. we knew that if we helped supply them with funding, they would be able to meet the greater demand for credit that was coming from other parts of the financial system as well as from households and businesses. - 3so, the first action we took was to inject significant amounts of liquidity into the financial system by ramping up our repo operations. 3 ramping up term repos is the bank ’ s go - to tactic for alleviating acute market - wide funding shortages and supporting market functioning more generally. we increased the frequency and size of these operations — peaking at $ 24 billion per operation — and offered funds for longer terms. in addition, we let financial institutions use a wider range of securities as collateral, which made it easier for us to lend them larger amounts than usual. through these extended term repos, we lent roughly $ 200 billion to financial institutions in march and april. we also launched our contingent term repo facility, which broadened the list of financial institutions that we engage with for these operations. this provided liquidity access to large asset managers that are active in repo markets. restoring and maintaining well - functioning markets the dash for cash caused liquidity to dry up sharply in several core fixed - income markets — including, surprisingly, the market for government of canada ( goc ) bonds. the impact on the market for goc bonds was particularly worrisome. these debt securities are considered very safe and serve as the benchmark, or reference rate, for almost every other credit market. if the goc bond market can ’ t function smoothly, it ’ s hard for the rest of the system — and the economy — to work properly. starting in mid - march last year, the bank rolled out several new asset purchase facilities to support liquidity and restore smooth functioning in a wide range of markets. 4 our ability to do this quickly and effectively is a testament to the calibre, dedication and expertise of our staff. the bank ’ s purchases helped rebalance the lopsided trading flows in core debt markets, allowing buyers and sellers to set prices. also, because securities dealers only have so much room for risk on their own balance sheets, our purchases helped free up dealers ’ capacity to provide liquidity in these markets. short - term funding pressures to complement our extended repo operations, we started with programs designed to unfreeze markets that are key sources of short - term funding for businesses and governments. for example, to bolster the capacity

when central banks provide liquidity, we have to do so in ways that don ’ t encourage market participants to take undue risks in normal times. our actions must be targeted at specific issues and scaled back as those are resolved. adjusting as market conditions improve that is why we gradually adjusted our facilities as conditions improved. in the autumn, we wound down a couple of facilities, including the program to support markets for bankers ’ acceptances. we also fine - tuned our repo operations, making them less frequent and scaling back the types of collateral that we would accept. and now i ’ d like to announce that, in the coming weeks, the bank will suspend or discontinue our remaining market liquidity - focused crisis programs. specifically, we will suspend our current term repo operations indefinitely beginning mid - may. similarly, the contingent repo facility will be deactivated in early april. we can take these steps because now there is ample system - wide liquidity for financial institutions to draw from. this is both in terms of their own unusually high levels of deposits, as canadians save more during the pandemic, and the large amount of for example, we set conservative reserve prices for the auctions that we use to purchase corporate and provincial bonds. see j. - s. fontaine, c. garriott, j. johal, j. lee and a. uthemann, “ covid - 19 crisis : lessons learned f or future policy research, ” bank of canada staff discussion paper no. 2021 - 2 ( february 2021 ). for a good, recent discussion from abroad, see a. hauser, “ from lender of last resort to market maker of last resort via the dash for cash : why central banks need new tools for dealing with market dysfunction, ” ( speech at thomson reuters newsmaker, london, united kingdom, january 7, 2021 ). - 6cash — more specifically, settlement balances — that we have added to the financial system. 10 in addition, three asset purchase programs — for commercial paper, provincial bonds and corporate bonds — will not be extended beyond their upcoming planned one - year end dates. corporate and provincial borrowers have unfettered access to fully functional debt markets. and credit spreads for most of these borrowers are either at or below prepandemic levels. so it ’ s clear that these extraordinary facilities are no longer required. rest assured, though, that the bank will be ready to reactivate any of