Mark Jewett is a retired Canadian public servant with experience in financial and monetary law, the regulation of financial institutions, and federal-provincial jurisdictional issues in Canada. He was General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of the Bank of Canada and Senior Assistant Deputy Minister in both the Departments of Finance and Justice (Public Law and Central Agencies). His career in the federal government also included roles as General Counsel at the Department of National Revenue - Taxation, General Counsel for Constitutional and International Law at the Department of Justice, and Tax Counsel in the Tax Policy & Legislation Branch of the Department of Finance.
From 2011 to 2023, he was Counsel to the law firm Bennett Jones in their Ottawa offices. As a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), his current focus is on digital transformation in the financial sector, particularly in areas such as the public and private sector roles in building digital infrastructure, open banking and finance, real-time payments and payment governance.
He practised in New York with Debevoise & Plimpton and was a Special Adviser with the European Commission in the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs and the Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union (VAT Directorate). He has represented Canada in international and domestic arbitrations, and many cases before the Supreme Court of Canada and provincial Courts of Appeal, from the Anti-Inflation Reference (1976) to the Securities References (2010 and 2016), primarily dealing with division of powers issues in fiscal and tax matters.
During the 2008-09 financial crisis, he was Secretary to the G-20 Working Group on Enhancing Sound Regulation and Strengthening Transparency in the Financial Sector and served as Special Advisor to the Canadian Justice and Finance Departments on Banking and Financial Institutions Law.