I see: most of my information comes from the Desjardins Movement in Quebec, for which credit cards are an important activity, but outside Quebec, the situation may be different. I accept your answer. That is all I have on this subject, because I will now turn to other matters.
My question is to the Canadian Bankers Association. In your presentation, you often talk about the importance of competition in your field. I think you want to highlight that point as regards the possibility of regulating credit cards. As has been said several times, the costs are passed on to the merchants. There is a coalition of merchants representing 250,000 businesses in Canada that are complaining that they are being forced to pay interchange fees that are higher than they were supposed to have been. I think the decisions made when credit cards are issued to increase the number of users are designed with competition in mind, but the cost of this competition is being passed on to people who were not at all involved in making the decision.
If there were regulations on an interchange rate, do you not think that there could still be competition? Interest is charged on unpaid credit card balances. It is the same as with all other bank operations. You are involved in areas other than credit cards, such as mortgages and personal loans. The banks are in competition to provide these services. So there could still be competition.
Would you care to comment on this?