Canada: Commercial Paper Purchase Program

Abstract

In response to the onset of the COVID-19 crisis in early 2020, the Bank of Canada (BoC) enacted a wide-ranging program of monetary measures intended to support the flow of credit to individuals, firms, and municipalities. On March 27, 2020, the BoC announced the establishment of the Commercial Paper Purchase Program (CPPP), a liquidity facility designed to purchase highly rated commercial paper (CP), including asset-backed CP, from Canadian incorporated firms, municipalities, and provincial agencies. The BoC funded the program using settlement balances, and it retained several private firms to manage the asset purchases and liaise with issuers. Although firms took advantage of the program during its first month of operations, usage declined rapidly thereafter; the BoC's CP holdings peaked at approximately 3.0 billion Canadian dollars (CAD) (USD 2.2 billion) the week of April 29, 2020. Alongside the BoC's other large-scale asset purchase programs, the CPPP helped to quickly restore normal market functioning. The CPPP began making purchases on April 2, 2020, and operated for 12 months, terminating as scheduled on April 1, 2021.

Keywords: asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP), asset purchases, commercial paper, liquidity facility, short-term funding, wholesale funding

JEL Classification: G01, G28