By Reuters Staff
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OTTAWA, May 20 (Reuters) - Price volatility is keeping cryptoassets from being widely accepted as a means of payment, the Bank of Canada said on Thursday, though the markets’ rapid evolution is an emerging vulnerability to Canada’s financial system.
The central bank said it is monitoring cryptoasset markets, which have surged in popularity in the last year as they have become easier for consumers to access through exchange-traded funds, listed companies and other investment vehicles.
Despite the broadening interest, cryptoassets like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies remain high risk as their intrinsic value is hard to establish, the Bank said in its annual review of Canada’s financial systems.
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OTTAWA, May 20 (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada said on Thursday that Canada’s hot housing market and high household debt levels had left the economy more vulnerable to economic shocks, but made clear it would not raise interest rates to cool the frenzy.
A housing market boom and linked rise in mortgage lending has helped buoy economic growth in the short-term, but they increase the risk over the medium-term, the central bank said in its annual review of financial systems.
Despite the intensifying risks, the focus remains on getting the hardest-hit segments of the economy through the COVID-19 crisis, Governor Tiff Macklem said.
By Reuters Staff
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OTTAWA, May 20 (Reuters) - Canada’s financial regulator on Thursday confirmed a new benchmark qualifying rate for uninsured borrowers would come into effect on June 1 after the central bank earlier issued its strongest comments yet on the country’s red-hot housing market.
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) said the minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages will be the greater of the mortgage contract rate plus 2%, or 5.25%, according to a statement on its web site. Consultations with lenders over the move were launched in April.
The new rate “will help support financial resilience should economic circumstances change,” OSFI’s Assistant Superintendent for Regulation said in the statement. (Reporting by Steve Scherer Editing by Chris Reese)
The Biden administration's tax enforcement proposal would require that cryptocurrency transfers over $10,000 be reported to the Internal Revenue Service and would more than double the IRS workforce over a decade, the U.S. Treasury said on Thursday.