Finance committee  Certainly.

Finance committee  It's really a complementary relationship. Interac itself is not a member of the Canadian Payments Association. Our membership is set out in our legislation and it is those I identified: banks, trusts and loans, etc. But there is a parallel between the memberships of Interac and of the CPA.

Finance committee  We have the mandate already to deal with all electronic payments that our members choose to deliver to us. Currently we have rules that deal not only with cheques, a dying payment technology, but also with POS, the new payments that are developing with “tap and go”, the electronic bill payment, the person-to-person payment, and the business payment.

Finance committee  There are certain elements of the clearing and settlement system that obviously are proprietary to the individual financial institution and there are those that are system related. From the CPA's perspective, on the clearing and settlement side and on the systems side, we have full disclosure.

Industry committee  I didn't bring the list with me, but I'll go through it. We have representation from the federal government with PWGSC. The provincial governments of Ontario and Quebec are represented; Ontario is the identified representative for the rest of English-speaking Canada. TMAC, which is the Treasury Management Association of Canada, has three representatives on our stakeholder council, which represent the interests of the utilities and the petroleum industries.

Industry committee  Certainly.

Industry committee  It's really a complementary relationship. Interac itself is not a member of the Canadian Payments Association. Our membership is set out in our legislation and it is those I identified: banks, trusts and loans, etc. But there is a parallel between the memberships of Interac and of the CPA.

Industry committee  We have the mandate already to deal with all electronic payments that our members choose to deliver to us. Currently we have rules that deal not only with cheques, a dying payment technology, but also with POS, the new payments that are developing with “tap and go”, the electronic bill payment, the person-to-person payment, and the business payment.

Industry committee  There are certain elements of the clearing and settlement system that obviously are proprietary to the individual financial institution and there are those that are system related. From the CPA's perspective, on the clearing and settlement side and on the systems side, we have full disclosure.

Finance committee  Good morning. First of all, l'd like to thank the members for the invitation and the opportunity for the Canadian Payments Association to speak on this important issue here today. The Canadian Payments Association, or CPA, was created by an act of Parliament in 1980. Our membership currently stands at 136 financial institutions, including the Bank of Canada, the chartered banks, the trust and loan companies, credit union and caisse populaire centrals, cooperative credit associations, and other institutions.

Industry committee  Good morning. First of all, l'd like to thank the members for the invitation and the opportunity for the Canadian Payments Association to speak on this important issue here today. The Canadian Payments Association, or CPA, was created by an act of Parliament in 1980. Our membership currently stands at 136 financial institutions, including the Bank of Canada, the chartered banks, the trust and loan companies, credit union and caisse populaire centrals, cooperative credit associations, and other institutions.

Finance committee  Actually, that's a prime example of what's happening in the United States as well. Much of the development in front-end applications for payment services is being developed generally in conjunction with financial institutions, but being brought to market by third-party systems. It's a value-added service.

Finance committee  That's true.

Finance committee  It's an excellent question, and certainly as we move forward in our consultation process, that is definitely one of the questions we will be asking and answering amongst our group. That said, most of the time that we're aware of, billers do inform consumers on their statements to please ensure the bill is paid three days before due date.

Finance committee  So disclosure certainly is an issue, but I know responsible corporates do provide much of that information for consumers' benefit. I only look to the United States as an example as well in the electronic bill payment area. Their environment is very much identical to what we have here, except it is a little bit slower, so I take pride in the system that we do have here.