Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, everyone. This is a very important opportunity for MasterCard, so we thank the joint committee for inviting us. We thank you for the opportunity to be heard before this committee. Through our discussions on this topic, we have realized

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, everyone. This is a very important opportunity for MasterCard, so we thank the joint committee for inviting us. We thank you for the opportunity to be heard before this committee. Through our discussions on this topic, we have realized

Industry committee  As a matter of fact, we do make our rates public. We were the first to do so in Canada. What we've recently done is update the system so that a merchant can go in—there are 19 rates, but no merchant will have more than three applied to them. So when the merchant goes into this sy

Industry committee  Certainly.

Industry committee  We're happy to submit them to the committee.

Industry committee  No, I don't, Mr. McCallum. Maestro has a fee of half a cent to merchants. No other fees are associated on that side of the equation. Interac has a fee of 0.8¢.

Industry committee  There is no interchange on Maestro.

Finance committee  As a matter of fact, we do make our rates public. We were the first to do so in Canada. What we've recently done is update the system so that a merchant can go in—there are 19 rates, but no merchant will have more than three applied to them. So when the merchant goes into this sy

Finance committee  Certainly.

Finance committee  We're happy to submit them to the committee.

Finance committee  No, I don't, Mr. McCallum. Maestro has a fee of half a cent to merchants. No other fees are associated on that side of the equation. Interac has a fee of 0.8¢.

Finance committee  There is no interchange on Maestro.

Industry committee  I have a couple of responses. First of all, it's important to note that our fees went down as well as up. That also helps bring prices down, as would any reduction in operating costs. But it isn't usual in any environment for operating costs to be spread across an entire custome

Industry committee  I don't question the hypothesis at all. I just say that there's opportunity within the adjustments that occur to bring prices down and for prices to go up, all within the same merchant.

Industry committee  Actually, thank you for adding that question, because I should have added it to the beginning of my answer. That is, we have always allowed cash discounts, and for merchants to advertise and promote those cash discounts. Or they can steer to lower-cost products to recoup the cost