03-09)
Since its launch, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) has taken significant steps towards regulatory transformation that will reduce regulatory burden and protect the public interest.
WSJ - Eric Uhlfelder (2020-03-09)
Economist Henry Kaufman earned the sobriquet of “Dr. Doom” for his gloomy but accurate forecasts of rising interest rates in the late ’70s and early ’80s.
G&M - James Bradshaw (2020-03-06)
Canada’s banks are in increasingly close contact with governments and regulators about contingency plans to prepare the financial sector to withstand potential outbreaks of COVID-19.
CBC - Reuters (2020-03-06)
"The Canadian economy has demonstrated good resilience in the past couple of years. That resilience could be seriously tested by COVID-19, however, depending on the severity and duration of its effects," he told a Toronto business audience.
Reuters - Manoj Kumar, Aftab Ahmed, Nupur Anand (2020-03-06)
State Bank of India (SBI.NS), the country’s largest lender, is exploring a wide range of rescue options for struggling Yes Bank Ltd (YESB.NS) including a complete buyout of its private-sector rival, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis, Erik Hertzberg, and Shelly Hagan (2020-03-05)
“We need a little bit of fiscal stimulus as well to at least support the economy through what is likely to be a bit of a rough patch through the spring,” Doug Porter, chief economist at Bank of Montreal, said by phone from Toronto. “It does make it more powerful if you’ve got both oars pulling at the same time. That can reinforce the message and help support the economy.”
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2020-03-05)
Big banks’ demand for central bank cash remained very strong on Wednesday, leading the Federal Reserve Bank to add a fresh $100 billion to the financial system.
G&M - Ian McGugan (2020-03-04)
The flagship S&P 500 Index of big U.S. stocks provided the most obvious gauge of money managers’ drum-tight nerves over the economic effects of the coronavirus. The market benchmark jumped after the Fed announced it was chopping the federal funds rate by half a percentage point, to between 1 per cent and 1.25 per cent.
CBC - Don Pittis (2020-03-04)
Economists' earlier hopes of a V-shaped recovery — a sharp rise back to normal after a sharp decline — are fading fast as evidence increases that the global effects of the virus on consumers and businesses are widening.
FP - Naomi Powell (2020-03-04)
Poloz is widely expected to cut Canada’s current benchmark interest rate of 1.75 per cent by 25 to 50 basis points on Wednesday.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-03-03)
Expectations of a Bank of Canada interest-rate cut this week have rapidly moved from unlikely to imminent as global governments and central banks begin to respond en masse to the escalating economic threat from the COVID-19 virus.
Bloomberg - Erik Hertzberg (2020-03-03)
Poloz, however, is due to speak on Thursday at 1 p.m. in Toronto and could take the opportunity to elaborate on the central bank’s thinking.
Reuters - Reuters (2020-03-02)
Goldman, which last week had already increased its forecast for Fed easing in response to the coronavirus outbreak, took it up a notch in its revised forecast on Sunday, which came out shortly before financial futures markets resumed trading for the week ahead. U.S. equity index futures were down by 1.3% and Treasury futures were higher as investors sought safety in government bonds.
G&M - Reuters (2020-02-28)
Banks and their regulators should be ready to share information across borders in an effective way as the coronavirus epidemic evolves, the Basel Committee of banking regulators said on Thursday.
Bloomberg - John Ainger (2020-02-28)
Investors aren’t buying the idea that central banks’ wait-and-see approach to the coronavirus will last, ramping up bets on interest-rate cuts that could start within months.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-02-27)
But with global financial markets plunging for a fourth day as COVID-19 spread to Europe and Iran, and as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans to prepare for an outbreak, a few questions on what the Canadian central bank is thinking about all this were unavoidable.
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2020-02-27)
A top Fed official says it is too early to tell whether the coronavirus outbreak will force the central bank to resume rate cuts in the coming months.
OSFI - William Francis Morneau (2020-02-27)
During 2018-19, we implemented a new strategic planning framework that included new governance, processes and tools. A key component of this framework is the OSFI Strategic Plan, which charts a path for our future that builds on the many achievements and learnings of the past.
BOC - Timothy Lane (2020-02-27)
Canadians are well-served by the existing payment ecosystem, so we believe there is no need for the Bank of Canada to issue its own digital currency at this time. But the world can change very quickly, so we need to get ready in case one is needed.
Finextra - Finextra (2020-02-27)
Carney says that financial markets are uniquely placed to help support the transition required by amplifing changes in attitudes, consumer preferences and climate policy.
Reuters - Reuters (2020-02-26)
The Bank of England told banks on Wednesday to accelerate their efforts to ditch the use of Libor if they want to avoid facing more punitive terms when borrowing from the central bank.
Bloomberg - Michelle F Davis (2020-02-26)
Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, another target of environmentalists, has said climate change will be solved with government policy.
“I’ve always thought it was a problem,” Dimon said at the bank’s investor day earlier Tuesday. “We should acknowledge the problem and start working on it.”
Financial firms often include dozens of disclaimers about potential risks in their annual 10-K filings, but JPMorgan’s have typically focused on those more directly related to the economy, regulation and competition. Meanwhile, economists at the firm have been warning clients about the potential for climate change to threatenthe global economy and even the human race.
G&M - Andrew Willis, Robert Fife (2020-02-25)
Alberta’s Premier privately urged Teck Resources Ltd. to move forward with the Frontier oil-sands mine project, despite the company’s fear it was becoming mired in intractable climate-change controversy.
FP - Martin Pelletier Martin Pelletier (2020-02-25)
Manufacturing sales have posted their fourth consecutive negative reading, retail sales were stagnant to end 2019 and signs are that GDP growth is stalling and may actually be negative when accounted for on a per-capita basis.
Finextra - Finextra (2020-02-25)
The FCA says that it inadvertently published the data in plain view on its Website in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Invezz - Ali Raza (2020-02-25)
At a recent conference organized by Ukraine’s central bank, several central banks, including the Canadian central bank, were against the need for CBDCs. In their opinion, blockchain technology is not better than other digital alternatives, and they wouldn’t want to change anything to that effect now.
American Banker - Neil Haggerty (2020-02-24)
Observers say a Sanders presidency could lead to a reversal of Trump regulatory relief initiatives, turnover at the top of the regulatory agencies, and a newfound focus on both enforcement actions and proposals that Sanders has supported in Congress to overhaul the banking industry's structure.
Jeffrey Naimon, a partner at Buckley LLP who defends financial services companies in enforcement matters, said that his clients are starting to consider the impact of a Sanders presidency.
“We are starting to see both banks and other financial services companies get interested because Sen. Sanders would represent a significant policy pivot, and obviously, federal policy has a great effect on the industry," Naimon said. "They are starting to consider what the possible ramifications might be, what initiatives they might take, and the kind of things they may not do.”Others say there is no cause for panicking just yet. Sanders, a democratic socialist, has jumped out to a sizable lead in delegates after strong showings in early state contests, including a commanding victory in the Nevada caucuses Saturday. But it is still early in the Democrats' nominating process, and the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday could offer more clarity.
Some analysts and bank representatives say they believe President Trump would have the advantage going into a general election against Sanders. And even if Sanders won, many said the GOP is still likely to hold the Senate and he would face other hurdles to enacting reforms detrimental to the industry.
“I think very few see him as the president of the United States and I think that’s why the market is pretty sanguine about the election so far,” a banking industry source said on the condition of anonymity. “They see it either being Trump or [former New York City Mayor Mike] Bloomberg, or a couple of others. … If Bernie becomes the nominee, they think it is much more likely that Trump will stay president.”
Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate, has long been one of the harshest critics of Wall Street in Congress, advocating for sweeping reforms such as breaking up the big banks and reinstating Glass-Steagall, among other things.
In May 2019, Sanders along with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introduced a bill to cap credit card interest rates at 15%, though it is viewed as dead on arrival in the current Republican-controlled Senate.
The previous October he introduced a bill that would cap a financial institution’s total exposure at 3% of the nation’s GDP, saying at the time that "the four largest financial institutions in this country are on average 80% larger than they were before we bailed them out” in the financial crisis.
Some commentators have declared that the Democratic race is Sanders' to lose. But several analysts still doubt his chances.
As of Sunday, FiveThirtyEight's projection model ranked the odds of Sanders winning a majority of pledged delegates the same as that of no candidate winning a majority. The latter scenario could result in a contested convention.
“Sanders has a strong base, but one that is hard to expand,” Jaret Seiberg, an analyst at Cowen Washington Research Group, said in a note Thursday. “It is why we still see a moderate winning the nomination, though it is becoming a closer call.”"A new president won’t have the immediate opportunity to change the chair of the FDIC, the Comptroller of the Currency, or the chairman of the Fed, but would have to wait until their terms expired," Naimon said.
To be clear, Sanders isn’t the only progressive Wall Street critic in the Democratic primary. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has heavily criticized the Trump administration's financial regulators, Wells Fargo and other large banks, and was the architect of the CFPB.
"From my perspective, I think that a lot of the proposals that [Sanders] has put forward … are not entirely dissimilar from the proposals that Sen. Warren has put forward," Naimon said.
But Warren’s rhetoric on the presidential campaign has been viewed as less worrisome for banks.
“Elizabeth Warren reiterated that she’s a capitalist,” the industry source said. “Bernie talks about a revolution and Sen. Warren talks about using government to help those who have been left behind.”
Industry representatives say banks' fears will grow if Sanders becomes president and tries to make his policy proposals a reality.
“I think an outcome that we would be most concerned about ... is that our business models would cease to exist,” the industry source said. “I think the bigger concern is anything else that he does to fundamentally alter this idea of a banking and securities industry that work together and are combined under one entity. … You could do that by massively raising capital requirements for large financial institutions. You could do that through certain Fed rules.”
And it is not just larger financial institutions raising concern about Sanders’ policy positions.
Paul Merski, group executive vice president for congressional relations and strategy for the Independent Community Bankers of America, said many of the policies Sanders supports would likely be detrimental to the sector, although the ICBA will not endorse or oppose any presidential candidates.
G&M - MARWA RASHAD AND FRANCESCO CANEPA (2020-02-24)
Finance chiefs of the world’s top 20 economies vowed to monitor the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on global growth and act if needed, as they said loose monetary policy and easing trade tensions would prompt a pick-up in 2020 and 2021.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-02-24)
“Private equity in Quebec is important for the Caisse,” Emond, who oversees the assets of the Quebec Pension Plan and 40 other provincial funds, told reporters in Montreal on Feb. 20, when CDPQ released its 2019 results.
FP - Jesse Snyder and Julia Mastroianni (2020-02-19)
A coalition of 39 industry associations wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday, calling on him to “work urgently” with First Nations and police to bring the blockade to a peaceful end.
Reuters - Karen Freifeld (2020-02-19)
U.S. prosecutors overlooked apparent violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran by HSBC Holdings in exchange for the British bank’s cooperation with a government investigation of Huawei Technologies, lawyers for the Chinese telecoms giant said.
IE - James Langton (2020-02-19)
The central bank, which is taking over as administrator of the interest rate benchmark from Refinitiv Benchmark Services (UK) Ltd., will start providing the benchmark for free on its website on June 15.
BOC - Press Release (2020-02-19)
The Bank of Canada will take over the responsibility for publishing the Canadian Overnight Repo Rate Average (CORRA), effective Monday, June 15, 2020.
American Banker - Neil Haggerty (2020-02-19)
The former New York City mayor surprised many in the industry with a comprehensive financial policy plan that would reinstate post-crisis rules that have been weakened or eliminated in the Trump administration, but would also enact additional reforms that echo the platforms of Elizabeth Warren and even Bernie Sanders.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-02-19)
Why? Rita Trichur, one of the better chroniclers of Bay Street, offered a plausible answer. “If you’re wondering why OSFI is suddenly considering fiddling with the stress test as froth builds in the Vancouver and Toronto housing markets, household debt remains high and consumer insolvencies are rising, look no further than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his waning political fortunes,” she said in the Globe and Mail on Feb. 13.
G&M - Andrew Willis (2020-02-17)
The federal Liberals are mulling a reboot of the Canada Infrastructure Bank over frustrations with what the government perceives as a failure to execute at the $35-billion investment fund.
Reuters - Karen Freifeld (2020-02-13)
U.S. prosecutors on Thursday accused Huawei of stealing trade secrets and helping Iran track protesters in its latest indictment against the Chinese company, escalating the U.S. battle with the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker.
Bloomberg - Divya Balji, Michael Bellusci, and Robert Tuttle (2020-02-13)
Protests against a natural gas pipeline are crippling Canada’s railways -- key economic arteries in the sprawling, trade-dependent nation -- and prompting cries of “insanity” and “ecoterrorism” from business leaders.
Canadian National Railway Co., the country’s largest rail provider, has canceled 400 trains in the past week and said on Thursday that it will shut down its operations in Eastern Canada, possibly leading to temporary layoffs. Via Rail, which operates passenger train service across the nation, is canceling all services effective immediately.
The cancellations mark the most severe fallout yet from protests that have spread across Canada in recent days, disrupting shipments of oil, grain, propane, lumber and consumer goods. Environmental and indigenous-rights activists are blockading rail lines, ports and other infrastructure to show solidarity with portions of the Wet’suwet’en Nation that are protesting construction of TC Energy Corp.’s planned C$6.6 billion ($5 billion) Coastal GasLink pipeline through their territory in British Columbia.
