If I could respond first, Mr. Chair—and I hope Mr. McTeague is not leaving the room—I think it's a very logical and sound suggestion. There are legal impediments through the Competition Act—and I mention it because I know Mr. McTeague is an expert in the Competition Act—that prevent any industry, and certainly the banking industry would be one, or any other industry, from getting together and agreeing on pricing, and on any agreements concerning the quality or quantity of products and allocations of markets or customers.
Obviously, because all the member banks of the CBA take this extremely seriously, it is just not feasible for us to get around a table and say, “How do we fix this market?” We would obviously be challenged by the competition commissioner.
I suppose there may be ways for the government to call us together, Mr. Menzies, under the umbrella of a ministerial exemption under the Competition Act. That could be done. I think at the moment what we and you would find—and I'm sure this could potentially be frustrating for you around the table to hear, because you may hear from the banks and then from individuals—is that it is very difficult, and totally against the Competition Act, for all of us to get into a big room and cook this up.
If the committee does have suggestions about better, permissible ways to resolve some of these issues, I'm sure we would be very happy to hear those.