Financial Services and Regulation - Op Eds

Published in the Financial Post on July 16, 2015

By Thorsten V. Koeppl and James MacGee

Thorsten V. Koeppl is Associate Professor and RBC Fellow, Department of Economics, Queen’s University; and Scholar in Financial Services and Monetary Policy, C.D. Howe Institute. James MacGee is Associate Professor of Economics, Western University, and a Research Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute.

Global insecurity jeopardizes Canada’s housing market if we don’t protect against a major recession

Headlines about new record highs for housing prices in Toronto are a reminder that Canadian prices remain well above historical trends. Naturally, numerous economic commentators follow such news with warnings of the…

Published in the Financial Post on April 1, 2015

By: Anita Anand

Anita Anand is a Professor of Law, University of Toronto, and a Fellow-in-Residence at the C.D. Howe Institute. 

“Hostile bidders will likely feel exposed under the 120-day rule”

This week, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published draft rules under which a takeover bid would have an irrevocable 50 percent minimum tender condition. Once met, the rules would require an additional 10-day right to tender for undecided shareholders.

The bid, however, would also remain open for a minimum of 120 days. The 50 percent condition is laudable, because it offers effective decision-making capacity on the part of…

Published in the Globe and Mail on October 20, 2014

By Mati Dubrovinsky

Mati Dubrovinsky is a senior policy analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute.

A few days ago, The Globe and Mail reported that, following up on a spring 2014 federal budget commitment, the Department of Finance is holding negotiations with the two major credit card companies, Visa and MasterCard, as well as major banks issuing them. The goal is to achieve a commitment, or an outright regulation if that fails, to cap the fees credit card companies charge merchants.

When a consumer swipes, taps, or enters a PIN for a credit card transaction, the merchant pays for the service. If a consumer paid $100 for a…

Published in the National Post on April 9th, 2014

By Mati Dubrovinsky

There is no reason for an agency of the government of Canada to be further involved in developing or marketing electronic payments technologies

A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that an electronic payments system, MintChip – until now under development by the Royal Canadian Mint – is on the block, for sale to private investors.That is a fine idea, because there is little reason for the federal government to deliver directly an electronic payments system.

The Royal Canadian Mint – this country’s issuer of all circulation and commemorative coins –has been developing an electronic payments system dubbed “MintChip.” The…

Published in the Financial Post on March 4, 2014

By Finn Poschmann

Ottawa is soon to release proposals on bank bail-ins, the process by which bank bondholders, who seem always to get bailed out when banks get into trouble, instead might be bailed-in, becoming shareholders. The idea is to avoid government bailouts of institutions that are thought too big to fail and to limit the damage to third or fourth parties if they fail anyway.

Bail-in debt may come to exist alongside, or even displace, debt now being issued in accordance with the Basel banking committee guidelines, known in banking circles as Basel III-compliant non-viability contingent capital, NVCC. Bail-in debt and NVCC serve similar, perhaps…