FP - Geoff Zochodne (2020-02-12)
However, “a slowly developing economic scenario, like 5/30, represents the greatest threat to the financial condition” to CMHC’s business, the report suggests, since it could drive its mortgage insurer capital adequacy ratio below an industry-wide target set by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.
G&M - ELMIRA ALIAKBARI AND ASHLEY STEDMAN (2020-02-11)
When he leaves the Bank of England in March, Mark Carney will take up the post of United Nations special envoy on climate action and finance, where he will push financial institutions and banks to adopt new measures that account for climate risk. In a recent BBC radio interview, Mr. Carney stated, “Financial services have been too slow to cut investment in fossil fuels, a delay that could lead to a sharp increase in global temperatures.”
Reuters - Anna Saphir (2020-02-11)
That assessment would echo the formal report the Fed submitted to the U.S. Congress on Friday, which repeated the central bank’s view that its current target range for short-term borrowing costs, between 1.5% and 1.75%, is “appropriate” to keep the expansion on track.
FT - Clare Jones (2020-02-11)
$414bn is a big number – even if you’ve got the right to print as many dollars as you like.
FP - Gabriel Friedman (2020-02-10)
The Autorité des marchés publics (AMP) on Wednesday named six SNC-Lavalin entities to its list of companies that are ineligible to bid on public contracts, known as RENA.
Reuters - Balazs Koranyi, Francesco Canepa, Frank Siebelt (2020-02-10)
A greater emphasis on consensus has boosted the Governing Council’s role and given more voice to critics like Germany whose support may be vital whenever the next downturn comes, most of the sources, all with direct knowledge of the inner workings of the ECB, said.
WSJ - Anna Isaac and Caitlin Ostroff (2020-02-10)
A sharp move in the British pound last month in the minutes ahead of a crucial central-bank decision wasn’t a unique occurrence, according to data reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
WSJ - JULIA-AMBRA VERLAINE (2020-02-10)
Fannie and Freddie said they will soon accept mortgages based on the secured overnight financing rate, or SOFR, an alternative rate created by a Fed committee of regulators, banks and asset managers.
Finextra - Finextra (2020-02-10)
"Unfortunately, the Equifax hack fits a disturbing and unacceptable pattern of state-sponsored computer intrusions and thefts by China and its citizens that have targeted personally identifiable information, trade secrets, and other confidential information."
Finextra - Finextra (2020-02-07)
"Given the growing role of nonbank technology players in payments, a review of the nation’s oversight framework for retail payment systems could be helpful to identify important gaps," she says. "A good place to start may be contrasting the US oversight framework for retail payment systems with other jurisdictions. Many foreign central banks, for example, have explicit authority for general retail payments oversight. Moreover, most jurisdictions require that payment systems obtain a license and/or registration before commencing operations."
G&M - Greg Mcarthur (2020-02-07)
Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government has launched a review of how it polices the securities industry, appointing a high-profile committee with a mission of creating a “more flexible regulatory approach.”
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-02-06)
I wasn’t planning to write a two-part series on productivity this week, but then again, I wasn’t counting on so much high-profile help in making the case that it’s way past time for Canada to start taking the subject seriously.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis and Erik Hertzberg (2020-02-06)
Canadian policy makers need to look beyond monetary policy to reverse the long-term trend of slowing growth and low interest rates in the face of aging demographics and falling productivity, Bank of Canada’s No. 2 official said.
Bloomberg - Lionel Laurent (2020-02-06)
Last month, Irelandâs finance minister Paschal Donohoe, whose ruling party Fine Gael is struggling in opinion polls ahead of Saturdayâs general election, raised this red flag as one of several global risks threatening the small, trade-reliant country of 4.9 million people. As the international loopholes allowing elaborate tax-dodging schemes â made famous by the likes of Starbucks Corp., Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. â gradually get closed, and as countries around the world start to overhaul the way taxes are collected, Donohoe warned that Ireland should budget for an estimated 500 million-euro hit every year from 2022. His country has been a magnet for the âtax-optimizingâ plans of international companies via its 12.5% corporate tax rate and other perks.
WSJ - Rebecca Ballhaus, Natalie Andrews (2020-02-06)
G&M - Brent Jang (2020-02-04)
Canadian softwood producers are getting a surprise break from the United States.
Gowling WLG - Gowling (2020-02-03)
Digital currency is simply (or perhaps not so simply) currency held in a digital representation but which remains the same as sovereign currency in paper (or polymer) bill form. This differs from virtual or crypto currencies which are alternatives to money. Digital currency might be exchanged using electronic transfers or by cards. A significant portion of the funds in our money supply is already effectively maintained electronically in accounts. A digital currency changes the physical methods by which currency can be exchanged by individuals and businesses.
AA.com - Cindi Cook (2020-02-03)
Eight West African countries announced their intent to cease using the CFA franc, a France-backed currency used by former colonies in the region, beginning July 1, and renamed a common currency, the Eco.
G&M - Mark Rendell (2020-02-03)
The Canadian Securities Exchange, home to dozens of small-cap and U.S.-focused cannabis companies, will soon be under increased scrutiny from securities regulators. The British Columbia Securities Commission announced on Friday that it will start overseeing the junior exchange alongside the Ontario Securities Commission – the current regulator.
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2020-01-31)
The Fed could decide by the middle of the year to change its policy-setting approach. This raises some questions.
G&M - Michael Babad (2020-01-30)
Bank of Nova Scotia believes the central bank could trim interest rates this year faster than it did during the SARS crisis of 2003.
CBC - AP (2020-01-30)
The Fed's statement was nearly identical to the one it issued after its December meeting, though it described consumer spending as rising at only a "moderate" rather than at a "strong" pace. That change likely reflects relatively modest spending by Americans over the winter holidays.
Reuters - Moira Warburton (2020-01-30)
Ottawa should require U.S. tech companies such as Netflix (NFLX.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and Facebook (FB.O) to collect the same taxes as Canadian companies and also be subject to the same requirements for supporting domestically produced content, a Canadian government-mandated panel recommended on Wednesday.
TheDiciplinedInvestor.com - Andrew Horowitz (2020-01-30)
Back in September, there was a mini-crisis within the Repo Market. We discussed the details of what occurred in the 4th Quarter 2019 Economic Commentary. Since then there has been a concerted effort by the Fed to ensure that the end-of-quarter and end-of-year liquidity requirements would be sufficient. As a result, the Fed has embarked on a rather aggressive plan that has continued to push funds into the short-term lending markets. To be clear, the term “aggressive” doesn’t quite describe the lengths that they have gone to over the past few months.
FP - Reuters (2020-01-29)
Ottawa must decide by end-February if Teck Resources Ltd can build the $20.6 billion (US$15.7 billion) Frontier mine in northern Alberta, capable of eventually producing 260,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Reuters - Leika Kihara (2020-01-29)
The danger of committing to an inflation target and difficulty of managing expectations were debated in earnest at the Bank of Japan a decade ago, showed transcripts released on Wednesday, as U.S. and European central bankers grapple with similar topics.
Bloomberg - Michelle Davis (2020-01-29)
JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to dismiss several hundred workers from its consumer unit as the lender seeks to rein in costs, according to people briefed on the matter.
The bank intends to notify affected employees on Feb. 6 and cuts will be scattered across the division, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The consumer unit, which houses the deposit, credit-card, home and auto lending businesses, contributes nearly half of the firm’s revenue.
Banks around the world have
cut thousands of jobs as they slash costs to weather a slowing economy and adapt to shifts in consumer behavior and in digital technology. At JPMorgan, the cuts are part of a broader review of operations as customers increasingly access banking services through mobile phones or digital platforms.
A JPMorgan spokeswoman declined to comment. The planned cuts represent about 1% of employees in the unit and workers will be given the chance to apply for other roles in the firm, another person said.
Bloomberg - Paul Gordon (2020-01-29)
The European Central Bank’s former vice president has weighed into the institution’s review of its inflation target, saying two of the key ideas on the table don’t stand up to scrutiny.
FP - Barbara Shecter (2020-01-28)
Maureen Jensen’s decision to leave the Ontario Securities Commission nearly a year before her term as chairperson expires is reviving debate over the relationship between Canada’s largest capital markets watchdog and the government that oversees it.
Finextra - Finextra (2020-01-28)
The Select Committee of Financial and Regulatory Technology, established in September, is undertaking a review of Australia's innovation sectors, for which it has received 123 submissions.
IE - Rudy Mezzetta (2020-01-28)
On Friday, Prosper Canada submitted a proposal to the Department of Finance Canada asking Ottawa for $20.7 million over five years to fund its Financial Empowerment Champion (FEC) program, which supports community organizations that provide financial education, tax-filing assistance and money management coaching to “financially vulnerable” Canadians.
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2020-01-27)
As part of their contingency planning for the next recession, the Fed is looking at a stimulus scheme the U.S. last used during and after World War II.
Yahoo Finance - Ben Werschkul (2020-01-27)
"What folks don't really understand is we have several trusts funds in really imminent danger," Goldwein says in an interview with Yahoo Finance’s “On the Move.” "We don't need to save Social Security for our grandkids, we actually need to save it for our grandparents.”
CBC - AP (2020-01-27)
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has brushed off criticism and mockery from the U.S. Treasury chief, saying Friday his comments have "of course no effect" on her and fellow campaigners.
G&M - Sean Silcoff (2020-01-24)
The federal government has enticed Mastercard Inc. to open a technology research and development centre in Vancouver with $49-million in incentives through its Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF).
Bloomberg - Chris Fournier and Erik Hertzberg (2020-01-24)
A more dovish than expected tone from Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz is intensifying focus on incoming economic data, with Friday’s retail sales numbers now in the crosshairs.
Finextra - Finextra (2020-01-24)
The UK central bank says it requires "an experienced partner to assist in design, construction and assurance of a modern, fit for purpose cloud environment."
Insurance Portal - IIJ (2020-01-24)
In a statement, the J5 said the action took place as part of a series of investigations in multiple countries into an international financial institution located in Central America, whose products and services are believed to be facilitating money laundering and tax evasion for customers across the globe.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-01-23)
In case you had any doubt, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz stated it in plain English: The door is open for a rate cut. The bigger question now is, what would make the central bank boss walk through it?
G&M - Bill Curry (2020-01-23)
Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said weaker economic growth in the fourth quarter is spilling into the early part of 2020 and signalled a possible interest rate cut should that weakness continue.
G&M - Nicole Thompson (2020-01-23)
German automotive giant Volkswagen AG was ordered Wednesday to pay a $196.5-million fine to the Canadian government after pleading guilty in an emissions-cheating scandal.
FP - Esteban Duarte (2020-01-23)
Debt due in two decades would help Canada insulate its finances against higher interest rates down the road, but it would also allow asset managers to better pair similarly dated liabilities with government bonds. That’s the view of Randall Malcolm, Toronto-based senior managing director of fixed income at SLC Management, which oversees $227 billion (US$173.8 billion).
G&M - Joseph Groia (2020-01-23)
Do most Ontarians know that there is more than $100-million of public money sitting in a bank account at the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) just waiting to be spent on health care, education or legal aid? Unfortunately, they may not as the OSC is badly behind on its statutory corporate-governance obligations (ironically for our capital markets regulator). It is also not clear what Queen’s Park plans to do about it.
G&M - Luke Baker (2020-01-23)
France and the United States agreed on Thursday how to press ahead with a global rewrite of cross-border tax rules for the digital era, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.
Bloomberg - Bloomberg (2020-01-22)
In public appearances since October, including a number from Poloz, officials have sought to accentuate the positive, highlighting the nation’s strong jobs market and on-target inflation. At the same time, they’ve been reluctant to put much stock in weaker indicators they say are transitory.
Last month, Deputy Governor Timothy Lane defended the Bank of Canada’s decision to buck the global easing trend, saying the nation’s resilient economy is allowing it to “chart its own course in monetary policy.”
G&M - James Bradshaw (2020-01-21)
The federal government can make longer-term mortgages more attractive to banks and their customers by loosening a stress test for borrowers if they choose terms of 10 years or longer, according to the C.D. Howe Institute.
Finextra - Finextra (2020-01-21)
The group - comprising The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank and the Swiss National Bank, together with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) - will assess CBDC use cases; economic, functional and technical design choices, including cross-border interoperability; and the sharing of knowledge on emerging technologies.
G&M - Greg Mcarthur (2020-01-21)
Ontario Securities Commission chair and CEO Maureen Jensen is resigning almost a year before her term expires amid tensions with the Progressive Conservative government.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-01-20)
The Bank of Canada will be weighing deteriorating economic numbers against an improving global trade climate, as it prepares this week to issue its first interest-rate decision and economic projections of 2020.
G&M - Josh O'Kane (2020-01-20)
Sitting in a sun-splashed office on the edge of the Rhine River that once belonged to West German presidents, Andreas Mundt leans his elbows on a table and nods to a yellow and blue experimental painting by the artist Maiken Bardeschi. It’s called Frei, he says – the German word for free. “I like that a lot,” he says. “Competition law is a lot about freedom. It’s about choice. And this matters a lot to me.”
FP - Geoff Zachodine (2020-01-20)
The country’s chief statistician on Tuesday said the traditional ways of collecting information have become less effective in a more digital world, and that Statistics Canada is prepared to start harnessing more “alternate” sources of data.
CBC - Jason Proctor (2020-01-20)
More than a year after Meng Wanzhou's arrest at Vancouver International Airport, the first formal phase of the Huawei executive's extradition hearing begins Monday in B.C. Supreme Court.
