Domestic Stability Buffer Council
The Domestic Stability Buffer is a capital buffer that the big six Canadian Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) must set aside to cover potential losses during periods of financial stress. The Centre’s Domestic Stability Buffer Council, chaired by Jeremy Kronick, provides OSFI, industry participants and key economic policy voices with an independent assessment of the […] Financial Services Research Initiative
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 […] As the Bank of Canada resists rate cuts, is it falling behind the curve again? – Globe and Mail
The latest data (from February) indicate that the battle against inflation is almost over. Despite the encouraging inflation data, the Bank of Canada again held its policy rate at 5 percent on Wednesday. What gives? The bank, like many other central banks, was slow off the mark to raise rates as inflation took off. We worry it runs the risk of falling behind the curve again.
First, let’s examine why the bank might be hesitating to cut – the housing market and fiscal policy. Then, let’s examine why, in our view, that’s not enough.
Year-over-year headline inflation dropped inside the bank’s 1-3 percent range in January, and continued to fall in February, sitting at 2.8 percent. Core inflation, which strips out more volatile…
Jeremy Kronick on BNN – If the BoC waits too long to cut rates, it may fall behind the curve
Jeremy Kronick, Associate Vice President and director of the Centre on Financial and Monetary Policy, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the path for rate cuts in Canada, inflation and the fiscal policy.
C.D. Howe Institute Monetary Policy Council Calls for Bank of Canada to Hold Overnight Rate at 5.00 Percent, Cut to 3.50 Percent by April 2025
April 4, 2024 – The C.D. Howe Institute’s Monetary Policy Council (MPC) calls for the Bank of Canada to maintain its target for the overnight rate, its benchmark policy interest rate, at 5.00 percent at its next announcement on April 10th. The MPC further calls for the Bank to lower the target to 4.75 at the following announcement in June, on the way to a target of 3.50 percent by April of 2025.
The MPC provides an independent assessment of the monetary stance consistent with the Bank of Canada’s 2…
Corporate trust needs to be nurtured, not legislated – Financial Post
Just over two decades ago, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act put the regulation of corporate compliance on the map. It has since become a governance preoccupation, spawning armies of compliance professionals, commanding a substantial portion of every board’s agenda and costing hundreds of billions of dollars. Elaborate legal mechanisms — such as sentencing guidelines, whistleblowing regimes and personal liability of directors and management — aim at preventing employee wrongdoing and heightening oversight by directors and senior management to ensure internal systems are effective.
The objective — better, more honest governance — is hard to argue with. Yet time and time again we see high-profile firms encouraging, acquiescing in or simply…
Tell-tale Signals: A Customized Toolkit for Tracking the Economy
To make informed decisions, policymakers need reliable and robust economic data, and researchers at the C.D. Howe Institute have created many unique data sets for their analyses and recommendations over the years. This Commentary brings together some novel data series from previous C.D. Howe Institute studies to provide third parties, including the Bank of […] Hodgson, Smallridge – The Best Indigenous Financing Gap Solution? An Indigenous Development Bank
From: Glen Hodgson and Diana Smallridge To: Reconciliation watchers Date: March 20, 2024 Re: The Best Indigenous Financing Gap Solution? An Indigenous Development Bank Access to financing is critical if the Indigenous economy is to make meaningful progress on sustained economic development as a basis for reconciliation. There are significant market gaps in existing Indigenous financing and it’s time for […] The case for an April interest-rate cut by Tiff Macklem – Globe and Mail
Headline inflation in January moved back into the Bank of Canada’s 1- to 3-per-cent target range. Yet on Wednesday, the bank again held its target for the overnight rate at 5 per cent.
Why is the bank reluctant to cut? There are two main impediments: core inflation, and concerns over expectations. Both are fair reasons to keep rates where they are, but both measures are easing or should ease soon. An April rate cut may therefore be in the cards.
The bank’s mandate is to target 2-per-cent headline inflation. But headline inflation contains a number of volatile items, such as energy, and so to get a sense of underlying price pressures, many central banks have measures of core inflation that strip away these components…
C.D. Howe Institute Monetary Policy Council Calls for Bank of Canada to Hold Overnight Rate at 5.00 Percent, Cut to 3.50 Percent by March of 2025
February 29, 2024 – The C.D. Howe Institute’s Monetary Policy Council (MPC) recommends that the Bank of Canada maintain its target for the overnight rate, its benchmark policy interest rate, at 5.00 percent at its next announcement on March 6th. The MPC further recommends that the Bank keep the target at 5.00 percent in April, before reducing it to 4.50 percent by September and to 3.50 percent by March of 2025.
The MPC provides an independent assessment of the monetary stance consistent with the Bank of…
Brian Lewis – Practical Advice for the Ontario Infrastructure Bank
From: Brian Lewis To: Ontario taxpayers, infrastructure policy makers and investors Date: February 26, 2024 Re: Practical Advice for the Ontario Infrastructure Bank The provincial government recently announced the creation of an Ontario Infrastructure Bank to help build more infrastructure faster while lowering taxpayer costs. The new bank would do this by leveraging private sector capital and expertise […] Jeremy M. Kronick – The Unintended Consequences of Ottawa’s 35-percent Interest Rate Cap
From: Jeremy M. Kronick To: Finance Minister Minister Chrystia Freeland Date: February 20, 2024 Re: The Unintended Consequences of Ottawa’s 35-percent Interest Rate Cap Ottawa has set its sights on reining in predatory lending rates. Last year it set out draft regulations that would lower the rate non-prime lenders can charge from 48 to 35 percent […]