| The financial services sector would be a vital component of the Canadian economy if measured according to its output and employment alone. It is more than that, however, because the efficiency and effectiveness of the financial sector is critical to economy-wide performance. The financial sector constitutes the infrastructure of commerce; financial intermediation is also the mechanism that facilitates risk-sharing and risk mitigation, as well as regional and intertemporal exchange of financial assets and obligations. These factors warrant special attention to the policy influences on the financial sector's performance.
The C.D. Howe Institute Financial Services Research Initiative is a multi-year program organized by the Institute to report and advise on financial sector policy. Its unique work program addresses the economic environment within which financial intermediation takes place, the regulatory environment, and the future of financial intermediation. The Initiative is informed by regular meetings of experts in the sector, policymakers and supporters engaged in the financial services sector, including financial intermediaries, securities market participants and their regulators, among others. The Initiative is chaired by Edward P. Neufeld. The Initiative's work program is managed by Finn Poschmann, the Institute's Director of Research, with the assistance of Fellow-in-Residence and Professor Emeritus David E.W. Laidler. The Initiative publishes research by prominent scholars from academia, associations, and the private and public sectors.
Financial Services Research Initiative Publications and Events
Bergevin, Philippe. Change is in the Cards: Competition in the Canadian Market. (February 2010).
Le Pan, Nick. Look Before You Leap: A Skeptical View of Proposals to Meld Macro- and Microprudential Regulation. (September 2009).
Allen, Franklin, Elena Carletti and Finn Poschmann. Marking to Market for Financial Institutions: A Common Sense Resolution. (February 2009
Milne, Frank. Anatomy of the Credit
Crisis: The Role of Faulty Risk Management Systems. (July 2008).
Koeppl, Thorsten V and James MacGee. Branching Out: The Urgent Need to Transform Canada's Financial Landscape and How to Do It. (June 2007).
Freedman, Charles and Clyde Goodlet. Financial Stability: What It Is and Why It Matters. C.D. Howe Institute Commentary 238 (November 2007).
Daniels, Mark R. Insurers and Banks: Levelling the Regulatory Playing Field. C.D. Howe Institute Backgrounder 97 (November 2006).
Laidler, David. Grasping the Nettles: Clearing the Path to Financial Services Reform in Canada C.D. Howe Institute Commentary 238 (September 2006).
In this issue: While Canada’s banks face a regulatory framework whose politicization and unpredictability rules out efforts at consolidation, the country’s securities markets operate in a unique regulatory morass. It is time for politicians to grasp these nettles.
Poschmann, Finn. Financial Services Reform: Why Productivity Matters (June 2006).
Previous Financial Services Policy Publications
Bond, David. Bank Mergers: Why We Need Them, How to Get Them (September 2003).
Chant, John F. Main Street or Bay Street: The Only Choices? (May 2001).
Mintz, Jack M., and Finn Poschmann. Investor Confidence and the Market for Good Corporate Governance (August 2001).
Dobson, Wendy. Prisoners of the Past in a Fast-Forward World: Canada's Policy Framework for the Financial Services Sector (December 1999).
Mathewson, G.F., and Neil C. Quigley. Canadian Bank Mergers: Efficiency and Consumer Gain versus Market Power (June 1998).
Neave, Edwin H. Revising Canada's Financial Regulation: Analyses and Recommendations (February 1998).
Neave, Edwin H. Canadian Financial Regulation: A System in Transition (March 1996).
Horstmann, Ignatius J. G., Frank Mathewson, and Neil C. Quigley. Ensuring Competition: Bank Distribution of Insurance Products (January 1996).
Mintz, Jack M. and James E. Pesando, eds. Putting Consumers First: Reforming the Canadian Financial Services Industry (January 1996). |