WSJ - Dylan tokar (2020-01-20)
Donville Inniss, a former minister of industry for Barbados, was convicted of laundering bribes he allegedly received from an insurance company that was seeking to renew a public contract.
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2020-01-20)
As the Federal Reserve added $52.6 billion in short-term liquidity to the financial system Friday to aid money markets, central bank officials debated the program that has been in place since September.
BOC - BOC (2020-01-20)
Results from the winter Business Outlook Survey suggest that business sentiment is broadly positive except in the Prairies, where indicators remain weak. In aggregate, firms’ outlook is supported by expectations of healthy domestic and foreign sales.
OSFI - OSFI (2020-01-20)
OSFI is revising its capital requirements for operational risk applicable to deposit-taking institutions (DTIs) to reflect the final Basel III reforms published by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in December 2017Footnote1.
FP - Esteban Duarte (2020-01-17)
The top rated nation issued a US$3 billion of bonds at 6 basis points over the U.S. Treasury yield, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s equivalent to a yield in loonies of around 1.91 per cent and compares with 1.60 per cent for Canada’s five-year bonds denominated in the country’s own currency, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
G&M - ANA SWANSON AND ALAN RAPPEPORT (2020-01-16)
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an initial trade deal with China on Wednesday, bringing the first chapter of a protracted and economically damaging fight with one of the world’s largest economies to a close.
FP - Terence Corcoran (2020-01-16)
I have some welcome news for Canada’s fossil fuel industry. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, soon to be the UN envoy on climate finance, will not be joining the fossil fuel divestment movement. “I absolutely disagree with divestment campaigns,” Carney said in an email to an FP Comment column reader in Calgary.
FP - TEGAN HILL, JAKE FUSS (2020-01-15)
Sound fiscal policy is crucial for a healthy economy. A key component of sound policy is the appropriate size and role of government (i.e. government spending and regulations). Higher spending comes at the expense of higher taxes, levied now or in the future through larger deficits and greater debt accumulation, all of which can influence economic growth and social progress. This issue is particularly relevant today, as 2019 marks the highest level of federal government spending in Canadian history.
FP - John Constable (2020-01-15)
Mark Carney is using his final days as governor of the Bank of England to intimidate institutional financial managers by suggesting that investments in conventional energy are high-risk adventures requiring special justification.
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2020-01-15)
WSJ - Phil Gramm (2020-01-15)
WSJ - Editorial Board (2020-01-15)
G&M - Bill Curry (2020-01-14)
Finance Minister Bill Morneau says fiscal policy such as increased government spending will need to play a larger role in the event of an economic downturn because central banks can do little with global interest rates near historic lows.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2020-01-13)
This is important because the case that the Canadian economy is in trouble is based on a set of data that is blind to much of the wealth that’s being generated in the digital realm. For example, Bank of Nova Scotia’s real-time forecast of gross domestic product, which is based on historical patterns of high-frequency data, dipped into negative territory after StatCan reported on Jan. 7 that merchandise exports declined in November.
G&M - CP (2020-01-10)
Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz says the central bank is working on plans for a new $5 bill.
CBC - Don Pittis (2020-01-10)
In fact, Poloz maintained that not only has the economy improved on his watch but that it continues to do very well, and that's despite a period of global uncertainty of the type that has led to this week's crash of a Ukrainian passenger aircraft in Iran that killed all 176 people on board.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis (2020-01-10)
“It is understandable that companies are reluctant to make big investments in this setting,” Poloz said in prepared remarks provided to reporters. “On the surface, there has been some improvement on this front lately, although it remains to be seen whether this will lead to a recovery of trade and investment.”
Finextra - Finextra (2020-01-09)
American Express has taken another step towards entering the massive Chinese payments market after the country's central bank accepted the US firm's application to start a bank card clearing business.
FT - Katrina Manson (2020-01-08)
Donald Trump moved away from a military confrontation with Iran, saying Tehran “appeared to be standing down” after attacking two Iraqi bases hosting US troops in retaliation for the killing of its top general.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2020-01-08)
The Bank of Canada is about to introduce an important new addition to Canada’s suite of economic indicators – one that focuses on the Canadian consumer at what could be a key juncture for a huge and critical segment of the economy.
Yahoo Finance - Pedro Febrero (2020-01-07)
In November last year, Coin Rivet reported that the US Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) has called for tighter regulations on stablecoins and digital assets.
FP - Geoff Zochodne (2020-01-07)
The chief executive of Canada’s biggest bank says the federal government need to exercise caution as it considers adjusting the mortgage stress test that has loomed over the housing market and rankled the real-estate industry.
G&M - QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA AND ZEINA KARAM (2020-01-03)
The Pentagon said Thursday that the U.S. military has killed General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, at the direction of President Donald Trump.
G&M - Reuters (2020-01-03)
About 400 people were arrested in New Year’s Day protests in Hong Kong after what started as a peaceful pro-democracy march of tens of thousands spiralled into chaotic scenes with police firing tear gas to disperse the crowds.
FP - Geoff Zochodne (2020-01-03)
The new head of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is promising the federal regulator will be much more active as it prepares to enforce new consumer-protection measures and tries to keep an evolving banking sector in line.
Reuters - Reuters (2020-01-03)
The second source said that under the plan the central bank would transfer any profits it earned from the sale of Sberbank to the state budget. A third source, a well-placed financial market insider, said the same.
Bloomberg - Elisa Martinuzzi (2020-01-03)
Europe’s reputation on financial crime took another battering in 2019. Several of the region’s biggest lenders, including ABN Amro Bank NV and Swedbank AB, were tarred by allegations that they let criminals move around their cash unhindered, a reminder that Danske Bank A/S’s mammoth money-laundering failings weren’t isolated.
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2020-01-03)
The power of Federal Reserve governors has withered and needs to be restored to help the central bank be more democratically accountable and make monetary policy effectively, new research says.
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2020-01-03)
After navigating a quiet end to money-market trading in 2019—greased by a massive wave of central bank liquidity—the Federal Reserve Bank of New York injected a modest amount of money into financial markets.
WSJ - Patricia Kowsmann Giovanni Legorano (2020-01-03)
A cluster of recent bailouts of ailing European lenders shows how governments are getting around post-financial crisis rules meant to make sure investors and shareholders take losses as a condition of receiving taxpayer funds.
CBC - AP (2019-12-23)
Treasury chief Sajid Javid, who announced the appointment Friday, said Bailey was the "clear front-runner" to replace Canadian Mark Carney. By the time Carney leaves on March 15, he will have been at the helm for nearly seven action-packed years.
Reuters - Reuters (2019-12-23)
Riyadh’s criminal court pronounced the death penalty on five individuals, whose names have not yet been released, “for committing and directly participating in the murder of the victim”.
Bloomberg - Rafael Gayol, Harumi Ichikura, Cynthia Li, Chris Middleton, Barbara Sladkowska, and Kyungjin Yoo (2019-12-23)
Reuters - George Hay (2019-12-20)
Saudi Arabia’s Plan A for its crown jewel hasn’t gone to plan. The kingdom’s original goal of selling 5% of energy giant Saudi Aramco in an initial public offering to foreign investors at a $2 trillion valuation got downsized to a 1.5% offload to largely domestic punters at $1.7 trillion. That implies Saudi’s Public Investment Fund might only get about a quarter of the $100 billion it originally envisaged to help diversify the country away from oil
Bloomberg - David Goodman and Jess Shankleman (2019-12-20)
Bloomberg - Mark Gongloff (2019-12-20)
Sweden’s Riksbank, zigging while the rest of the world zags, just raised interest rates, despite anxiety about the economy and sluggish inflation. It’s a bit of desperation central banking, Mohamed El-Erian explains. Rates around the world are at or below rock bottom, without supercharging growth. Meanwhile savers and banks suffer, which may defeat the purpose of low rates, and wild gambling with cheap money fosters zombie companies and boosts the odds of a blow-up.
Ferdinando Giugliano suggests Sweden is panicking about negative rates for nothing. There’s no proof they’re doing real damage yet, he argues. Hiking rates, meanwhile, could definitely hurt the economy, forcing the Riksbank to reverse its decision.
NBC - NBC (2019-12-20)
British lawmakers on Friday finally voted to back a plan to withdraw from the European Union.
G&M - Michael Babad (2019-12-19)
The Bank of Canada will need to watch how fast it raises interest rates given the higher sensitivity among borrowers and how consumer insolvencies have spiked.
G&M - Staff (2019-12-19)
But look a bit closer. Mr. Morneau’s extra helping of red ink comes with a very large asterisk. These expected higher federal deficits are not about a collapse in revenues, or a sudden spike in spending. What’s at work here is an actuarial adjustment, caused by historically low interest rates.
G&M - Campbell Clark (2019-12-19)
The magic trick of Liberal fiscal policy is that deficits and the debt burden are always going down, but never actually get lower.
Bloomberg - Marcus Ashworth (2019-12-19)
Bloomberg - Alberto Gallo (2019-12-19)
CTV - CP (2019-12-19)
Canada has asked the United States not to sign any final trade agreement with China until two Canadians detained in China have been released, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a French-language TV network.
G&M - Bill Curry (2019-12-18)
A prolonged slump in oil prices has hurt government finances and increased unemployment in the three energy-producing provinces.
G&M - Michael Babad (2019-12-18)
As The Globe and Mail’s Bill Curry reports, the Liberal budget deficits are under pressure from a hefty adjustment to pension and benefit costs, plus the government’s tax changes.
Finextra - Finextra (2019-12-18)
The Bank of England's Biennial Exploratory Scenario (BES) will cover multiple scenarios that cover climate as well as macro-variables: to test the resilience of the UK’s financial system against the physical and transition risks in three distinct climate scenarios. These range from taking early, late and no additional policy action to meet global climate goals.
Finextra - Finextra (2019-12-18)
"Stablecoin networks at global scale are leading us to revisit questions over what form money can take, who or what can issue it, and how payments can be recorded and settled," she says. "Stablecoins aspire to achieve the functions of traditional money without relying on confidence in an issuer—such as a central bank—to stand behind the 'money'. For some potential stablecoins, a close assessment suggests users may have no rights with respect to the underlying assets or any issuer.
FP - Theophilos Argitis (2019-12-17)
The projections from Finance Minister Bill Morneau show the nation is on track to run a $26.6 billion deficit this year and a $28.1 billion gap in 2020, higher than what was outlined in the spring budget. Morneau said lower interest rates forced the government to revalue what it needs to put aside for future pension obligations â adding about $28 billion in spending over five years.
Reuters - EDWARD HADAS (2019-12-17)
Do you believe in magic? That might be the right first question for whoever succeeds Mark Carney as governor of the Bank of England. The newly mandated government of Boris Johnson is expected to name a successor to the Canadian in the next few days. The list of possible candidates is extensive enough, but with no obvious frontrunner.
WSJ - Mark Maurer (2019-12-17)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s planned changes to auditor independence rules would give firms more discretion in assessing conflicts of interest in their relationships with companies they audit, people familiar with the matter say.
Reuters - Reuters (2019-12-16)
The Chinese officials breached security at a base in Virginia this fall, and only stopped driving after fire trucks were used to block their path, the Times said.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis (2019-12-16)
It’s only a coincidence Monday’s meeting took place a few days after Stephen Poloz announced he won’t seek a second term as governor of the Bank of Canada. But Carney either hired or worked with most of the top candidates during the five years he ran the Canadian central bank before taking the reins of U.K. monetary policy in 2013.
BNN Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis (2019-12-16)
The government is currently on track to run a deficit of $26.6 billion this year and $28.1 billion in 2020, according to a fiscal update released Monday in Ottawa by Finance Minister Bill Morneau. That’s above the $19.8 billion and $19.7 billion deficits projected in the government’s last budget. Deficits in the five years between 2019 and 2023 will exceed projections by about $35 billion.
G&M - Matt Lundy (2019-12-15)
The national debt burden is a closely watched metric of Canadians’ financial health, inspiring no shortage of concern as it steadily increased through much of the decade. In recent years, however, the ratio has levelled off – and in some quarters, actually decreased – after the Bank of Canada raised interest rates and tougher mortgage lending conditions went into effect.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2019-12-15)
The new paper is based on remarks he made in September at the annual Spruce Meadows Changing Fortunes Roundtable, a discrete gathering of carefully selected members of the global elite in Calgary. Poloz imagines where Canada could end up years from now as digital technology, protectionist politics, and unprecedented levels of debt converge to generate forces that will be unfamiliar to executives, investors and policy makers. The point of the exercise is to suggest that the future should turn out fine, if different, provided we don’t get hung up on what Barack Obama might call “stupid shit” along the way.
OSFI - OSFI - Video (2019-12-13)
Watch Superintendent Jeremy Rudin's video message for OSFI's annual report.
G&M - PAUL WALDIE (2019-12-13)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has won a stunning electoral victory, defying expectations and clearing the way for Britain to leave the European Union next month.
CBC - AP (2019-12-13)
The bank's new president said at her first news conference Thursday that she will lead a top to bottom review of how the institution sets monetary policy, looking at everything from how it defines success in fighting inflation to whether it can play a role financing the fight against global warming.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis (2019-12-13)
“Perhaps the recent tendency for inflation to run below target in many countries has fostered a degree of complacency,” Poloz said. “The risk of a surprise outbreak in global inflation is low, but it seems to be that the combination of elevated household and government indebtedness and populist politics holds inflationary potential for some countries.”
