E42 - Monetary Systems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System; Payment Systems

• Central Bank Digital Currency: Motivations and Implications

  Staff Discussion Paper 2017-16 Walter Engert, Ben Fung

  The emergence of digital currencies such as Bitcoin and the underlying blockchain and distribution ledger technology have attracted significant attention. These developments have raised the possibility of considerable impacts on the financial system and perhaps the wider economy.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Discussion Papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital Currencies, Financial services, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5

• Cash Versus Card: Payment Discontinuities and the Burden of Holding Coins

  Staff Working Paper 2017-47 Heng Chen, Kim Huynh, Oz Shy

  Cash is the preferred method of payment for small value transactions generally less than $25. We provide insight to this finding with a new theoretical model that characterizes and compares consumers’ costs of paying with cash to paying with cards for each transaction.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): D, D0, D03, E, E4, E42

• November 16, 2017 Acceptance and Use of Payments at the Point of Sale in Canada

  Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 2017 Ben Fung, Kim Huynh, Anneke Kosse

  Merchants universally accept cash. Consumers widely hold cash but also carry debit and credit cards. The cost of using a method of payment has only a small influence on which method consumers use. Large merchants accept all payments, while only two-thirds of small and medium-sized businesses accept credit cards. Merchants report that credit cards are the costliest payment method compared with cash and debit cards. However, costs are not the only consideration. Merchant acceptance of credit accounts for the many con-sumers that want to use credit cards. This interaction between consumers and merchants is known as network externalities.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review Article Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital Currencies, Financial Institutions, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): D, D2, D23, D24, E, E4, E41, E42, G, G2, G21, L, L2

• November 16, 2017 An Initial Assessment of Changes to the Bank of Canada’s Framework for Market Operations

  Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 2017 Kaetlynd McRae, Sean Durr, David Manzo

  The Bank of Canada made changes to several of the tools that make up its framework for operations and liquidity provision. These changes came about after a comprehensive re-view of the framework and are designed to help the Bank better achieve its objectives of reinforcing the target for the overnight rate and supporting the well-functioning of Cana-dian financial markets under normal market conditions.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review Article Topic(s): Financial markets, Financial stability, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy implementation, Payment clearing and settlement systems, Transmission of monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, E44, E5, E52, E58, G, G0, G01, G1, G18

• Fintech: Is This Time Different? A Framework for Assessing Risks and Opportunities for Central Banks

  Staff Discussion Paper 2017-10 Meyer Aaron, Francisco Rivadeneyra, Samantha Sohal

  We investigate the risks and opportunities to the mandates of central banks arising from fintech developments.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Discussion Papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Digital Currencies, Financial Institutions, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, G, G1, G2, L, L1

• Monetary Policy Implementation in a Negative Rate Environment

  Staff Working Paper 2017-25 Michael Boutros, Jonathan Witmer

  Monetary policy implementation could, in theory, be constrained by deeply negative rates since overnight market participants may have an incentive to invest in cash rather than lend to other participants.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Interest rates, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy implementation JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E42, E43, G, G0

• May 25, 2017 Project Jasper: Are Distributed Wholesale Payment Systems Feasible Yet?

  Financial System Review - June 2017 James Chapman, Rod Garratt, Scott Hendry, Andrew McCormack, Wade McMahon

  This report describes a joint endeavour between public and private sectors to explore a wholesale payment system based on distributed ledger technology (DLT). They find that a stand-alone DLT system is unlikely to be as beneficial as a centralized payment system in terms of core operating costs; however, it could increase financial system efficiency as a result of integration with the broader financial market infrastructure.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Financial System Review Article Topic(s): Digital Currencies, Financial system regulation and policies, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, E5, E58, G, G2, G28

• The Costs of Point-of-Sale Payments in Canada

  Staff Discussion Paper 2017-4 Anneke Kosse, Heng Chen, Marie-Hélène Felt, Valéry Dongmo Jiongo, Kerry Nield, Angelika Welte

  This study provides insight into the costs of cash, debit card and credit card payments made at the point of sale in Canada in 2014. For each payment method, it examines the total resource costs, which capture the overall use of resources by society as a whole.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Discussion Papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital Currencies, Financial Institutions, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): D, D1, D12, D2, D23, D24, E, E4, E41, E42, G, G2, G21, L, L2

• Canadian Bank Notes and Dominion Notes: Lessons for Digital Currencies

  Staff Working Paper 2017-5 Ben Fung, Scott Hendry, Warren E. Weber

  This paper studies the period in Canada when both private bank notes and government-issued notes (Dominion notes) were simultaneously in circulation. Because both of these notes shared many of the characteristics of today's digital currencies, the experience with these notes can be used to draw lessons about how digital currencies might perform.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital Currencies, Financial services JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5, E58

• Central Bank Digital Currencies: A Framework for Assessing Why and How

  Staff Discussion Paper 2016-22 Ben Fung, Hanna Halaburda

  Digital currencies have attracted strong interest in recent years and have the potential to become widely adopted for use in making payments. Public authorities and central banks around the world are closely monitoring developments in digital currencies and studying their implications for the economy, the financial system and central banks.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Discussion Papers Topic(s): Digital Currencies, Financial services, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42