The Bank of Canada has introduced a new blog thingy, named Sparks at Bank:
Sparks at Bank is a new platform for sharing insights, research and analysis from staff at the Bank of Canada. It’s designed for people who think deeply about the economy and policy but who also appreciate clarity and brevity.
…
Here’s what to expect from the articles on Sparks at Bank:
- They’ll be relevant. You’ll read analyses about key economic issues affecting Canadians. You can count on each article to provide the Bank’s usual independent, evidence-based research and analysis.
- They’ll go beneath the surface. You’ll get a better understanding of the forces behind ongoing trends and recent developments.
- They’ll be easy to read. You’ll get clear writing that doesn’t sacrifice substance.
It’s also important that you know what articles on Sparks at Bank won’t be:
- They won’t be a statement about official Bank policies. You’ll be reading views that are solely those of the authors and produced independently from the Bank’s Governing Council. You’ll find official Bank views in the Monetary Policy Report, the Financial Stability Report and the many speeches members of Governing Council deliver throughout the year.
- They won’t be full research papers. You’ll be getting a snapshot of some recent work, and you can still find complete research papers on our website.
They are starting with three posts:
- What’s behind the slowdown in Toronto’s condo market
- Understanding the resurgence of food inflation in 2025
- Hedge funds and their trading strategies in the Government of Canada bond market
I think the home-page of the blog is LINK, but it’s not clear. The posts aren’t on the same directory stem, for one thing.
I’m pretty sure the name of the blog is a play on the nearby Sparks Street intersection with Bank Street:
West of Bank Street, outside of the mall itself, the street is overshadowed by the C.D. Howe Building, the home of Industry Canada to the south, and the headquarters of the Bank of Canada to the north.
There is an overnight treasury offering of LFE and LFE.PR.B:
Canadian Life Companies Split Corp. (“the Company”) is pleased to announce it will undertake an offering of Preferred Shares (TSX: LFE.PR.B) and Class A Shares (TSX: LFE) of the Company. The offering will be led by National Bank Financial Inc.
The sales period of this overnight offering will end at 8:30 a.m. EST on February 4, 2026. The offering is expected to close on or about February 11, 2026 and is subject to certain closing conditions including approval by the TSX.
The Preferred Shares will be offered at a price of $10.45 per Preferred Share and the Class A Shares will be offered at a price of $7.65 per Class A Share.
The closing price on the TSX of each of the Preferred Shares and Class A Shares on February 2, 2026 was $10.53 and $7.83, respectively.
Since inception of the Company, the aggregate dividends declared on the Preferred Shares have been $12.85 per share and the aggregate dividends declared on the Class A Shares have been $9.85 per share, for a combined total of $22.70 per unit. All distributions paid to date have been made in tax advantage eligible Canadian dividends or capital gains dividends.
The net proceeds of the offering will be used by the Company to invest in an actively managed portfolio primarily consisting of four publicly traded Canadian life insurance companies as follows: Great‐West Lifeco Inc., iA Financial Corporation Inc., Manulife Financial Corporation and Sun Life Financial Inc.
The Company’s investment objectives are:
Preferred Shares:
i. to provide holders of the Preferred Shares with fixed, cumulative preferential monthly cash dividends at a rate equal to the greater of: 7.00% OR Prime Rate plus 2% (max of 9%) annually based on the $10.00 original issue price, and;
ii. on or about December 1, 2030 (subject to further 6 year extensions), to pay the holders of the Preferred Shares the original $10 issue price of those shares.Class A Shares:
i. to provide holders of the Class A Shares with regular monthly cash dividends as the directors of the Company may from time to time determine; and
ii. on or about December 1, 2030 (subject to further 6 year extensions), to pay the holders of Class A Shares such amounts as remain after paying the holders of the Preferred Shares the amounts owing to them.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
|||||||
| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.1250 % | 2,469.6 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.1250 % | 4,682.7 |
| Floater | 5.83 % | 6.08 % | 56,476 | 13.76 | 3 | 0.1250 % | 2,698.7 |
| OpRet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0315 % | 3,666.4 |
| SplitShare | 4.76 % | 4.56 % | 88,668 | 3.05 | 5 | 0.0315 % | 4,378.5 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0315 % | 3,416.3 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.66 % | 5.57 % | 630,792 | 6.79 | 7 | 0.0736 % | 3,083.1 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.56 % | 5.64 % | 50,469 | 14.43 | 27 | 1.4656 % | 3,410.9 |
| FixedReset Disc | 5.95 % | 6.00 % | 113,367 | 13.68 | 28 | 0.3630 % | 3,168.6 |
| Insurance Straight | 5.46 % | 5.55 % | 65,692 | 14.52 | 22 | 0.2335 % | 3,330.9 |
| FloatingReset | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.3630 % | 3,769.4 |
| FixedReset Prem | 5.98 % | 4.30 % | 82,599 | 2.54 | 20 | 0.2525 % | 2,650.8 |
