Evidence of meeting #21 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was card.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Mr. Wilkes, with respect to CFIB's recommendation about updating the code of conduct, do you support that recommendation?
4:50 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, Grocery Division and Government Relations, Retail Council of Canada
We are both looking for the same outcome. We both have potentially different ways of getting there. We had recommended the FinPay committee because it does have all the players around the table and it is mandated to address issues within the payment—
4:50 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, Grocery Division and Government Relations, Retail Council of Canada
Sorry, Mr. Chair. On whether that gets reflected in an updated code of conduct, we would have no problem with that.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Ms. Tedesco, can you address both of these recommendations? Do you support them?
4:50 p.m.
Commissioner, Executive Services, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
You're referring to the recommendation of standardized consumer—
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Yes, RCC's recommendation is that the government, through the FinPay committee, be tasked with ensuring that a standardized platform be defined for mobile applications in Canada. That's what I'm asking.
4:50 p.m.
Commissioner, Executive Services, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
It would certainly reduce some complexity, yes.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
I don't know if it's fair to ask you this question with regard to updating the code of conduct since—
4:50 p.m.
Commissioner, Executive Services, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
This is something that is led by the Department of Finance, but I understand they are actively working on that currently.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Okay, Mr. Hannah, can I get your response on both of these suggestions?
4:50 p.m.
Acting Vice-President, Policy and Operations, Canadian Bankers Association
With respect to the first suggestion on standardization, the industry, banks and credit unions have already developed the mobile payments reference model to provide a certain degree of guidance and structure going forward. I'd want to think about what the implications would be of going further than that because I don't want to stifle innovation. At the same time, it's an evolving space. You want to let the market work its way through.
That was the first question. Could you repeat the second one?
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
The second one is CFIB's recommendation on updating the credit and debit card code of conduct to include emerging digital payments.
4:50 p.m.
Acting Vice-President, Policy and Operations, Canadian Bankers Association
I believe work is under way in that area to try to—
4:50 p.m.
Acting Vice-President, Policy and Operations, Canadian Bankers Association
We're supportive certainly of updating it to address mobile payments, absolutely.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
In your remarks you talked about the shadow payment system. I think I know who you mean, but who do you mean by that?
4:50 p.m.
Acting Vice-President, Policy and Operations, Canadian Bankers Association
It's not a “who”. It's really a class of institutions. From our point of view—
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Simplify it for us. As customers, consumers, who are you talking about?
4:55 p.m.
Acting Vice-President, Policy and Operations, Canadian Bankers Association
Do you want a great example?
4:55 p.m.
Acting Vice-President, Policy and Operations, Canadian Bankers Association
A good example that's in the news right now is Mt.Gox. It's a small firm that started up as a thing to trade—
4:55 p.m.
A voice
Bitcoins.
4:55 p.m.
Acting Vice-President, Policy and Operations, Canadian Bankers Association
—exactly—trading cards, and it evolved into the world's biggest bitcoin exchange. People would send money to it, they would buy and sell bitcoins, and they would store them on account. It had $300-million in deposits and then it blew up last week.
It's unclear whether anybody will be able to get any money out of that. There is no consumer recourse, no consumer protection. People are holding up their hands saying, “What do we do?”
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Okay.
You talked about the strong case for implementing regulatory measures for the shadow payment system. You also talked about the model you have formulated with the credit unions, but this seems to indicate you are going further beyond that.
Can you flesh out who would actually do the regulation? Do you see legislative measures? I'm assuming you're not saying legislative measures, so who would actually do the regulation, and in what form?