OTTAWA, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has held his
first face-to-face meeting with the country's top bank executives since the
crisis sweeping through global financial markets escalated this week, the bank
said on Friday.
Carney met on Thursday with the chief executives of Canada's five major
banks -- Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce, Bank of Nova Scotia and Bank of Montreal.
"Given the current environment in global financial markets, it is not
surprising that we are talking more frequently to share information," bank
spokeswoman Jill Vardy said.
The bank would not give details of the talks, which took place in Toronto,
but Vardy said Carney wanted to provide the banks with "some context around the
announcement the bank made in coordination with other central banks early
Thursday morning".
"We don't have any information on when they plan to meet again, but we can
expect frequent and ongoing discussions, given the current financial climate,"
she said.
In coordination with other central banks around the world, the bank
announced a $10 billion swap facility with the U.S. Federal Reserve to help free
up bank-to-bank lending. But the Canadian effort is more a show of moral support
as the bank said domestic institutions are not experiencing liquidity problems
in managing their U.S. dollar funds.
However, in a sign that money markets in Canada are stressed, the Bank of
Canada on Thursday said it would resume liquidity operations via 28-day purchase
and resale agreements, buying C$2 billion worth of securities in the market on
Friday and selling them back on Oct. 17.
(Reporting by Louise Egan; Editing by Peter Galloway) Keywords: CANADA
ECONOMY/BANKOFCANADA
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