Bloomberg - Ferdinando Giugliano (2019-12-13)
As Lagarde has acknowledged, there will be a tension between communicating rigorously and talking to a broader public. She asked reporters not to over-interpret her messages when she talks to people who lack technical expertise. But will this really be possible? She’s the president of the ECB, after all, and investors will be listening for hints of the central bank’s next moves every time she speaks. There’s a risk that she could create confusion, or even that market players could stop paying so much attention to her.
Reuters - JOHN REVILL (2019-12-12)
Swiss lawmakers are preparing a campaign that would make targeting climate change one of the policy objectives of the Swiss National Bank, alongside the traditional monetary targets of ensuring price stability and fostering economic growth.
FT - Don Weinland (2019-12-12)
A flurry of Chinese banks are being forced to buy back shares to stabilise their stock prices following a series of bank bailouts and mounting pressure on the country’s financial system.
CBC - CBC (2019-12-12)
CBC News has learned he told his caucus the news today and will make an announcement in the House of Commons.
G&M - Robert Fife (2019-12-11)
Parliament will set up a special committee to review all aspects of Canada’s strained relationship with China amid a prolonged diplomatic and trade dispute with its second-largest trading partner.
G&M - Eric Reguly (2019-12-11)
Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg has handed his role as United Nations climate envoy to Mark Carney, thrusting the Canadian governor of the Bank of England to the forefront of the global effort to prepare companies and lenders for potentially catastrophic climate change.
G&M - James Bradshaw (2019-12-11)
Since last December, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions has gradually increased its “domestic stability buffer,” or DSB, citing “elevated” risks to the banking sector from high household and corporate indebtedness, as well as imbalances in housing markets. The buffer is a capital requirement that OSFI imposes over and above other elements used to set minimum capital ratios.
Reuters - Howad Schneider (2019-12-11)
The U.S. Federal Reserve holds its last policy meeting of 2019 on Wednesday, having completed a year-long U-turn that saw it abandon a tightening cycle and lower borrowing costs three times in response to the global trade war.
NY Times - NY Times (2019-12-11)
Remembering Paul Volcker, the Fed chair “willing to be unpopular”
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2019-12-11)
To say the U.S. Federal Reserve has abruptly shifted its rate policy into neutral would be an understatement. It has put rates in park, shut off the engine and chucked the keys off the nearest bridge.
Bloomberg - Brian Chappatta (2019-12-11)
OSFI - OSFI (2019-12-11)
This year’s report provides more detail on each fee, such as the type and rate of adjustment, the service standard and the performance result. This information provides additional context on each fee, in the spirit of open and transparent fee management.
CBC - Reuters (2019-12-10)
Volcker, who Zima said had been suffering from prostate cancer, was the first to bring celebrity status to the job of U.S. central banker, serving as chairman of the Fed from 1979 to 1987. As with the man who succeeded him, Alan Greenspan, Volcker could soothe or excite financial markets with just a vague murmur.
FP - Esteban Duarte (2019-12-10)
The buy-back strategy, including terms and amounts, is still under analysis, according to Jerrica Goodwin, an Edmonton-based spokeswoman at Alberta’s finance ministry said. The plan, which may start as soon as the next fiscal year beginning in April, won’t reduce overall debt outstanding but could allow Alberta to spread out maturities over the longer term, she said.
FP - Huw Jones (2019-12-10)
While still only “nascent” in most countries, Big Tech in countries like China has brought financial services within reach of underserved communities, the FSB, which is chaired by Federal Reserve Governor Randal Quarles, said in the report.
Reuters - Joseph Sipalan, Krishna N. Das, Matthew Tostevin (2019-12-10)
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is hopeful of reaching an out-of-court settlement with Goldman Sachs (GS.N) over the 1MDB scandal soon, but that compensation of “one point something billion” dollars offered by the bank was too small.
G&M - Christopher Neal (2019-12-09)
Mark Carney, recently tapped by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to be UN Special Envoy for Climate Change, is no stranger to big challenges.
CBC - CP (2019-12-09)
The Bank of Canada says Stephen Poloz won't seek a second term as governor when his seven years in the job expire next year.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2019-12-09)
Now that Stephen Poloz has announced he will step down as Bank of Canada Governor after his seven-year term ends in June 2020, attention turns to the possible candidates who might replace him. Here are six possibilities.
CBC - CP (2019-12-06)
The Canadian economy remains resilient despite the global uncertainty caused by the trade war between the United States and China, a senior Bank of Canada official said Thursday.
Reuters - David Lawder (2019-12-06)
The World Bank on Thursday adopted a plan to aid China with $1 billion to $1.5 billion in low-interest loans annually through June 2025, despite the objections of U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
NY Times - Adam Nossiter (2019-12-06)
The streets of French cities were filled with anti-government demonstrators, tear gas and police officers on Thursday as Emmanuel Macron again faced what has become an emblem of his presidency: social unrest. This time it was a general strike over his plans to overhaul the country’s pension system.
WSJ - Kim Mackrael (2019-12-06)
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2019-12-06)
Finextra - Finextra (2019-12-06)
In a statement, they acknowledge some of the potential benefits of stablecoins but also warn about risks, including on consumer protection, privacy, taxation, cyber security, money laundering, terrorism financing, market integrity, governance and legal certainty.
G&M - Mark Mackinnon (2019-12-05)
“He’s two-faced,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Trudeau when asked if he had seen the video, which was recorded by an ABC News cameraman on Tuesday evening during a reception for NATO leaders at Buckingham Palace.
Bloomberg - Daniel Moss (2019-12-05)
Blame inflation. The RBI cited concerns about rising prices, given that headline inflation breached its 4% medium-term target in October. Food prices have skyrocketed as a result of heavy rainfall, with the cost of onions up 45% in September and a further 20% the following month, according to the central bank’s statement.
With India’s economy crumbling all around him, it strikes me as a bit short-sighted that RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das is getting caught up in vegetables. Gross domestic product increased just 4.5% in the third quarter, government figures showed last week. Little more than a year ago, India was notching an expansion of more than 8%. If demand is sliding then price increases ought to subside. There's little inflation in a graveyard.
CBC - Sarah Rieger (2019-12-04)
Alberta's credit rating has been downgraded by Moody's, with the agency citing the volatility in the province's dependence on oil and continued fiscal pressures.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis (2019-12-04)
Poloz to maintain wait-and-see approach.
G&M - LEIKA KIHARA AND TETSUSHI KAJIMOTO (2019-12-03)
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Friday he saw no need to expand monetary stimulus now, underscoring the central bank’s preference to save its dwindling ammunition in case the economy takes a bigger hit from heightening overseas risks.
G&M - Isla Binnie (2019-12-02)
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney will lead a push by the United Nations to make the financial sector take full account of the risks posed by climate change, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday.
G&M - Michael Babad (2019-12-02)
About 40 central banks worldwide have eased up this year, but the Bank of Canada isn’t one of them and isn’t expected to join them this week.
FP - Paula Sambo and Sandrine Rastello (2019-12-02)
“The conflict between China and the United States is not going away anytime soon,” the 66-year-old told reporters after a speech in Montreal. “I think it is going to change some global trading patterns, it is potentially going to change some important things around the evolution of technology, 5G.”
OSFI - OSFI (2019-11-29)
InfoPensions includes announcements and reminders on matters relevant to federally regulated private pension plans and pooled registered pension plans. It includes descriptions of how the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) applies various provisions of the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985, Pooled Registered Pension Plans Act, their regulations, directives and OSFI guidance. Plan administrators should obtain appropriate professional advice on how the legislation and guidelines affect their particular pension plan.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2019-11-28)
Mr. Poloz’s seven-year term as Bank of Canada governor expires at the beginning of next June. While the rules do allow a sitting governor to apply to return to the job for a second term, one-and-done has become the norm. The Bank of Canada hasn’t had anyone re-enlist since Gerald Bouey 40 years ago.
NY Times - Jeanna Smialek (2019-11-26)
Federal Reserve officials have increasingly acknowledged that the labor market might have more room to run, and Chair Jerome H. Powell made the point in perhaps the plainest way yet during a Monday evening speech.
Reuters - Marwa Rashad (2019-11-25)
“We are monitoring all indicators on a daily basis and if there is any squeeze on liquidity, definitely we’ll be injecting liquidity but so far ... everything is assuring,” he said.
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2019-11-25)
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York added $80.6 billion in temporary liquidity to the financial system on Friday. It also bought $7.50 billion in Treasury bills.
G&M - Cassandra Garrison (2019-11-24)
Argentina is once again buckling under the weight of its sovereign debts, which total around US$100-billion, and Mr. Fernandez needs to urgently agree a deal with creditors to ease the burden and give his government space to try to revive the economy.
G&M - PIERRE L. SIKLOS AND MICHAEL D. BORDO (2019-11-24)
In the coming months, the Bank of Canada‘s mandate to target inflation is coming up for review. Some have suggested that the mandate should be expanded to include responsibility for financial stability, defined as heading off the imbalances that could trigger a severe financial crisis, such as what the world experienced just more than a decade ago. In a recent C.D. Howe Institute report, we argue, marshalling historical and empirical evidence, that granting the Bank an explicit mandate to target financial stability is not a good idea, and that doing so would create a conflict with its tried and true mandate for price stability.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2019-11-22)
A report earlier this year from the International Monetary Fund estimated that removing interprovincial trade barriers would add nearly 4 per cent to Canada’s gross domestic product – “a much larger gain than expected from recently signed international trade agreements,” the IMF said. The estimated economic gains amount to about $80-billion annually, or more than $2,000 per Canadian.
CBC - CP (2019-11-22)
The report by Miguel Molico, senior research director at the bank's Financial Stability Department, notes that carbon-intensive sectors like oil and gas could be negatively affected by significant changes in pricing in a transition away from a carbon economy.
OSFI - OSFI (2019-11-20)
During the 2018-2019 fiscal year, OSFI commissioned Sage Research Corporation, an independent research firm, to conduct a confidential consultation with deposit-taking institution Chief Executive Officers, Chief Financial Officers and other senior executives, to help OSFI monitor its effectiveness in discharging key elements of its mandate. OSFI has commissioned consultations with senior members of the financial community to obtain their assessment of OSFI's effectiveness as a regulator and supervisor since 1998.
OSFI - OSFI (2019-11-20)
The total number of active RPP members increased steadily from 5.9 million in 2007 to 6.3 million in 2017, an increase of 7% over the last 10 years.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2019-11-20)
After a first term in the Finance Minister’s office that featured a few strong steps, some stumbles and too much foot-dragging, Bill Morneau has plenty of unfinished business to address as he returns for another term. If he wants to make the most of his second chance, the top of that to-do list should be tackling Canada’s badly eroded competitiveness.
CBC - Peter Zimonjic (2019-11-20)
The full list of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's new cabinet sworn today at Rideau Hall in Ottawa:
G&M - Howard Schneider (2019-11-19)
U.S. President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell met at the White House on Monday in their second meeting since Powell started the job in February 2017, and soon became the target of criticism from the president who appointed him.
G&M - Mohamed A. El-Erain (2019-11-19)
This year, I didn’t attend the October annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington, DC. Instead, I paid close attention to reports of the gathering and talked to people who were there whom I respect. What emerged is depressing for the wellbeing of the global economy. In particular, the prospect of continued weakness and fragmentation pressures will compound the challenges to the credibility and effectiveness of multilateral institutions.
G&M - Mohamed A. El-Erain (2019-11-19)
Even more worryingly, the Fund’s policy recommendations – especially those pertaining to the advanced economies – have little impact (to put it politely). One need only look at the widening gulf between what IMF officials have said and the bland, repetitive language of the IMFC communiques. The policy insights fall on more deaf ears when finance ministers and central bankers are back in their national capitals, underscoring the current ineffectiveness of what once was a key opportunity for improving win-win policies.
G&M - David Lawder (2019-11-19)
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva announced the decision at the Fund’s and World Bank’s annual meetings, saying that the initiative will provide confidence that the IMF can adequately support member countries as they deal with slowing global growth.
FP - Barbara Shecter (2019-11-19)
Businesses regulated in Ontario’s capital markets will save close to $8 million a year following implementation of a swath of new “burden reduction” reforms to be unveiled Tuesday by the Ontario Securities Commission.
G&M - TEGAN HILL, JAKE FUSS AND JASON CLEMENS (2019-11-18)
During last month’s federal election campaign, many in the media – and in the Liberal Party – lauded the strength of Canada’s economy.
WSJ - Andrew Ackerman (2019-11-18)
The Federal Reserve identified elevated asset prices and historically high debt owed by U.S. businesses as top vulnerabilities facing the U.S. financial system, according to the latest central bank financial-stability report.
G&M - Alexandra Posadzki (2019-11-15)
The Bank of Canada is proposing a new liquidity facility that would provide loans to financial institutions that are suffering temporary shocks as a result of incidents such as cyberattacks, system failures and natural disasters.
G&M - Patrick Brethour (2019-11-15)
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney contends that withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan would return billions of dollars a year to the province, but experts question how large the savings would be from going it alone.
G&M - Reuters (2019-11-14)
The U.S. government recorded a $134 billion budget deficit in October, the first month of the new fiscal year, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
Bloomberg - Niclas Rolander (2019-11-14)
G&M - Video (2019-11-14)
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is asking Congress to tackle the growing budget deficit.
BNN - Erik Hertzberg (2019-11-14)
Justin Trudeau is starting his second term in worse fiscal shape than expected, meaning Canada’s finances will likely be pushed further into the red.
