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By Nia Williams
CALGARY, June 17 (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada wants
upgrades made to the core payments systems used in the country's
financial system in order to make them more efficient and
competitive, a top central bank official said on Friday.
Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Wilkins said new technologies
in financial services had the potential to transform the
financial system but stressed institutions and policymakers must
work together to guard against potential risks.
For the time being, the bank's priority is to see
improvements made to the Large Value Transfer System and
Automated Clearing Settlement System that the bank oversees, she
said. The systems are operated by Payments Canada, the
organization Wilkins addressed in Calgary.
"These systems have served us well, but both require
investments that are needed to fully meet our oversight
requirements," she said in a prepared text of the speech.
Richer data on transactions in both systems needs to be
collected and ideally make the two interoperable, Wilkins said.
Wilkins did not discuss monetary policy in her speech. The
Bank of Canada is widely expected to hold rates at 0.50 percent
when it meets next month. BOCWATCH
The central bank confirmed earlier this week that it is
experimenting with a payments system based on the technology
behind the bitcoin virtual currency. (Writing by Leah Schnurr and David Ljunggren; Editing by
Bernard Orr)