Finance committee  It depends on the acquirer. Acquirers determine the price. Today there is zero interchange on Interac transactions, but there still is a cost obviously to the merchants for us to process. In the case of Visa debit, the electronic interchange rates--so when the card is there--is f

Industry committee  In the case of Visa debit, I think they would like to accept them for contactless capabilities, so the tap and go capability, or for e-commerce or other card-not-present transactions. Those are new opportunities for them to use that particular card. The reason they wouldn't want

Industry committee  That's an excellent question. That's exactly the point I was going to make, because I think in your first question you had asked, if the card is not a chip card, does the merchant have that liability? And the answer is no, it's no different from what it is today. So it's only if

Industry committee  It depends on the acquirer. Acquirers determine the price. Today there is zero interchange on Interac transactions, but there still is a cost obviously to the merchants for us to process. In the case of Visa debit, the electronic interchange rates--so when the card is there--is f

Finance committee  It depends on the merchant agreement with the bank, because the merchant has to agree to accept Maestro and/or Visa debit. So unless that happens, the transaction would not be processed through either of those two means.

Finance committee  That's an excellent question, and Jim can certainly add to this. Getting ready for the chips has been a very expensive proposition for all acquirers. We've spent tens of millions of dollars preparing our systems, because our systems need to change, and the industry has probably

Finance committee  For the vast majority of merchants, no, there has been no increased cost.

Finance committee  That's correct, yes.

Finance committee  The risk to the merchant with this liability shift that will occur in October 2010 only exists if there is not a chip-capable device processing that transaction. Our goal is to enable all of our merchants with chip-capable devices before October 2010. And we're well over 60% of

Industry committee  It depends on the merchant agreement with the bank, because the merchant has to agree to accept Maestro and/or Visa debit. So unless that happens, the transaction would not be processed through either of those two means.

Industry committee  That's an excellent question, and Jim can certainly add to this. Getting ready for the chips has been a very expensive proposition for all acquirers. We've spent tens of millions of dollars preparing our systems, because our systems need to change, and the industry has probably

Industry committee  For the vast majority of merchants, no, there has been no increased cost.

Industry committee  That's correct, yes.

Industry committee  The risk to the merchant with this liability shift that will occur in October 2010 only exists if there is not a chip-capable device processing that transaction. Our goal is to enable all of our merchants with chip-capable devices before October 2010. And we're well over 60% of

Finance committee  I can start. I wouldn't characterize Visa debit as priority routing, because the consumer does have the choice. What will happen is that on the point-of-sale dialogue.... Today, if you use your debit card, the terminal dialogue will ask you after you've swiped your card—and in