Bloomberg - Tim Duy (2019-11-12)
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2019-11-12)
The New York Fed added $111.909 billion to financial markets on Tuesday.
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2019-11-12)
Eric Rosengren warned on Monday many top central banks have a limited tool kit to deal with the next downturn, and added efforts to roll back regulations on banks may be exacerbating risks to the financial sector.
FP - Andy Blatchford (2019-11-07)
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says there’s a “compelling case” to be made for his province to exit the half-century-old Canada Pension Plan — an idea sure to face increasing scrutiny over the coming months.
FP - Geoff Zachodine (2019-11-06)
The tax cut and other measures were part of a mini-budget that showed the Ontario government’s projected deficit for the current 2019-20 fiscal year is now $9 billion, down from the $10.3 billion estimated in the actual budget earlier this year.
NY Times - Jeanna Smialek (2019-11-06)
For decades, the central bank has raised rates to guard against coming price increases. Now, it seems to be raising that hurdle.
NY Times - Jim Tankersley (2019-11-06)
The Treasury Department says the Obama-era regulations are unnecessary after the 2017 tax overhaul.
FP - FP (2019-11-04)
In determining the timing and size of future adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate, the Committee will assess realized and expected economic conditions relative to its maximum employment objective and its symmetric 2 percent inflation objective. This assessment will take into account a wide range of information, including measures of labor market conditions, indicators of inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and readings on financial and international developments.
Bloomberg - Lionel Laurent (2019-11-04)
States dabbling in blockchain technology, or planning to issue their own digital currencies, isn’t flattery – it’s competition. Some 70% of central banks surveyed by the Bank for International Settlements are examining their options in this area. In places like Sweden, rapidly going cashless, electronic “fiat” money is seen as a path to easier payments. If that works out, stateless crypto coins would lose one of their selling points.
Bloomberg - Sandy Hendry, Natasha Doff (2019-11-04)
Russian President Vladimir Putin is acting on a pledge to shrink the role of the U.S. dollar in international trade. Jean-Claude Juncker, outgoing president of the European Commission, says it’s “absurd” that Europe uses the greenback for 80% of energy imports. Chinese President Xi Jinping has railed against economic “hegemonism.” Can the mighty dollar retain its global dominance when attacked from so many sides? Don’t count it out yet.
WSJ - James Mackintosh (2019-11-04)
When one part of the economy stumbles and another does rather well, the perfect policy would be support the laggard while holding back the rest to keep growth balanced. But the Federal Reserve doesn’t have that luxury.
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2019-11-04)
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York added $104.583 billion in temporary liquidity to financial markets Friday, when it also added permanent reserves to expand its balance sheet.
The Fedâs intervention came in two parts. One was through repurchase
CBC - Don Pittis (2019-10-31)
Like a spooky planetary alignment, the Bank of Canada and the U.S. Federal Reserve both unmasked their monetary policy on the day before Halloween. But they had eerily discordant messages.
G&M - Geoffrey York (2019-10-30)
South Africa’s Finance Minister has revealed that the country’s debt is soaring much faster than expected, triggering a plunge in its currency and sparking fears of another downgrade in its credit rating.
G&M - Reuters (2019-10-30)
The Canadian dollar weakened to a near two-week low against the greenback on Wednesday as expectations rose that the Bank of Canada would cut interest rates after the central bank expressed greater concern about global trade uncertainty.
CBC - CBC (2019-10-30)
In his opening statement during a meeting with members of the media, Poloz said the "worsening global situation" is the primary issue for the Canadian economy.
CBC - Don Pittis (2019-10-29)
It is easy to forget that when oil prices crashed just five years ago, the Canadian economy lost what at the time was its single major economic engine. In the years before that, Canada's old industrial economy outside the oil and gas sector had been smashed, only slowly recovering from a loonie rising on the back of petroleum exports to an oil-hungry United States.
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2019-10-29)
Markets largely expect another quarter-percentage-point rate cut. It is the Fed’s next step that is uncertain, and investors will closely watch for clues.
G&M - PAUL WALDIE (2019-10-29)
Britain is heading for an election on Dec. 12 and it will now be up to voters to try and resolve the Brexit conundrum that has bedevilled the country for more than three years.
G&M - Reuters (2019-10-29)
President Donald Trump launched a fresh attack on the U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday as policymakers opened a two-day meeting that was expected to end with a decision to lower interest rates.
G&M - AP (2019-10-29)
Economists and investors who are trying to get a fix on what the Federal Reserve may do in the months ahead have zeroed in on a single phrase in the statement it has issued after its most recent policy meetings.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2019-10-28)
The Bank of Canada is expected to hold interest rates steady one more time this week – and in doing so, separate itself further from the pack of central banks.
Reuters - Reuters Video (2019-10-25)
Outgoing European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi took his last policy meeting on Thursday. Critics says his eight-year tenure closes in exactly the same place he started: trying to prop up a perpetually ailing currency bloc. David Pollard reports.
CNBC - Jeff Cox (2019-10-24)
Starting Thursday, the repo operation offerings will escalate to $120 billion from the current $75 billion as the central bank continues to calibrate the right amount of funding needed to keep the markets operating properly and to hold the overnight funds rate within its target range.
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2019-10-22)
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York injected $58.15 billion in overnight liquidity into financial markets.
Reuters - Fergal Smith (2019-10-22)
“The resulting higher spending and larger deficits may give a temporary lift to growth next year, but will also likely keep the Bank of Canada on hold for longer,” said Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.
G&M - Michael Babad (2019-10-21)
Mark McCormick believes the currency market is “underpricing” the possibility of a minority Liberal government propped up by the New Democratic Party.
FP - Robert Hutton and Kitty Donaldson (2019-10-21)
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said one shouldn’t be granted. But EU officials say that despite Macron, who made similar noises before approving a Brexit delay in April, it’s unlikely that he or any other leader would refuse another one, particularly if the U.K. was headed for a general election.
Reuters - Kylie MacLellan, Paul Sandle (2019-10-21)
The British government insisted on Sunday the country will leave the European Union on Oct. 31 despite a letter that Prime Minister Boris Johnson was forced by parliament to send to the bloc requesting a Brexit delay.
WSJ - Kate O'Keeffe (2019-10-21)
Christine Lagarde, who is set to take over as president of the European Central Bank, said in an interview that the U.S. risks diminishing its role as a global leader and warned of dire consequences of its trade war with China.
G&M - David Berman (2019-10-18)
Can voters affect stock prices in Canada? Investors are about to find out.
CBC - Jonathon Gatehouse (2019-10-17)
"These barriers prevent the free flow of people, goods and services across provincial borders. They make it more expensive to run a business. They hurt consumers with higher prices and less competition and they discourage and frustrate big dreaming innovators who want to change the world," Scheer said during a campaign stop in Quebec City. "It should not be easier to trade with other countries than between Canadian provinces. We are one free country. We should have one free market."
Reuters - Reuters (2019-10-17)
Britain clinched a Brexit deal with the European Union on Thursday, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said, just a few hours before the start of a summit of the bloc’s leaders in Brussels.
Bloomberg - Jess Shankleman (2019-10-15)
More time needed as deal hanging in the balance as of Tuesday.
WSJ - James Mackintosh (2019-10-15)
The Federal Reserve has been clear that its latest Treasury-buying plan shouldn’t be construed as QE, or quantitative easing. They may have a point.
FP - Zane Schwartz (2019-10-15)
The Bank of Canada is considering launching a digital currency that would help it combat the “direct threat” of cryptocurrencies and collect more information on how people spend their money, The Logic has learned.
FT - Hudson Lockett in Hong Kong and Eva Szalay (2019-10-15)
A decade ago, China launched a high-profile challenge to the dominance of the US dollar, projecting a greater role for the renminbi in the global financial system.
FP - Philip Cross (2019-10-11)
Despite a return to deficit spending intended to boost the economy, Canada’s annual real GDP growth over the past four years has remained stuck in the range of 1.0 to 2.0 per cent, where it has been mired for most of the past decade. In a recent paper for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, I summarized how the persistence of mediocre growth for over a decade is a sobering reminder of the failure of extraordinary monetary and fiscal stimulus to lift long-term growth rates.
Reuters - Matt Scuffham (2019-10-11)
Deutsche Bank says it does not have copies of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax returns, a U.S. appeals court said on Thursday, closing one possible avenue for the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives to obtain the returns.
NY Times - Jeanna Smialek (2019-10-11)
Lael Brainard, a Fed Board governor, said that while she supported some of the adjustments approved on Thursday, the overall package of changes went too far.
Bloomberg - Jim Bianco (2019-10-09)
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2019-10-09)
The Federal Reserve will provide new clues about its thinking on where to set interest rates when it releases the minutes of its Sept. 17-18 meeting on Wednesday at 2 p.m. EDT.
FT - Joe Rennison (2019-10-09)
Ten minutes after Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell insisted that the central bank restarting its Treasury purchases was “in no way” the same as the post-financial crisis policy of quantitative easing, one Wall St analyst sent a note to his clients saying that the new strategy “sure sounds like QE”.
G&M - Michael Babad (2019-10-08)
“The Liberals would loosen fiscal policy by more than the Conservatives if they won October’s election, but neither party’s plans would seriously transform the economic outlook,” said Stephen Brown, senior Canada economist at Capital Economics.
Bloomberg - Andreas Kluth (2019-10-08)
WSJ - Avantika Chilkoti, Paul J. Davies (2019-10-03)
The euro has drifted toward its lowest levels against the dollar in years as Europe takes the brunt of a global growth slowdown. Investors are now questioning: How low can it go?
Bloomberg - Brian Chappatta (2019-10-02)
Heading into October, it was clear Federal Reserve officials would face a difficult decision at their meeting at the end of the month. Just one day into October, the challenges have already become even more intense.
NY Times - Amie Tsang (2019-09-30)
FT - Martin Arnold (2019-09-26)
Tensions between the European Central Bank and Germany have again exploded into public view after the resignation of Sabine Lautenschläger, who represented the eurozone’s biggest economy on the central bank’s executive board.
G&M - Video (2019-09-25)
Premier Jason Kenney responds to a Federal Court judge issuing an injunction against Alberta's legislation giving it the power to reduce oil shipments to B.C.
G&M - ROD NICKEL AND NIA WILLIAMS (2019-09-23)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has cast himself as a champion in the fight against climate change while pushing to expand an oil pipeline to help struggling producers, a contradiction that may hurt his re-election bid next month.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2019-09-23)
The Washington Post published an interesting bit of trivia this week. As of Sept. 18, Donald Trump had tweeted or retweeted nasty things about the Federal Reserve and its chairman, Jerome Powell, an astonishing 43 times since the end of July.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2019-09-20)
The Bank of Canada has appointed long-time insider Toni Gravelle as one of its deputy governors, filling the vacancy created over the summer by the retirement of Lynn Patterson.
CBC - Don Pittis (2019-09-20)
A weakening global economy and continued trade fears — and emphatically, he said, not angry words from U.S. President Donald Trump — convinced U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates on Wednesday for the second time this summer.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2019-09-19)
If you’re a suburban homeowner lying awake at night stressing about how you’ll ever get out from under your mountain of mortgage-infused debt, congratulations. You’re the most important voter in next month’s federal election.
CBC - Don Pittis (2019-09-19)
Despite the fact that the quarter point cut was widely expected, the move had an immediate effect on the Canadian dollar which fell promptly after Powell's announcement.
CBC - AP (2019-09-18)
Economists do not see the action as a signal about where the Fed plans to move its key policy rate, known as the federal funds rate, but rather as a technical exercise to keep the rate in the range set by the central bank.
G&M - Ian McGugan (2019-09-18)
Pity Jerome Powell. The chair of the United States Federal Reserve has just been called a bonehead by his boss. Now he faces the unenviable task of explaining the Fed’s latest interest-rate decision to increasingly baffled investors, while dealing with the aftermath of an unexpected squeeze in short-term funding markets.
Bloomberg - Ferdinando Giugliano (2019-09-17)
G&M - MARTIN EICHENBAUM AND CHARLES MOSKOS (2019-09-16)
Canadian monetary policy is the legal responsibility of exactly one person, the Governor of the Bank of Canada. This single decision-maker structure is unique among the central banks of advanced economies. The last review of the bank’s governance structure was conducted by a parliamentary subcommittee in 1992 (known as the Manley Committee). It is time to assess the structure governing monetary policy decisions at the Bank of Canada once again.
CBC - Don Pittis (2019-09-16)
With last week's declaration that the very smart people at the Federal Reserve are "boneheads," U.S. President Donald Trump has become perhaps the world's highest profile prognosticator of a North American crisis.
WSJ - David Harrison and Paul Hannon (2019-09-13)
The European Central Bank’s decision Thursday to lower its key interest rate further below zero while relaunching an asset-purchase program means monetary policy in Europe is now even more stimulative than in the U.S.
WSJ - Jon Sindreu (2019-09-13)
ECB President Mario Draghi’s emphasis on fiscal policy is an admission that further monetary stimulus can do little for the economy.
CBC - Reuters (2019-09-13)
As Draghi's eight-year mandate nears its close, the ECB cut rates deeper into negative territory and promised bond purchases with no end-date to push borrowing costs even lower, hoping to kick-start activity nearly a decade after the bloc's debt crisis.
