Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank all the witnesses for coming out today.
Having been in the retail business, I can understand what it is. You set your cost with a fixed rate and you want to know what you're going to. As soon as that rate starts being variable, it really affects what you're going to charge and you pretty well have to raise your prices, which eventually does affect the consumer in the end. When it's variable by as many as Ms. Swift mentioned, a hundred different rates, you really don't know where to set yourself. That was one of the big concerns when this issue came up.
One of the things I find very interesting is that you talk about transparency and disclaimers. You talk about consulting. As a former president of the local chamber of commerce, when I have business coming up asking for regulation, I start to ask questions and wonder.
This is a topic that has been around for some time, and you're bringing up terms such as consulting, transparency, disclosure. Obviously, as organizations, you have dealt with the Bankers Association, the Visa and the MasterCard. What has been the major hurdle to reaching some agreement up until now? Why has there been nothing there? We try to leave it on its own, and you want to make sure that business takes care of itself, but why are you here today, and what results have you had from talks or attempts at talks to deal with issuers?