Mr. Chair, thank you.
I just received information here from my researchers, as well. The MasterCard interchange rate is not as public as stated. In fact, it requires you to fill in an e-mail. For those interested in learning, it'll take several weeks for it to get back to you. I'm very concerned about that.
And on the issue of transparency, while it was nice and refreshing to see you have those made very public, the reality for most merchants is that they have no idea what those rates mean when that card is presented. I believe all of our colleagues here have talked about this. This is part of the frustration.
Visa happens to be not simply an important player, it happens to be, for many people, the player as far as credit cards are concerned. I appreciate your comments about Amex, but I have a feeling that Visa is infinitely bigger. It has a substantial chunk of the market. And therefore, in many respects, you're the leader.
Mr. Sheedy, earlier in discussions, with reference to the question by Mr. McKay, you had suggested that credit is sometimes more competitive than cash, and of course, you had suggested as well, arrangements. I have a discussion paper, “Merchant Acceptance, Costs, and Perceptions of Retail Payments: A Canadian Survey”, from December 12. On a $36.50 transaction, the cost to the merchant is 25¢ for cash, 19¢ for debit, and at that time 82¢ for credit. I'll leave you to look at that. I realize this is a lot to provide, but I thought that was a rather startling comment by you, given the facts of the Bank of Canada.
I want to ask a question. Visa Inc. is your parent company. Is that correct?