G&M - Robert Fife (2019-09-11)
Former justice minister and attorney-general Jody Wilson-Raybould met with RCMP investigators this week to discuss political interference in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., and is calling on the Trudeau government to waive cabinet confidentiality for her and all other witnesses to allow a thorough probe into potential obstruction of justice.
G&M - Howard Schneider (2019-09-11)
“The Federal Reserve should get our interest rates down to ZERO, or less, and we should then start to refinance our debt. INTEREST COST COULD BE BROUGHT WAY DOWN, while at the same time substantially lengthening the term,” Trump tweeted. “We have the great currency, power, and balance sheet... The USA should always be paying the … lowest rate. No Inflation!”
G&M - KONRAD YAKABUSKI (2019-09-11)
Jean Boivin wants to be clear about one thing: Neither he, nor his colleagues at the BlackRock Investment Institute, are predicting a global recession any time soon. Which seems incongruous, considering that he has been telling central bankers they need to get ready now for the next big one.
CBC - Catherine Tunney (2019-09-11)
Canadians "have an important choice to make" about their country's future path, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said today as he triggered the official launch of the federal election campaign.
CBC - CP (2019-09-11)
But the most important is the participation to the national debate," Bernier said on Wednesday, the first day of the campaign ahead of the Oct. 21 vote.
G&M - MICHELLE ZILIO, JANICE DICKSON KRISTY KIRKUP MARIEKE WALSH (2019-09-10)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to visit Governor-General Julie Payette on Wednesday morning to kick off the election campaign, Liberal sources said.
FP - Diane Francis (2019-09-10)
The budget predicts deficits of $19.8 billion in 2019-20; $19.7 billion in 2020-21; and $14.8 billion in 2021-22. Not only have they broken promises to adhere to fiscally responsible spending, but they have no timetable to reduce deficits for the near future should they be re-elected.
Bloomberg - Charlotte Ryan and Matthew Boesler (2019-09-10)
G&M - BRENNA HUGHES NEGHAIWI AND JOHN REVILL (2019-09-09)
The U.S. Federal Reserve will continue to act “as appropriate” to sustain the economic expansion in the world’s biggest economy, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Friday in Zurich, sticking to a phrase that financial markets have taken to signal further rate reductions, but declining to be more specific.
Bloomberg - Marcus Ashworth (2019-09-09)
Bloomberg - Mohamed A. El-Erain (2019-09-09)
The European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve will be under even greater scrutiny over the next 10 days as their policy-making committees discuss recent economic developments, update their assessment of prospects and adopt whatever actions and guidance they deem necessary. The outcome will most likely satisfy those looking for the world’s two most influential central banks to further loosen monetary policy.
G&M - FARAI MUTSAKA AND CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA (2019-09-06)
Robert Mugabe, the former leader of Zimbabwe forced to resign in 2017 after a 37-year rule whose early promise was eroded by economic turmoil, disputed elections and human rights violations, has died. He was 95.
G&M - Ann Saphir (2019-09-05)
Trade policy uncertainty driven by the Trump administration’s escalating dispute with China means hundreds of billions of dollars in lost U.S. output and as much as US$850-billion lost globally through early next year, research published this week by the U.S. Federal Reserve suggests.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2019-09-05)
When the central bank left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, it emphasized that inflation was right at its rough target of two per cent. And the first speech by one of the institution’s leaders since early July was based on, you guessed it, the Bank of Canada’s latest thinking about inflation.
CBC - CP (2019-09-04)
Governor Stephen Poloz is widely expected to hold the overnight interest rate at 1.75 per cent as the bank delivers its first policy announcement — or public commentary of any kind — since early July.
Reuters - Howard Schneider, Ann Saphir (2019-09-04)
The dueling views - from St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who called for a half-a-percentage-point rate cut, and Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren, who saw no immediate need for any move - show the tight spot Fed Chair Jerome Powell finds himself in as the Fed’s next policy-setting meeting approaches.
Bloomberg - Natalie Wong and Paula Sambo (2019-09-04)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to make housing more affordable for first-time buyers. His efforts may be of little help to people in the country’s priciest cities.
WSJ - Natasha Kha, Neil Western (2019-09-04)
In a major concession to protesters, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam plans to withdraw the China extradition bill that sparked months of at times violent street demonstrations.
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2019-09-04)
The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, which has recently stopped shrinking, may once again start growing later this year, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Tuesday.
G&M - Nathan Vanderklippe (2019-09-04)
Canada has selected Dominic Barton as its next ambassador to Beijing, moving to end a months-long gap without a top diplomat in the world’s second-largest economy amid a damaging dispute between the two countries.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2019-09-04)
In the face of a burgeoning international trade crisis and rising global recession fears, the Bank of Canada had a golden opportunity to signal that it is preparing to jump onto the rate-cutting bandwagon that most of the world’s major central banks have already boarded over the summer.
G&M - Roger E. A. Farmer (2019-09-04)
Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers and Anna Stansbury recently cast doubt on the future of central banking, suggesting that the prevailing monetary-policy framework is in dire need of a rethink. I agree and have been calling for a reconsideration of “Old Keynesian economics” for more than a decade, starting with an article I published in 2006, two years before the Great Recession made it fashionable to question the way we think about macroeconomic theory. I am heartened that the narrative and body of research I have developed continues to gain public support.
G&M - Bill Curry (2019-09-04)
The Bank of Canada kept its key interest rate unchanged at 1.75 per cent Wednesday, but said the U.S.-China trade conflict is having a more damaging impact on global growth than previously thought.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis (2019-09-04)
The BOC resisted pressure from investors to signal it will follow global easing trends.
Bloomberg - Mohamed A. El-Erian (2019-09-04)
Fearing market disruptions, both the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve will most likely take more stimulus measures this month regardless of what their analyses tell them about the potential impact on the economy and financial assets. That has implications for both future economic prosperity and medium-term financial stability, and it adds to the to-do list for policy makers and investors.
G&M - Don Pittis (2019-09-03)
Inevitably, Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz must do his job in the shadow of his powerful U.S. equivalent at the Federal Reserve.
Canadian Business - Andy Blatchford (2019-08-30)
Canadians last heard the Bank of Canada’s take on the economy in the early days of summer — and the timing of its next update has the potential to tinge political debate during the federal election campaign.
Since the bank’s most recent public comments in early July, there’s mounting evidence of a slowing global economy mostly due to the escalating U.S.-China trade war — including fresh Chinese tariffs Friday and new threats on Twitter from U.S. President Donald Trump that shook up markets.
The Bank of Canada’s latest message underlined the resilience of the domestic economy, and it appeared in no rush to move its policy even as other central banks were poised to lower rates to respond to the already dimming international outlook.
The next policy meeting is scheduled for Sept. 4, while the election campaign is widely expected to start at some point during the first two weeks of September. The central bank will release a statement with its rate decision, and the following day deputy governor Lawrence Schembri will provide more detail about the governing council’s thinking when he gives a speech and holds a news conference in Halifax.
Bloomberg - Carolina Millan and Jorgelina Do Rosario (2019-08-29)
Hemmed in by an uphill re-election bid and a worsening debt and currency crisis, Argentine President Mauricio Macri will try to cajole creditors into giving the country more time to repay them as he struggles to simply finish his term.
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2019-08-28)
A former Federal Reserve official took the unusual step of calling on the central bank to help prevent President Trump’s re-election by refraining from taking measures to stimulate the U.S. economy.
NY Times - Jeanna Smialek (2019-08-28)
G&M - Mark Mackinnon (2019-08-28)
The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, a nominally non-partisan figure who oversees parliamentary proceedings, was among those disturbed by the Prime Minister’s actions. “However it is dressed up, it is blindingly obvious that the purpose of prorogation now would be to stop Parliament debating Brexit and performing its duty in shaping a course for the country,” Mr. Bercow said in a statement. “At this time, one of the most challenging periods in our nation’s history, it is vital that our elected Parliament has its say.”
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2019-08-27)
The world’s central bankers are increasingly worried that President Trump’s tactics to reorder global trade are destabilizing economies in ways that they can’t easily fix.
NY Times - Stephanie Saul (2019-08-27)
CBC - AP (2019-08-26)
Billionaire industrialist David H. Koch, who with his older brother Charles transformed American politics by pouring their riches into conservative causes, has died at age 79.
CBC - AP (2019-08-26)
Federal Reserve officials were widely divided at their meeting last month when they decided to cut rates for the first time in a decade, with some arguing for a bigger rate cut while others insisted the Fed should not cut rates at all.
Reuters - Brendan Pierson (2019-08-26)
Lawyers for U.S. President Donald Trump asked a federal appeals court on Friday to block Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) and Capital One Financial Corp (COF.N) from handing the financial records of the president’s family and the Trump Organization to Democratic lawmakers.
CBC - AP (2019-08-21)
The minutes of the July 30-31 discussions released Wednesday show two officials believed the Fed should cut its benchmark policy rate by a half-percentage point, double the quarter-point reduction the central bank eventually agreed upon. On the other end, some Fed officials argued for no rate cut at all, believing that the economy was beginning to improve after a soft patch in the spring.
WSJ - Michael S. Derby (2019-08-21)
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari wants the Fed to make a firmer commitment to getting inflation back up to its 2% target.
WSJ - Gabriele Steinhauser, Thandi Ntobela (2019-08-21)
South Africa’s finance minister stirs controversy, especially in the kitchen.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Argitis (2019-08-21)
Bloomberg - Bloomberg Video (2019-08-21)
Zero interest bond flops.
Bloomberg - Chris Bourke and Michael Heath (2019-08-21)
Australia and New Zealand’s central banks are pondering what until recently seemed unthinkable: deploying the types of extreme monetary policies that were spawned globally by the 2008 global financial crisis. Bond-purchase programs and negative interest rates were for years seen Down Under as the preserve of countries that had gorged on risky derivatives and been reckless with debt. There’s been a sharp change of tune, however. Now, the two central banks are at the forefront of what appears to be a race to the bottom -- where even interest rates at zero may not be far enough.
G&M - STEVE HOLLAND AND LISA LAMBERT (2019-08-20)
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday his administration was considering potential tax cuts on wages as well as profits from asset sales, and sought to play down market anxieties that the world’s top economy could be heading for a recession.
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2019-08-19)
FT - Adam Samson and Tommy Stubbington (2019-08-19)
Investors are anticipating a fresh wave of stimulus measures to tackle flagging growth, as the White House said it was considering a new round of tax cuts to boost the economy.
G&M - KONRAD YAKABUSKI (2019-08-16)
From the very start, Mr. Trudeau was poorly served by his own advisers in the PMO and by former Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick. All of them should have known they were playing with fire by seeking to put pressure on Ms. Wilson-Raybould to reconsider her decision not to overturn the Director of Public Prosecutions’ refusal to grant SNC-Lavalin a deferred prosecution agreement that would have spared the Quebec-based engineering giant from facing a trial on fraud and bribery charges.
CBC - Robyn Urback (2019-08-16)
Six months ago, Trudeau told Canadians that a report his office pressured the AG was 'false.' He lied
Finextra - Finextra (2019-08-15)
The impending launch comes after five years of work. The People's Bank set up a research team to investigate a digital currency back in 2014.
G&M - Reuters (2019-08-14)
The Bank of Canada said on Tuesday it plans to buy back up to $500 million worth of bonds from up to nine outstanding issues in a cash management repurchase operation on Aug. 20.
G&M - Jeffrey Frankel (2019-08-14)
The trade war between the United States and China is heating up again, with U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announcing plans to impose a 10-per-cent tariff on the US$300-billion worth of imports from China that he had so far left untouched. The Chinese authorities then allowed their currency, the renminbi, to fall below the symbolic threshold of seven yuan for every U.S. dollar. The Trump administration promptly responded by naming China a “currency manipulator” – the first time the U.S. had done that to any country in 25 years. Pundits declared a currency war, and investors immediately sent global stock markets lower.
Bloomberg - Michael Heath (2019-08-14)
WSJ - Lalita Clozel (2019-08-14)
Federal Reserve officials are weighing whether to use a tool known as the countercyclical capital buffer, which could reduce the risk of a credit crunch in a downturn.
G&M - S.R. Slobodian (2019-08-14)
Canada’s Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau contravened a section of the Conflict of Interest Act by using his position of authority over then-justice-minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to get her to overrule the director of public prosecution’s decision to not negotiate a deal with SNC-Lavalin that would avoid criminal prosecution.
Reuters - Kevin Yao, Ryan Woo (2019-08-13)
China’s yuan is at an appropriate level currently and two-way fluctuations in the currency will not necessarily cause disorderly capital flows, a senior official at the People’s Bank of China told Reuters on Tuesday.
WSJ - Daniel Kruger (2019-08-12)
Federal agencies, banks and investment firms are pushing Wall Street to install their preferred replacement for the London interbank offered rate, the interest-rate benchmark underpinning trillions of dollars in financial contracts.
G&M - Matt Lundy (2019-08-09)
Expectations are mounting the Bank of Canada will be forced to cut interest rates and join a growing number of central banks that have eased monetary policy as the U.S.-China trade war intensifies and recession signals ripple through financial markets.
Reuters - Leika Kihara (2019-08-09)
The Bank of Japan may seek to prevent unwelcome yen rises by tolerating temporary, market-driven falls in long-term interest rates, former BOJ board member Sayuri Shirai said on Friday.
