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Full-Text Articles in Economic Policy

Canada: Government Bond Purchase Program, Corey N. Runkel Jul 2022

Canada: Government Bond Purchase Program, Corey N. Runkel

Journal of Financial Crises

In Canada, the shock of the COVID-19 crisis drove up bid-ask spreads on Government of Canada (GoC) bonds. The Bank of Canada (BoC) announced the Government Bond Purchase Program (GBPP) to support the functioning of its government bond market, support other market liquidity tools, and replace the BoC's long-standing fiscal agent activities. The GBPP conducted multi-rate reverse auctions with primary dealers to purchase GoC bonds in the secondary market. The GBPP purchased bonds across the yield curve but concentrated on two- and five-year tenors. In June 2020, with CAD 64.7 billion (USD 48 billion) outstanding, the BoC announced that the …


Canada: Corporate Bond Purchase Program, Sharon M. Nunn Jul 2022

Canada: Corporate Bond Purchase Program, Sharon M. Nunn

Journal of Financial Crises

The Bank of Canada (BoC) activated its Corporate Bond Purchase Program (CBPP) from May 26, 2020, to May 26, 2021, in response to liquidity strains in corporate bond markets that stemmed from economic uncertainty and the COVID-19 pandemic. Policymakers enacted the CBPP as part of a broader suite of policies meant to stabilize the Canadian economy. Through the CBPP, the BoC purchased Canadian corporate bonds through a tender process on the secondary market. The CBPP could hold up to CAD 10 billion (USD 7.7 billion) par value of eligible bonds issued by specific non-deposit-taking firms incorporated in Canada. The bonds …


Canada: Bankers’ Acceptance Purchase Facility, Corey N. Runkel Jul 2022

Canada: Bankers’ Acceptance Purchase Facility, Corey N. Runkel

Journal of Financial Crises

Bankers’ acceptances (BAs) are a form of investment security guaranteed by banks to fund loans to businesses against their credit lines. In Canada, BAs underpin the Canadian Dollar Offered Rate (CDOR), the main benchmark used to calculate floating interest rates in Canada’s derivatives market. In 2018, BAs formed the largest segment of money market securities traded in the secondary market at around CAD 35 billion (USD 26 billion) per week. When asset managers and the country’s public pension providers began shedding BAs amid the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, CDOR spiked, and the effects threatened to ripple throughout the Canadian …


Canada: Term Loan Facility, Priya Sankar Jul 2022

Canada: Term Loan Facility, Priya Sankar

Journal of Financial Crises

As the Global Financial Crisis deepened into late 2008, liquidity continued to deteriorate in Canadian credit markets. Canadian financial institutions curtailed their lending, which increased funding costs and reduced market-wide liquidity. In response, the Bank of Canada (BoC) took extraordinary measures to provide liquidity to financial market participants and improve credit conditions. On November 12, 2008, the BoC established the Term Loan Facility (TLF) to extend credit at a penalty rate for terms of approximately one month. The TLF was available to 14 major banks that were direct participants in Canada’s payments system, the Large Value Transfer System. Participants could …


Canada: Contingent Term Repo Facility, Sharon M. Nunn Jul 2022

Canada: Contingent Term Repo Facility, Sharon M. Nunn

Journal of Financial Crises

The Bank of Canada (BoC) activated its Contingent Term Repo Facility (CTRF) from April 2020 to April 2021 in response to liquidity strains in markets that stemmed from economic uncertainty and the COVID-19 pandemic. The facility complemented other BoC liquidity facilities by broadening access to the central bank’s repurchase (repo) operations beyond primary dealers and their affiliates, to large asset managers active in Canadian dollar money markets or fixed income markets. The CTRF offered one-month term funding to eligible counterparties on a bilateral basis against securities issued or guaranteed by the government of Canada or a provincial government. In the …


The Rescue Of The Us Auto Industry, Module C: Restructuring Chrysler Through Bankruptcy, Alexander Nye Apr 2022

The Rescue Of The Us Auto Industry, Module C: Restructuring Chrysler Through Bankruptcy, Alexander Nye

Journal of Financial Crises

In late 2008, due to the confluence of the financial crisis and years of structural decline in the auto industry, Chrysler was nearing bankruptcy. The US Treasury provided Chrysler’s owner, Chrysler Holding, with a $4 billion bridge loan and Chrysler’s related finance company, Chrysler Financial, with a $1.5 billion financing program under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). The government-led restructuring through bankruptcy involved the commitment of roughly $5 billion in debtor-in-possession (DIP) loans from the US Treasury and the Canadian government, under which the US Treasury ultimately lent $1.89 billion, using TARP funds, and Canada lent about $1 billion, …