Industry Committee on Oct. 28th, 2024

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Ms. McKee, I was referring to fixed and variable rate mortgages, both of which have not responded as quickly as one would expect, according to my constituents.

I'm asking you whether you're doing anything to restructure fees, knowing full well that the cost of capital is coming down from the central bank rate cut. Can you remark on where you're responding and how, as a bank, you're offering Canadians some relief? You could offer it in your credit card line, but it doesn't seem like that's an option, given the fact that you won't even disclose how much profit you're making from that line of business.

[Meg McKee]

I can't speak to real estate secured lending. That's not my area. That sits elsewhere in the bank.

I can say that, for credit cards, we have many programs in place to help support our customers if they're struggling with paying their bills. We have proactive services called TD Helps, Ready Advice Centre. We mine our base, looking for signs of stress and proactively reach out to help restructure debt, debt consolidation activity, moving to a more appropriate product. It's a very robust program.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

How about Scotiabank?

Mr. McDonald, can you help me out here and give me a straightforward answer, please?

[D'Arcy McDonald]

On secured lines of credit we moved quickly with the Bank of Canada rate decrease, which Canadians are feeling and benefiting from. As my colleagues mentioned, we manage credit cards at the portfolio level, so we have all those tools to make sure that we help customers who are feeling distressed and they get the support and the advice that they need.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

I have a last question, Chair.

Multiple members asked for a breakdown of your credit card services, both the costs and revenues. I ask you, officially, for that information. You can provide it in writing to the committee. I'm going to go to each very quickly.

Will you agree, Mr. Siromani, to provide that information to the committee in writing at a later date?

[Ramesh Siromani]

It's commercially sensitive information, and we won't disclose it today. I am not able to provide you an immediate answer. No.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

I assume that all of the banks will give a similar response. Please shake your head if that would be your standard response. Okay.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

In any event, Mr. Turnbull, along your line of questions, I'll be sending, as chair, given that I heard from all parties, the ask for a little more information about the pricing mechanism that our witnesses have in their respective institutions. I'll be sending a letter with the clerk. Then I guess the legal teams at the various banks will be responding, and then we'll see what we get as a parliamentary committee.

Go ahead, Mr. Perkins, briefly.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you.

That's a good letter. Can we make sure that we ask for the return on equity percentages, the information that MP Turnbull asked for? Can we also ask for the Interac fee schedule?

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Thank you, Mr. Perkins. We will.

Expect this correspondence from us.

Witnesses, thank you very much for joining us today and taking part in this exercise.

Colleagues, thank you for a productive meeting.

The meeting is adjourned.