Finance committee  Clearly if we are to upgrade those systems, there will be a cost to CPA, to the large providers such as the banks. I would assume that they can actually afford most of that cost over time. On the other hand, there would be significant benefits to all other economic actors in the

Finance committee  But I'm not an economist. Thank God for small favours.

Finance committee  That's a totally different topic. Clearly, the levels of consumer debt in this country are becoming unsustainable. But I would observe that roughly two-thirds of credit card users pay their bills every month. So on the payment side, that is not the major issue.

Finance committee  In terms of the information, yes, we do have a grip on that. In terms of the amount of money out there on this planet, ask the question to the fed down south of the border. They issued tonnes of money in order to—

Finance committee  —survive over the past six, seven years.

Finance committee  Even if they did issue an immense amount of money, we have seen practically no inflation, which means that our economy would otherwise have become significantly depressed.

Finance committee  That will take us a lot more time than the chairman will allow me.

Finance committee  Correct. Now, that's a short answer.

Finance committee  Thanks. There are two things. I do believe that unless the industry sees the light, we will need to put a cap on interchange fees in this country. I simply cannot see a reason for our fees being three, four, or five times higher than in Australia, for instance. More broadly, in

Finance committee  The very brief response is that regulation is only to ensure that it is indeed enforceable—before the courts, for instance.

Finance committee  First of all, founding principles that are acceptable to all stakeholders would have to be established. This is certainly possible. Then—and here we are touching on problems linked to the Canadian reality—a mechanism to apply the regulations to all providers would have to be foun

Finance committee  We do need a clearer framework, a firmer framework, and a governance framework that would enable us to provide solutions.

Finance committee  I am rather skeptical about voluntary codes. We have one in this country regarding debit cards, which is mostly observed in the breach, and nobody knows about it. I believe we need a clearer, firmer framework, but as Ms. Meredith mentioned, we also need the infrastructure to sup

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Progress is never possible without effort, nor without risk. If progress is to be beneficial, we must be able to look ahead. The growth of electronic payments in Canada is an excellent example. Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you, first of all,