the state joint-stock, central issue bank of Canada. Founded in 1934, it is the “banks’ bank” in that country, regulating the interest rate and the norms of obligatory reserves for commercial banks.
The Bank of Canada acts as banker for the government of the dominion and the provinces, carries out the monetary operations connected with their budgets and manages the state debt, buys, and sells government paper on the open market, represents Canada in international credit organizations, and carries out transactions involving gold and foreign currency. The bank has agencies in each province. In 1944 it created a subsidiary organization, the Industrial Development Bank, for long-term financing of industry, transportation, and construction, with capital of $25 million (Canadian dollars) that belongs entirely to the federal government. The joint-stock capital and reserves of the bank for the beginning of 1969 were $30 million, the balance was $4,636 million, with an issue of bank notes of $3,229 million, deposits of commercial banks of $1,114 million, deposits of the government of $47 million, and investments in the Industrial Development Bank of $354 million. Currency reserves of the Bank of Canada and the Currency Fund of Canada amounted to $3.0 billion; of that amount $923 million was in gold and the rest almost entirely in US dollars.