Finance committee  Let me clarify something. We had our interchange rates on the web, in the open, for three years prior to last September. We refined the system prior to last September as well, because we knew we were adopting a more complicated regime and that too much information was as bad as n

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

Industry committee  I guess I don't.... You're saying allowing discount--

Industry committee  Frankly, I'd have to look at it. It's never anything a merchant has suggested as a solution to these issues. It's not something I've considered before, I'm afraid.

Finance 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

Finance 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.

Finance 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

Finance committee  I guess I don't.... You're saying allowing discount--

Finance committee  Frankly, I'd have to look at it. It's never anything a merchant has suggested as a solution to these issues. It's not something I've considered before, I'm afraid.

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¢.