It has been close to two years since the general mandate and membership of the Canadian Foreign Exchange Committee (CFEC) has been discussed in this newsletter, so a general summary is provided here for those who may not be familiar with the work of the Committee. A brief update is also provided on some of the issues that were discussed at the last meeting on 28 May.
The objective of the CFEC is to provide a forum for the regular discussion of issues and developments pertinent to the foreign exchange market, including the review of market practices and procedures. As the Committee is representative of the Canadian foreign exchange market generally, it also serves as a channel of communication between the foreign exchange market in Canada and other organizations and official institutions, both within Canada and abroad.
The Committee is comprised of senior officials from the major Canadian dollar market-making institutions in Canada, and from other banks and financial institutions that are active in the foreign exchange market in Canada. It also includes one representative each from the inter-dealer broking community and the Bank of Canada. The Chair of the Canadian Committee for Professionalism (CCFP) and the President of the Financial Markets Association of Canada (FMAC) are non-voting, ex-officio Members. The Chair of the CFEC is elected by and from the Members of the Committee, with that position currently being held by the Bank of Canada. Usually the Committee meets three times per year, or more frequently as required.
Over the past two years, there have been a number of changes in the membership of the CFEC. The current Members are, in alphabetical order, as follows: Henry Ann (Tullett & Tokyo), Karl Berger (President of FMAC), Steve Boucouvalas (Republic National Bank), Rob Burgess (Toronto Dominion Bank), Normand Faubert (Laurentian Bank), David Gibbins (RBCDS), Mike Horrocks (CIBC Wood Gundy), Lee Kachroo (ABN-Amro), Brad Meredith (Hongkong Bank), Tim Noël (CFEC Chair, Bank of Canada), Martin Ouellet (National Bank), Jamie Thorsen (Bank of Montreal), Barry Wainstein (Bank of Nova Scotia), Rob Wittmann (Chair of CCFP).
A copy of the CFEC’s “1997 Report on Activities,” which includes the Committee’s “Document of Objectives and Organization,” can be obtained by contacting the Secretary of the Committee at (416) 681-2422.
The Committee begins each meeting with a “Tour de table” in which recent market developments are discussed. As well, there are always reports from the Chair of the CCFP and the President of FMAC. Other items are added to the agenda as required. At the last meeting, on 28 May, three issues were brought to the table by the CCFP for consideration by the CFEC, resulting in three decisions. First, the Committee decided to support a proposal to change the time of the value date changeover for the Canadian dollar from 5:30 pm to 5:00 pm CST. Second, the Committee agreed to support an initiative to request that Statistics Canada change the timing of the unemployment and inflation data releases from 7:00 am to 8:30 am CST. Third, with a brief period being given to the Members to provide further comment, the Committee is considering supporting a number of guidelines to be used in the establishment of daily trading ranges for the Canadian dollar.
As some readers may know, the Bank of Canada co-ordinates, on behalf of market participants, the compilation of regular reports on the volumes of foreign exchange activity in Canada. The information is aggregated by the Bank and is distributed back to the participants each month in the form of market totals, which individual banks can then use to calculate their market shares and evaluate trends in the market. A Working Group has been formed to look into revamping this report to make the data more useful and reliable. The following individuals/ banks are represented on the Committee: Martin Barabé (Bank of Montreal), Steve Boucouvalas (Republic National), Steve Demers (National Bank), Garry Fredrickson (Bank of Nova Scotia), Mike Holder (Toronto Dominion Bank), Yahya Mohammad (Hongkong Bank), Rob Wittmann (RBCDS), and Rex Woo (CIBC Wood Gundy). If people have any ideas or comments on this initiative, they are asked to contact their Working Group member, or they can call the Bank of Canada’s member on the Working Group, Rob Ogrodnick, at (416) 681-2422
The next meeting of the CFEC has been scheduled for 24 September.

Tim Noël, Chair
Canadian Foreign Exchange Committee