Financial technology companies are digital first. Many of them don't have a bricks and mortar presence like a traditional bank, for example. Disruption is affecting everybody. Banks sometimes are closing branches, etc.
You raise a good point. Seniors in rural communities are, perhaps, more vulnerable. There's a big education piece that needs to happen both on the government side and in industry.
You raised things like the RTR, for example. It's important for us to think about it as an ecosystem. No single technology is operating in a silo, and no single market participant is operating in a silo. We see this even on the regulatory side. If you're developing regulations for open banking or stablecoins, a lot is dependent on whether we have a system that allows for the real-time movement of money. All these things are stacked. They're not separate things.
I would equally consider the risk equation as part of that shared responsibility for the entire ecosystem. From our perspective, we have been very much pro-regulation. We have been an advocacy voice in favour of regulation. One reason we supported the RPAA so strongly is that we believe trust underpins our sector. It's important for customers to be protected and not be held liable when things go wrong. That applies to all customers across Canada.
To your point, does this require more education and collaboration? Absolutely. I have personally taken that on to make sure we are reaching across the aisle to the different participants so we're all in it together to protect the Canadian customer.