Finance committee  I think you may be giving yourself a way to have a stronger Canadian identity internationally.

Finance committee  The ideas were presented to us a few days ago, Mr. Chair. That said, we have to complete our analysis, which we'll do as soon as possible in order to determine whether a technical amendment would enable the government to achieve its objectives more effectively. I think that, if we come to that conclusion, the committee will of course be informed of it.

Finance committee  I think the issue is as the minister explained. It's trying to look to ways to encourage that we have strong Canada-based global corporations, including banks in this case, or insurance companies. With insurance companies—for example, life insurers—the large ones derive about 60% of their revenue from outside of Canada at this point in time.

Finance committee  I don't know which act it is, but it's under a provincial act. Some credit card issuing companies, including the best known ones, have no-liability policies. Consumer liability is nil. That's a deliberate gesture by those institutions to promote their corporate image and to inspire consumer trust.

Finance committee  Since then, we've had talks with the association, and we're now studying how we can ensure that, from a technical standpoint, the wording of the bill produces the result we wanted to achieve, that is to say to ensure that consumers have relevant information on registered products.

Finance committee  We're seeing whether we can propose better wording.

Finance committee  As regards the $50 limit, I'm told it applies under provincial legislation, in Quebec and in British Columbia.

Finance committee  When we talk about a voluntary approach, we're not talking about a process in which providers simply do what they want to do. We're also talking about a code whose implementation is potentially monitored by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. Second, for these payment methods to have a future, in other words, for consumers to want to use them, we will have to convince them that standards and measures designed to protect them will be implemented.

Finance committee  There's one amendment in particular in the bill, which in fact we've discussed with the Co-operative Union...the CUCC—sorry, I have the acronym, but I forget the different parts—that is allowing a retail association of credit unions to be created with a lower threshold. Currently under the act, such an association to provide services to credit unions can be created if you have ten credit unions getting together in creating such an association.

Finance committee  On that point, I'd simply like to point out that the government stated in the June White Paper that it would propose a voluntary approach to all stakeholders. The federal government does not regulate all stakeholders with regard to payment systems. It regulates the banks and other stakeholders.

Finance committee  I don't think the problem is entirely disregarded. Moreover, the consumer associations will be invited to work on the development of this code. The Department of Finance will be acting somewhat as a leader in this field and will invite the representatives of the provinces, the consumer organizations, payment service providers — we regulate some of them and not others — so as to put all the issues on the table and develop a code that can satisfy all those parties.