FT - Henry Foy, Max Seddon (2019-08-09)
As pro-democracy protests hit central Moscow this summer, student vlogger Egor Zhukov promoted peaceful resistance to his 100,000 followers on YouTube. Violent clashes on the city’s streets — which have seen armour-clad, helmeted riot police pin down unarmed protesters on stone pavements as their colleagues beat their knees with batons — showed Russia’s security services doling out “political repression”, he said. “Life is a struggle for power,” Mr Zhukov said in a video uploaded last week. “People with no power are fighting to have any at all. People who have any power are fighting for it to be absolute.”
Bloomberg - Tim Duy (2019-08-08)
The Federal Reserve can try to be coy about the chance of an interest-rate cut at the September meeting, but that train has already left the station. Stuck in a negative feedback loop with President Donald Trump and financial market participants, while simultaneously under pressure amid falling global interest rates, policy makers will find themselves left with few options but to further ease short-term rates.
CBC - Reuters (2019-08-06)
But later on Tuesday, China's central bank buttressed the yuan by fixing it at a slightly stronger rate, which ratcheted down the tensions a little.
FT - Kadhim Shubber (2019-08-06)
A US appeals court has bolstered the power of federal prosecutors to grab records from foreign banks even if the transactions at issue did not pass through US accounts. In a ruling released on Tuesday, three appeals court judges in Washington sided with the Department of Justice against a trio of Chinese banks, including one that had received a subpoena under the Patriot Act.
FT - Mure Dickie (2019-08-06)
The departing Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive has backed Bank of England warnings about the impact of a no-deal Brexit, saying that leaving the EU without an agreement would cause some medium-term “pain and anguish”.
G&M - ANDREW GALBRAITH AND WINNI ZHOU (2019-08-05)
The U.S. government has determined that China is manipulating its currency and will engage with the International Monetary Fund to eliminate unfair competition from Beijing, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement on Monday.
Reuters - Pete Schroeder (2019-08-05)
The U.S. Federal Reserve announced on Monday it planned to develop its own round-the-clock real-time payments and settlement service, with an expected launch in 2023 or 2024.
NY Times - NY Times (2019-08-05)
Not all Fed policymakers agreed to the cuts. Eric Rosengren of the Boston Fed and Esther George of the Kansas City Fed voted against yesterday’s decision, the second and third dissents of Mr. Powell’s tenure. They preferred to leave rates unchanged, saying that the U.S. economy remains strong.
WSJ - William Mauldin, Nick Timiraos and Paul Kiernan (2019-08-05)
The U.S. Treasury labeled China a currency manipulator after the Chinese central bank let the yuan depreciate, capping a day of trade-war escalations that sparked a global fall in financial markets and fears the clash could stall the U.S.’s economic expansion.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2019-08-02)
Geoff Zochodne talks to FP columnist Kevin Carmichael about the Fed’s first rate hike in a decade and where it goes from here.
Reuters - Ann Saphir, Richard Leong (2019-08-02)
In a series of tweets, Trump said he will slap 10% tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese imports starting Sept. 1, saying he was unsatisfied with the pace of trade negotiations between the two superpowers.
G&M - Matt Lundy (2019-07-31)
The U.S. Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for the first time since the financial crisis of 2008, marking the start of a new phase in monetary policy.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2019-07-31)
By deciding to cut interest rates, the Federal Reserve has positioned itself as a shield, protecting the U.S. economy from its own government’s worst instincts. But it may have also set itself up to be President Donald Trump’s enabler.
CBC - CP (2019-07-31)
The Bank of Canada sent signals earlier this month that the Canadian economy is very much on its own path and, at least in the short term, has no reason to follow any move by the Fed to lower rates.
WSJ - Greg IP (2019-07-30)
When Federal Reserve policy makers gather in Washington this week to weigh cutting interest rates, a big part of their decision will already have been made—in Frankfurt.
WSJ - Nathaniel Taplin (2019-07-30)
Will the People’s Bank of China follow the Federal Reserve and cut interest rates on Wednesday? Actually, it has found a stealthy way to do that already.
WSJ - Megumi Fujikawa (2019-07-30)
Japan’s central bank said it wouldn’t hesitate to ease monetary policy further should the need arise, an attempt to keep pace with other major central banks that are preparing to cut rates.
G&M - Michael Babad (2019-07-29)
The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates this week, but a big question is whether markets will be satisfied with what the U.S. central bank does and says.
Reuters - Ann Saphir (2019-07-29)
U.S. central bankers are expected to lower borrowing costs this week for the first time since the depths of the financial crisis more than a decade ago. That’s the easy part.
WSJ - Kate Davidson (2019-07-29)
Borrowing by the federal government is set to top $1 trillion for the second year in a row as higher spending outpaces revenue growth and concern about budget deficits wanes in Washington and on Wall Street.
G&M - DAVID PARKINSON (2019-07-28)
The U.S. Federal Reserve is poised to deliver an interest rate cut this week to safeguard a strong U.S. economy against rising trade-war risks – a move that will heighten questions about whether Canada’s central bank will follow suit to address its own trade worries.
G&M - Jeffrey Frankel (2019-07-28)
The United States Federal Reserve has some reasons to cut interest rates at its July 31 meeting, or subsequently if the U.S. economy weakens. (There is also a case for holding rates steady, if growth remains as strong as it has been over the past year.) But one argument for easing is less persuasive: a perceived imperative to get U.S. inflation up to or above 2 per cent.
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2019-07-28)
Former Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said she endorses a quarter-percentage-point cut in the central bank’s benchmark interest rate this week because of worries over global growth and low inflation.
CBC - AP (2019-07-26)
The ECB's rate-setting board left its key interest benchmarks unchanged at a policy meeting Thursday but said it could cut them as its next move. It also said it was telling staff to study ways to restart its bond-buying stimulus program in coming weeks.
WSJ - Tom Fairless (2019-07-26)
The European Central Bank signaled it is preparing to cut short-term interest rates for the first time since early 2016 and possibly restart its giant bond-buying program.
Reuters - Reuters (2019-07-24)
Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane sought to push back against market bets that the central bank’s next move will be an interest-rate cut, saying he would resist lowering borrowing costs unless there was a sharp downturn.
WSJ - Tom Fairless (2019-07-24)
European Central Bank officials are preparing to step up with fresh stimulus, echoing similar signals by the Federal Reserve and other central banks. The question for investors is, when, and how, will the ECB act?
WSJ - PAUL J. DAVIES (2019-07-24)
The ECB has convinced financial markets that it will act. The question is, among its grab bag of possible moves, will it do more than investors expect?
G&M - PAUL WALDIE (2019-07-23)
The Boris Johnson era gets under way Wednesday as the colourful politician becomes Britain’s prime minister and faces the daunting challenge of pulling the country out of the European Union in just three months.
G&M - Nicolas Van Praet (2019-07-23)
he Quebec government is adding its voice to those pressing SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. to execute a quick turnaround, saying the work needed to set the company back on course is “enormous.”
NY Times - David Mueller (2019-07-23)
WSJ - Brent Kendall (2019-07-23)
The Justice Department is opening a broad antitrust review into whether dominant technology firms are unlawfully stifling competition, adding a new Washington threat for companies such as Facebook Inc., Google, Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc.
WSJ - Brian Blackston (2019-07-22)
Central banks around the world are poised to unleash the most synchronized monetary stimulus since the financial crisis one decade ago.
Economist - Economist (2019-07-22)
Central-government officials were quick to respond. A statement on the office’s website said the slogans “insulted the country and its people” and accused the demonstrators of going “well beyond the scope of peaceful protest”. It said they had “seriously challenged the central government’s authority” as well as tested the “bottom line” of what China calls the “one country, two systems” arrangement under which it has ruled Hong Kong since Britain handed the territory back in 1997.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2019-07-22)
For the next few months or so, some of us here at the Financial Post will be filing dispatches from the trade wars, which arrived in Canada on the last day of May 2018, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned U.S. President Donald Trump’s fire with a volley of retaliatory tariffs on imports worth about $17 billion.
FT - James Politi and Lauren Fedor (2019-07-22)
The White House has struck a two-year deal with Democratic party leaders in Congress to raise America’s $22tn borrowing limit, removing the threat of a US debt default and significantly raising federal spending.
FT - James Politi (2019-07-22)
The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation — the core PCE price index, which excludes food and energy — is running at 1.7 per cent year-on-year compared with the central bank’s target of 2 per cent — and inflation expectations have also weakened.
FP - Martin Eichenbaum (2019-07-19)
In sum, powerful forces are working to keep the supply of savings high and the demand for funds to invest low. The net result has been and will continue to be low nominal and real (inflation-corrected) interest rates.
WSJ - Nina Trentmann (2019-07-19)
The U.K. government named a new chief executive for the Financial Reporting Council, a move that comes as the audit and accounting watchdog prepares for a wide-ranging overhaul amid concerns about its effectiveness.
WSJ - Josh Zumbrun, Bojan Pancevski (2019-07-19)
The career of the next European Central Bank chief shows the institution is getting a diplomat and negotiator, not a technocrat or economist. “She is extremely charming and that is part of her style of politics.”
WSJ - Brian Blackstone (2019-07-19)
Central banks in Asia and South Africa lowered their interest rates, joining a global easing bandwagon that started earlier this year in the Asia-Pacific region and is expected to include the U.S. and Europe within weeks.
Reuters - Reuters Video (2019-07-18)
G7 finance ministers and the U.S. House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday all added to the chorus of concerned voices about Facebook's new cyrptocurrency.
Bloomberg - Shull Ren (2019-07-18)
Yahoo Finance - Leigh Thomas (2019-07-17)
France wants to use its presidency of the two-day meeting in the picturesque chateau town of Chantilly north of Paris to get broad support for ensuring minimum corporate taxation. Facebook's recent announcement of plans to launch a digital coin has met with a chorus from regulators, central bankers and governments insisting it must respect anti-money-laundering rules and ensure the security of transactions and user data.
The Guardian - Paul Karp (2019-07-17)
Australia’s prudential regulator will gain new powers to prevent “inappropriate” directors and senior executives being appointed, the federal government has promised.
FP - Karin Strohecker (2019-07-16)
Debt owed by governments, companies, financial institutions and households across developing economies soared to US$69.1 trillion or 216 per cent of gross domestic product from US$68.9 trillion a year earlier. Debt-to-GDP ratios had risen at the fastest pace in Chile, Korea, Brazil, South Africa, Pakistan and China over the past year, the IIF found.
NY Times - Jack Ewing, Amie Tsang (2019-07-16)
She doesn’t have the typical résumé — no doctorate in economics, no post as a central banker — for running the body that sets monetary policy for one-fifth of the global economy. But investors are betting that Christine Lagarde, the surprise nominee to be the next president of the European Central Bank, will act in much the same way as the bank’s last leader.
WSJ - Dave Michaels, Sam Schechner (2019-07-16)
G&M - James Bradshaw (2019-07-16)
The Bank of Canada will take over as administrator of a key interest-rate benchmark that is undergoing an overhaul as part of global reforms to benchmarks, some of which have been vulnerable to manipulation.
G&M - PETE SCHROEDER AND KATIE PAUL (2019-07-16)
Democratic and Republican lawmakers said on Tuesday that Facebook Inc’s history of what they described as untrustworthiness should stand in the way of it launching a digital currency, labelling the plan “delusional” and “crazy” at a Senate hearing.
G&M - STEVE AMBLER AND JEREMY KRONICK (2019-07-15)
The Bank of Canada held its overnight rate constant at 1.75 per cent this week. Markets had completely priced this in, but nevertheless, there are reasons to be surprised by this decision, and perhaps even consider it a missed opportunity.
G&M - Michael Babad (2019-07-15)
We're heading toward key central bank meetings that promise to move financial markets.
CBC - CBC (2019-07-15)
But as global trade threats linger, Canada's top central bankers warn that many people who should know better, including stock market investors, seem to think cuts to interest rates can solve all problems.
G&M - Niall McGee (2019-07-15)
The World Bank has ordered Pakistan to pay Barrick Gold Corp. and Chile’s Antofagasta PLC US$5.8-billion in damages stemming from a long-running international arbitration dispute over mine rights for a massive copper gold project.
G&M - David Milstead (2019-07-12)
U.S. policies that force governments to buy certain products from American factories are harming Bombardier Inc.’s railcar factories in Canada, the company says.
CBC - AP (2019-07-12)
Deficit to top $1 trillion US by end of fiscal year, Trump administration projects
CBC - AP (2019-07-12)
France has adopted a pioneering tax on internet giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook despite threats from the U.S.
FP - Reuters (2019-07-12)
RBC, a primary dealer of British government bonds, said in a research note to clients that the BoE will soon have to ditch its main message that rates will need to rise at some point — even if Brexit goes smoothly.
G&M - GIUSEPPE VALIANTE (2019-07-11)
Guilbeault in 1993 helped found a major environmental advocacy group in Quebec called Equiterre. The activist also worked for Greenpeace for ten years before returning to Equiterre as its director and spokesman in 2007.
FT - Adam SamsonMamta Badkar and Matthew Rocco,and Siddarth Shrikanth (2019-07-11)
The Nasdaq Composite, which rose 0.8 per cent, set a new closing high while the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which finished up 0.3 per cent, touched a fresh intraday record during the session.
Bloomberg - Matthew Burgess (2019-07-11)
Australia’s prudential regulator has ordered three of the nation’s largest banks to increase their capital holdings after finding weaknesses in risk management akin to those at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
G&M - Fergal Smith (2019-07-10)
The Bank of Canada on Wednesday looks set to raise its second-quarter economic growth forecast and stand pat on interest rates, taking a different tack from some major peers, which are signaling plans for additional stimulus.