| FixedReset Bank Non | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.3630 % | 3,239.0 |
| FixedReset Ins Non | 5.30 % | 5.47 % | 74,707 | 14.38 | 14 | 0.6877 % | 3,121.2 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| POW.PR.D | Perpetual-Discount | -3.74 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 22.12 Evaluated at bid price : 22.40 Bid-YTW : 5.62 % |
| PWF.PR.T | FixedReset Disc | -2.99 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 22.98 Evaluated at bid price : 24.01 Bid-YTW : 5.57 % |
| SLF.PR.E | Insurance Straight | 1.02 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 21.46 Evaluated at bid price : 21.72 Bid-YTW : 5.23 % |
| PWF.PR.E | Perpetual-Discount | 1.04 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 24.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.25 Bid-YTW : 5.70 % |
| BN.PF.E | FixedReset Disc | 1.08 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 22.55 Evaluated at bid price : 23.40 Bid-YTW : 5.81 % |
| BIP.PR.F | FixedReset Prem | 1.29 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2029-01-01 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.88 Bid-YTW : 5.38 % |
| ENB.PR.J | FixedReset Disc | 1.38 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 22.31 Evaluated at bid price : 22.81 Bid-YTW : 6.26 % |
| ENB.PF.G | FixedReset Disc | 1.42 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 22.20 Evaluated at bid price : 22.82 Bid-YTW : 6.26 % |
| MFC.PR.J | FixedReset Ins Non | 1.44 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 23.68 Evaluated at bid price : 25.35 Bid-YTW : 5.56 % |
| POW.PR.C | Perpetual-Premium | 1.58 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2026-03-05 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.70 Bid-YTW : -22.78 % |
| BN.PF.D | Perpetual-Discount | 1.76 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 21.37 Evaluated at bid price : 21.37 Bid-YTW : 5.81 % |
| BIP.PR.E | FixedReset Prem | 1.80 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2028-03-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.96 Bid-YTW : 5.09 % |
| IFC.PR.A | FixedReset Ins Non | 1.83 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 21.42 Evaluated at bid price : 21.75 Bid-YTW : 5.43 % |
| TD.PF.J | FixedReset Prem | 2.62 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2028-04-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.86 Bid-YTW : 4.19 % |
| IFC.PR.C | FixedReset Ins Non | 2.94 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 23.95 Evaluated at bid price : 24.54 Bid-YTW : 5.64 % |
| SLF.PR.D | Insurance Straight | 2.97 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 21.49 Evaluated at bid price : 21.49 Bid-YTW : 5.24 % |
| MFC.PR.L | FixedReset Ins Non | 3.46 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 23.25 Evaluated at bid price : 24.80 Bid-YTW : 5.28 % |
| ENB.PR.B | FixedReset Disc | 4.13 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 21.45 Evaluated at bid price : 21.45 Bid-YTW : 6.34 % |
| ENB.PF.C | FixedReset Disc | 6.79 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 22.03 Evaluated at bid price : 22.50 Bid-YTW : 6.27 % |
| PWF.PR.K | Perpetual-Discount | 7.02 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 22.01 Evaluated at bid price : 22.25 Bid-YTW : 5.59 % |
| PWF.PR.Z | Perpetual-Discount | 10.00 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 22.73 Evaluated at bid price : 22.99 Bid-YTW : 5.63 % |
| POW.PR.G | Perpetual-Discount | 29.95 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 24.29 Evaluated at bid price : 24.60 Bid-YTW : 5.74 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | 107,324 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 14.05 Evaluated at bid price : 14.05 Bid-YTW : 5.57 % |
| BN.PR.R | FixedReset Disc | 79,700 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 21.48 Evaluated at bid price : 21.80 Bid-YTW : 6.00 % |
| BN.PR.Z | FixedReset Disc | 68,300 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 23.52 Evaluated at bid price : 24.76 Bid-YTW : 6.01 % |
| IFC.PR.C | FixedReset Ins Non | 65,758 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-03 Maturity Price : 23.95 Evaluated at bid price : 24.54 Bid-YTW : 5.64 % |
| MFC.PR.I | FixedReset Ins Non | 50,400 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2027-09-19 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.47 Bid-YTW : 5.29 % |
| TD.PF.A | FixedReset Prem | 46,019 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2029-10-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.61 Bid-YTW : 4.30 % |
| There were 12 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| See TMX DataLinx: ‘Last’ != ‘Close’ and the posts linked therein for an idea of why these quotes are so horrible. | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| GWO.PR.Z | Insurance Straight | Quote: 25.20 – 26.20 Spot Rate : 1.0000 Average : 0.6273 YTW SCENARIO |
| POW.PR.D | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 22.40 – 23.24 Spot Rate : 0.8400 Average : 0.4886 YTW SCENARIO |
| PWF.PR.T | FixedReset Disc | Quote: 24.01 – 25.00 Spot Rate : 0.9900 Average : 0.6751 YTW SCENARIO |
| SLF.PR.H | FixedReset Ins Non | Quote: 22.35 – 23.35 Spot Rate : 1.0000 Average : 0.6898 YTW SCENARIO |
| SLF.PR.G | FixedReset Ins Non | Quote: 19.40 – 20.15 Spot Rate : 0.7500 Average : 0.6095 YTW SCENARIO |
| BN.PF.B | FixedReset Disc | Quote: 24.11 – 24.48 Spot Rate : 0.3700 Average : 0.2348 YTW SCENARIO |