Ben co-leads the Bank’s digital currency research initiative with Scott Hendry (FBD). His current focus is studying the potential roles of the central bank in retail payments and, in particular, the issuance of central bank digital currency.
Recent data show that the use of credit cards in Canada has been increasing, while the use of cash has been declining. At the same time, only two-thirds of small or medium-sized businesses accept credit cards.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"Yield and inflation differentials between Canada and the United States," (with Eli Remolona). Proceedings of the Bank of Canada Conference on "Information in Financial Asset Prices." 1999.
"The stance of monetary policy" (with M. Yuan). Proceedings of the Bank of Canada Conference on "Money, Monetary Policy, and Transmission Mechanism." 2000.
"Composition of US Dollar foreign exchange reserves by instrument" (with R. McCauley), Bank for International Settlements Quarterly Review, November 2000, pp.59-60.
"How active are central banks in managing their US dollar reserve portfolios?" (with R. McCauley), Bank for International Settlements Quarterly Review, March 2001, pp.31-32.
"Analyzing the growth of Taiwanese deposits in foreign currency," (with R. McCauley), Bank for International Settlements Quarterly Review, September 2001, pp. 49-56.
"China's Asset Management Corporations" (with G. Ma), Bank for International Settlements Working Paper, 115.
"A VAR analysis of the effects of monetary policy in East Asia", Bank for International Settlements Working Paper, 119.
"Public asset management companies in East Asia," (with J. George, S. Hohl, and G. Ma), Financial Stability Institute Occasional Paper No. 3, February 2004
