Industry committee  Actually, we may wish to go in that direction, because these types of payments can be efficient, but the day someone gets ripped off, the whole industry goes down. Right now, a lot of this is strictly regulated, if I can say that, by your agreement with the provider, as you know:

Industry committee  I'm sorry. I'm sure I was speaking too quickly. Not only do we need to consider electronic payments, but we also need to rethink the issue of payments altogether. Increasingly, it's a world that is changing and payments, as I said earlier, are essential to all forms of electroni

Industry committee  There are some basic regulatory principles that are neutral when it comes to technology that could be used and that would be easy to adapt. The other aspect that most stakeholders have been wanting for years is the implementation of a forum that would allow people to sit down ar

Industry committee  In the discussion paper published in July, the Task Force for the Payments System Review suggested a structure that included a joint organization and a monitoring and regulatory agency. Various stakeholders provided comments and requested greater clarification about the proposal.

Industry committee  First, to your previous question, there are two other issues that I think we should add. Our payments infrastructure—our plumbing, if you wish—is pretty much not able to currently sustain the kinds of new payments that are developing in the United States. We have lagged behind in

Industry committee  In terms of facilitating access, I think among the major issues you have is the issue that the infrastructure is so concentrated, and there is so much legal uncertainty that it is probably not very attractive for foreign acquirers, for instance, to come into this market. Those ar

Industry committee  Roughly, this percentage varies around 0.5%. It corresponds to about one third or one quarter of what is imposed in Canada. There are variations in some areas of activity, and taxes need to be taken into account, and so on. But as for size, there is a huge gap.

Industry committee  And it has been that way for almost 10 years.

Industry committee  Yes. We have nothing comparable in Canada. For years now, Australia has been considering the matter. For example, there was a consultation this summer on innovation in the payment sector and how to encourage the concerted work of the various stakeholders. It is quite fascinating

Industry committee  I'll answer briefly because it is a broad subject. Australia, for example, quite recently adopted a coherent code on electronic payments for retail sales. Actually, an update was made to a code that already existed. It's a code that establishes the rights and obligations of cons

Industry committee  Please allow me to add a few thoughts to what Professor Geist said. Imagine for a moment that mobile payments are in greater use in Canada than they currently are, that you were traveling abroad on business week ago and that, therefore, in order to pay your hotel bill and settle