Thank you for the question.
What are some things that we can do in the short term? There are a few things. As an association, we have been coming out and saying that we want to be regulated more. We are supporters of the Retail Payment Activities Act. That regime being implemented—it's still not totally implemented yet—will raise the bar for all payment service providers. It will also make it easier for payment networks to bring these new entrants into their system so that they can start competing with banks.
I can give a completely hypothetical example. I don't want this to be interpreted as statements on behalf of the networks that they're going to do these things, because that's not what this is. I can imagine a world where payment service providers are better regulated. Maybe credit card networks get more comfortable with them issuing credit cards. Those fintech companies enter that ecosystem and, all of a sudden, start thinking about how they can better compete with a bank.
There are so many things they can do, ranging from rewards to interest rates. Regulating the players from the get-go is important, but so is not relinquishing control of these initiatives to the big banks.
Payments modernization is a great example. We're supposed to build this system that would allow fintechs to offer all sorts of new payment methods to Canadians that would compete with the old ways to pay. Over the years, what that system is going to be has been totally eroded by the fact that the big five banks control the institution that is building the system.
We were going to get this real-time, data-rich system that would be a bedrock of innovation. It looks like what we're going to end up getting is a duplicate of what's already in the market today when it comes to peer-to-peer payments.
We can say no to the banks who want to stop progress. We can regulate the new players in the system and then make progress on things like real-time payments and open banking. I think those are the bits of low-hanging fruit because they've been done by other jurisdictions. They were done many years ago, and no jurisdiction that's implemented these things has pared them back because they've resulted in all sorts of harm for consumers. In fact, the opposite has happened. They've tried to expand the scope of these initiatives, to double down on these initiatives.