Finance committee  Yes. In fact, it's the opposite. I was commenting on MasterCard's testimony that their current rate in the Canadian market is a 0.5¢ switch fee. I believe they currently have interchange set at zero basis points. We've seen that before. What I was saying is that while it's tempt

Finance committee  Interac does not. Interac just receives the 0.8¢. The acquirer has various contracts and pricing agreements with their merchant base, and I think 8¢ per transaction is the average debit merchant cost, which is a payment to the acquirer.

Finance committee  Yes, the same 0.8¢.

Finance committee  Right. So the 0.8¢ is to process a transaction--and I won't get into the details--in a single-message transaction set. So it's 0.8¢ for each message, if you will. It's processing the transaction from the merchant terminal into the Interac member network, etc., 0.8¢, and then on t

Finance committee  We have not done so and have no plans to do so, because interchange is not the problem here. The change is that Interac cannot be responsive in its current structure.

Finance committee  It's a great proxy. It underscores the urgency that we have here before us, the fact that Visa and MasterCard are already in the market. STAR Network was arguably the closest thing to Interac you're going to get in North America. They basically invented the PIN debit network in t

Industry committee  Yes. In fact, it's the opposite. I was commenting on MasterCard's testimony that their current rate in the Canadian market is a 0.5¢ switch fee. I believe they currently have interchange set at zero basis points. We've seen that before. What I was saying is that while it's tempt

Industry committee  Yes, the same 0.8¢.

Industry committee  Right. So the 0.8¢ is to process a transaction--and I won't get into the details--in a single-message transaction set. So it's 0.8¢ for each message, if you will. It's processing the transaction from the merchant terminal into the Interac member network, etc., 0.8¢, and then on t

Industry committee  Interac does not. Interac just receives the 0.8¢. The acquirer has various contracts and pricing agreements with their merchant base, and I think 8¢ per transaction is the average debit merchant cost, which is a payment to the acquirer.

Industry committee  We have not done so and have no plans to do so, because interchange is not the problem here. The change is that Interac cannot be responsive in its current structure.

Industry committee  It's a great proxy. It underscores the urgency that we have here before us, the fact that Visa and MasterCard are already in the market. STAR Network was arguably the closest thing to Interac you're going to get in North America. They basically invented the PIN debit network in t

Finance committee  This is what I meant in my opening remarks, as we've consulted and we've learned from history. Unfortunately, the STAR Network and the NYCE network decided they were going to play a price-matching game with respect to interchange with Visa. They were different from Interac, howev

Finance committee  You are correct, we settle through the Canadian Payments Association and we believe that the rules framework and a fully Canadian settlement option meets our needs. It's important for the debit system that we operate here in Canada. Our items are safe and secure and in Canada.

Finance committee  Again, the testimony was confusing, but I do believe that, yes, they settle through the United States and the bank balance sheets therein.