Industry committee  I think it would be unlikely that a clerk would understand the cost of the payments he's managing. I doubt the clerk would understand the cost of cash either.

Industry committee  That's correct.

Industry committee  It's in the reports that we'll deliver to the committee. But there are three revenue streams that an issuer receives when it runs a credit card portfolio: interest, fees, and interchange. When one of those goes down, you have to adjust the others to operate within the margin requ

Finance committee  No, because you have to demonstrate certain spend levels. The merchant value proposition doesn't kick in until there's a demonstrated spend of $24,000 a year on our card. That's why it naturally stops at about 5% of our base.

Finance committee  No, we're not pushing their use. We made a program available because we were at risk of losing cardholders and issuers to American Express.

Finance committee  It did, but at a lower cost than American Express.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Actually, we've turned down several program proposals because they didn't meet the criteria. We have to keep the system balanced. A widespread issuance of these cards with no justification in terms of a value proposition to the merchant is not in our best interests.

Finance committee  No, and I don't know if it's workable to identify them. We've had this conversation with the CFIB. It's not workable to expect a clerk in an operating environment to recognize a card.

Finance committee  I think it would be unlikely that a clerk would understand the cost of the payments he's managing. I doubt the clerk would understand the cost of cash either.

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  It's in the reports that we'll deliver to the committee. But there are three revenue streams that an issuer receives when it runs a credit card portfolio: interest, fees, and interchange. When one of those goes down, you have to adjust the others to operate within the margin requ

Industry committee  The honour-all-cards rule requires a merchant to accept all cards. I have two points on that. Paul Jewer from Sobeys, in his testimony, said that some sort of compromise on the honour-all-cards rule wouldn't work for merchants either. If they advertise that they accept a certain

Industry committee  No, but there is increased spending on the card. On average, 40% more is spent at a merchant's on a premium card versus an ordinary card.

Industry committee  There are acquirer fees that mark up interchange fees, and MasterCard has small transactional fees that are flat. We have fees that are ad valorem as well, but they're very small compared to interchange fees.