Bloomberg - Laura Curtis (2019-07-10)
NY Times - Jeanna Smialek (2019-07-10)
The Federal Reserve’s meeting this month was never going to be an easy one given that officials remain split over when — or whether — to cut interest rates. The last few weeks could set the Fed up for an even more difficult call.
WSJ - Nathan Allen (2019-07-10)
European equities decline
G&M - Bill Curry (2019-07-10)
The Bank of Canada kept its key interest rate unchanged Wednesday and avoided signalling its plans, even as its U.S. counterpart set the stage for a rate cut as soon as this month.
CBC - AP (2019-07-10)
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday that "many" Fed officials believe a weakening global economy and rising trade tensions have strengthened the case for looser interest-rate policies.
Reuters - Howard Schneider (2019-07-10)
A confidence shock driven partly by the U.S. trade war is at the center of an increasingly persuasive argument for Federal Reserve policymakers seriously considering cutting rates for the first time in a decade
Reuters - David Shepardson (2019-07-10)
“The United States is very concerned that the digital services tax which is expected to pass the French Senate tomorrow unfairly targets American companies,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement announcing the investigation.
Bloomberg - Theophilos Aargitis (2019-07-09)
Bloomberg - Katherine Greifield (2019-07-09)
G&M - Andrew Willis (2019-07-08)
In one of the great contrarian investments of our time, billionaires such as Murray Edwards and Li Ka-Shing are pouring money into Alberta’s oil sands.
FP - Kevin Carmichael (2019-07-08)
Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service offered via Twitter this week to help executives struggling with this question: What is a free trade agreement?
NY Times - Jeanna Smialek (2019-07-08)
Federal Reserve officials worry that the uncertainty caused by the trade war between the United States and China could be constraining business spending and may be contributing to a manufacturing slowdown that is dragging on growth.
CBC - Catharine Tunney (2019-07-08)
"The federal government must put measures in place to ensure that this situation never happens again."
FP - William Watson (2019-07-08)
There is a reductionist economic interpretation of Canadian confederation that says it was all about the British colonies of northern North America getting together so they could borrow more effectively in London’s capital market. Though an economist, I’m not an economics reductionist so I don’t entirely buy that story. Many things motivate people besides more-efficient borrowing.
G&M - Michael Babad (2019-07-05)
The “quality” of Canadian jobs is eroding as increases in low- and mid-pay employment far outstrips that of higher-paying positions, CIBC World Markets says.
G&M - Mumal Rathore (2019-07-05)
The Bank of Canada will diverge from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s expected policy easing path and keep interest rates on hold at least through this year, according to economists in a Reuters poll who said however that the risk of a recession has risen.
Finextra - Finextra (2019-07-04)
In a letter to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, democrats on the House Financial Services Committee demanded an immediate moratorium on the implementation of Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency and digital wallet, Libra and Calibra..
G&M - Joseph E. Stiglitz (2019-07-04)
Facebook and some of its corporate allies have decided that what the world really needs is another cryptocurrency – and that launching one is the best way to use the vast talents at their disposal. The fact that Facebook thinks so reveals much about what is wrong with 21st-century American capitalism.
G&M - Michelle Zilio (2019-07-04)
U.S. President Donald Trump pressed his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the cases of two Canadians detained by China in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of a Chinese telecom executive on an American arrest warrant, Canadian sources say.
CBC - Geoff Leo (2019-07-04)
In December 2015, the Crown filed a series of charges against Wang and Cui, accusing the married couple of receiving payments from Chinese nationals seeking permanent residency in Canada in exchange for securing them job-offer letters, often for positions that didn't actually exist.
G&M - PAUL WALDIE (2019-07-04)
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has emerged as a leading candidate to take over as head of the International Monetary Fund, one of the most important positions in the global economy.
G&M - Johnson Lai (2019-07-03)
China’s government strongly backed Hong Kong’s beleaguered administration on Tuesday, saying pro-democracy protesters who occupied and vandalized the city’s legislature committed “serious illegal acts” that endangered the social order.
G&M - Rob Nickel (2019-07-03)
An Indigenous-led group plans to offer to buy a majority stake in the Trans Mountain oil pipeline from the Canadian government this week or next, a deal that could help Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mitigate election-year criticism from environmentalists.
Bloomberg - Robert Tuttle (2019-07-03)
G&M - Matthew McClearn (2019-07-02)
A federal review of Export Development Canada has exposed serious shortcomings at the Crown corporation, noting its disclosure practices fall far short of other financial institutions, and that the agency is not legally obligated to consider the environmental or human-rights impact of the financial support it provides to exporters.
WSJ - James Glynn (2019-07-02)
The Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates for the second time in as many months, moving to bolster the resource-rich economy against an increasingly murky global outlook, and drive faster job creation locally.
WSJ - Tim Fairless (2019-07-02)
Mario Draghi is teeing up some of the boldest policy moves of his eight-year term as European Central Bank president only four months before he steps down, potentially binding the hands of his successor for years.
CBC - Peter Zimonjic, Hannah Thibedeau (2019-06-26)
A Canadian government official, who spoke to CBC News on the condition they not be named, confirmed the CFIA notified its Chinese counterparts it had uncovered faked veterinary certificates for some Canadian meat products.
FP - Larysa Harapyn - video (2019-06-26)
Mark Warner of MAAW Law speaks with the Financial Post’s Larysa Harapyn about the upcoming G20 summit in Japan.
WSJ - Spencer Jacob (2019-06-26)
Pundit Stephen Moore didn’t get onto the Federal Reserve Board, but he has joined a “decentralized central bank” that hopes to tame cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
WSJ - Vibhuti Agarwal (2019-06-26)
The Reserve Bank of India’s deputy governor stepped down on Monday, reigniting a debate on the independence of monetary policy in the world’s biggest democracy.
FP - Geoff Zochodne (2019-06-26)
Judith Robertson was named on Tuesday as the next commissioner of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, a job that has been vacant after the term of the organization’s previous leader expired earlier this month.
G&M - KANISHKA SINGH (2019-06-25)
Three large Chinese banks could lose their access to the U.S. financial system after a judge found them in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoenas in a probe into violation of North Korean sanctions, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
CBC - CBC (2019-06-25)
But Matt Stoller, a former financial policy advisor to the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, says this move would take the company out of the business world and into the realm of a sovereign nation.
FP - Victor Ferreirra (2019-06-25)
Each time the price of gold poked its head above a technical level of US$1,350 an ounce, speculators would immediately take profits and slam it back down, he said. The last three times prices hovered above that level in intraday trading, they couldn’t hold it until close.
BNN Video - Ed Devlin-Video (2019-06-25)
BNN Bloomberg asked economists and analysts whether the Bank of Canada can afford to not follow the Fed if it indeed cuts rates. Here’s what they had to say.
NY Times - Powell speech (2019-06-25)
Discusses concerns with global economy and policy decisions.
fsim.ca - Mark Sibthorpe (2019-06-25)
This report is a scorecard I designed in order to rank the performance of the current Minister of Finance, Bill Morneau. I do regular rankings because, otherwise, I cannot measure the performance in a meaningful way. The scoring is based on a variety of metrics as detailed on the ‘score-table’ on page 3.
BNN - BNN Video (2019-06-24)
The Bank of Canada is facing a meaningfully different macroeconomic environment, so I do not believe they will be in lockstep with the Fed.
G&M - Janet McFarland (2019-06-24)
The chief executive of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) has overseen a transformation of the Crown corporation since 2014, shifting CMHC’s focus from its long-time role as Canada’s largest mortgage insurer to a new role as the front-line administrator of the Liberal government’s National Housing Strategy, a program of loans and grants to fund housing for vulnerable groups.
G&M - Michael Babad (2019-06-24)
“There are too many reasons to be gloomy about the Canadian dollar to forecast a sharp appreciation, and our forecast essentially looks for it to underperform others as the U.S. dollar finally corrects in the face of a slowing economy.”
Mr. Juckes, global fixed income strategist, projected the loonie would be at slightly over 75 US cents by December, just shy of 76 by next March, and almost 77 by June, 2020.
CBC - Don Pittis (2019-06-24)
A law that would force Hong Kong courts to send people charged with crimes under Chinese law to mainland China to face penalties has the two groups worried for different reasons, and this time business is weighing in. And it appears at least some factions within the Chinese political establishment are listening, even as Beijing blames the forces of foreign capitalism for instigating the massive protests.
Bloomberg - Alistair Marsh (2019-06-24)
CBC - CBC (2019-06-20)
The U.S. central bank has decided to keep its benchmark interest rate right where it is, in a range between 2.25 and 2.5 per cent.
WSJ - Greg IP (2019-06-20)
Like it or not, the Fed is the world’s central bank. Thus, it is now signaling it will likely cut rates in coming months, not because the U.S. is headed into recession, but because shadows are growing over the rest of the world.
G&M - Adrian Morrow (2019-06-20)
U.S. President Donald Trump is vowing to press Chinese President Xi Jinping on Canada’s behalf over Beijing’s detention of two Canadians in apparent retaliation for Ottawa’s arrest of a Chinese telecom executive.
G&M - HALLIE GU AND DOMINIQUE PATTON (2019-06-19)
China will block pork imports from a third Canadian firm after a shipment was found to contain the banned feed additive ractopamine, the customs agency said on Tuesday, deepening a trade and diplomatic dispute with Canada.
WSJ - Mike Bird (2019-06-19)
In the rally currently roaring through the global bond market, Japan is being left behind, exposing the key flaws in its unique monetary policy platform.
G&M - Geoffrey York (2019-06-18)
In Djibouti, two superpowers have built heavily guarded bases only a few kilometres apart, watching the crossroads between Asia, Africa and the Middle East in an increasingly tense standoff for global supremacy. What could possibly go wrong?
G&M - Barrie McKenna (2019-06-17)
Depending on who’s talking, Canada’s farm export sector is either on the cusp of greatness or headed for disaster.
G&M - David Luggren (2019-06-17)
Ottawa looks set to approve a hotly debated plan to expand an oil pipeline this week, people familiar with the process told Reuters, but the move is unlikely to help Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rebuild flagging support ahead of an October election.
BBC - BBC (2019-06-17)
The scenes are reminiscent of 2003 - when half a million people protested against proposed national security legislation. The unpopular chief executive at the time, Tung Chee-hwa, resigned months later. Critics have said the legislation would expose people in Hong Kong to China's deeply flawed justice system and lead to further erosion of the city's judicial independence.
WSJ - Nick Timiraos (2019-06-17)
Sometimes the Fed cuts rates as a form of insurance, because the risk of bad things happening has gone up: For parallels to questions the Fed faces, analysts point to two rate cuts from the 1990s.
WSJ - Akane Otani (2019-06-17)
Markets are sending conflicting signals about how big a threat the global trade rift presents, underscoring the difficulty investors face in sizing up the fallout from the U.S. and China’s spat.
NY Times - Neil Irwin (2019-06-17)
They want it known they’re basing their decisions on sound economics rather than political considerations. They wish not to be pushed around by what traders in financial markets and cable news pundits want. Or even by the president of the United States.
WSJ - Lawrence Norman (2019-06-17)
Iran said it would exceed limits on its enriched-uranium stockpiles before the end of this month, as the U.S. said it would send an additional 1,000 troops to the Mideast in response to “hostile behavior” by Tehran.
WSJ - WSJ (2019-06-17)
Chinese regulators made fresh attempts to calm frayed nerves in the country’s financial sector, as bank liquidity remained tight by some measures three weeks after authorities took over a struggling city lender.
FP - Philip Cross (2019-06-13)
It is no surprise that of all the former governors of the Bank of Canada, only John Crow had the gravitas and legacy to write a book about his tenure. By comparison, the current governor, Stephen Poloz, whose seven-year term has just entered its final year, barely has accomplishments, never mind a legacy. That is, unless one counts a track record of subpar growth, two near-recessions, monumental bubbles in Canada’s two largest housing markets and a substantial devaluation of the currency. But he did put the face of a female civil-rights activist on the $10 bill.
G&M - Nathan Vanderklippe (2019-06-12)
Protesters crowded onto the streets of downtown Hong Kong Wednesday morning, installing barriers on roads and snarling traffic as they prepared for a day of action to protest a bill that would make it easier for authorities in China to extradite people from the city.
G&M - MATTHEW MCCLEARN, GEOFFREY YORK (2019-06-11)
In Latin America, billions of dollars in Canadian government-backed loans have been funnelled to two of the region’s most notorious oil companies: the state-owned petroleum corporations of Mexico and Brazil, each riddled with frequent reports of bribery, bid-rigging and inflated contracts.
WSJ - Brian Blackston (2019-06-11)
As the global economy slows, central bank policies won’t follow the same path as a decade ago.
WSJ - Vivian Salama (2019-06-11)
President Trump said that the Federal Reserve has given China a competitive advantage over the U.S. with its monetary policy, adding that it is clear some officials haven’t listened to his advice to cut interest rates.
Reuters - Clare Jim, Kane Wu (2019-06-11)
Hong Kong geared for more protests, including strikes, transport go-slows and even picnics, against a proposed extradition law that would allow people to be sent to China for trial, even as the city’s leader vowed on Tuesday to push ahead with the bill.
NY Times - Ben Dooley (2019-06-10)
Spend big and never mind the deficit. That’s what proponents of modern monetary theory, the unorthodox set of economic ideas that has inspired politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, see as the winning formula for American prosperity.
