During the Covid-19 pandemic, many central banks had ramped up their market operations to alleviate a sharp tightening of market conditions. For Canada, the experience brought home to policy-makers the importance of having robust and up-to-date lending infrastructure in place during times of stress.

“During the 2008 and 2009 financial crisis, central banks globally had moved from inactive to very active market participation in the repo markets,” says Maksym Padalko, adviser at the Bank of Canada