Good afternoon, everyone.

Mr. Chair and honourable members, thank you for the invitation to join you today as part of the committee's study on credit cards.

My name is Jennifer Douglas, and I am responsible for BMO's credit card business.

As Canada's oldest bank, BMO has long been committed to working with our customers to identify their specific needs and to ensure that they have the best product options for their personal situations. This work with customers is done in tandem with continually evaluating our product features on an ongoing basis to ensure that they remain competitive in the industry. It is worth underlining just how competitive the landscape is for credit cards and the resulting breadth of benefits for consumers.

For those consumers who want to take advantage of a credit facility to make purchases, this means ensuring access to no-fee and low-fee options, which constitute over half of BMO's card portfolio. We know from our customers that they greatly value credit cards as a method of payment, given the benefits and the convenience provided, whether it's protections against fraudulent transactions, whether it's cashback or travel rewards, or whether it's extra features, such as insurance or roadside assistance. We are always seeking ways to enhance our benefits.

Some of the recent examples of enhancements that we've made to benefit our customers are extra bonus points for shopping in certain categories, like wholesale clubs and drug stores; new features to get cashback on gas purchases; new redemption options, such as being able to shop at the Apple Rewards Store; and enhancing the customer experience through greater digital self-serve options.

We offer these services within a highly regulated framework. Banks work diligently to clearly communicate fees, transactions incurred on a card, and when the payment is due, among other pieces of information.

As issuers of credit cards, banks do not set interchange fees. As I believe the committee has heard, these fees are set by payment networks, like Visa and Mastercard, which, along with the card issuers, the acquirers and the merchants, comprise Canada's credit card payments ecosystem.

Our role as issuers in this ecosystem focuses on things like adjudicating credit applications, interacting with customers and servicing their needs, paying for transactions on behalf of the customer to ensure that the merchant gets paid, covering fraudulent transactions and credit losses, and competing with other issuers to provide meaningful benefits and features for our customers.

However, credit card services should not be viewed in isolation as just a product offered by the bank. We also ensure that our customers have access to resources to improve their financial literacy in order to make the choices that suit their needs best. Through a survey that BMO conducted last year, we know that this is particularly important in a digital banking context. In that survey, we found that 58% of Canadians find literacy an important aspect of online banking, and 65% want access to personalized advice.

At BMO, we are committed to leading with a digital-first mindset, and we're proud of our BMO SmartProgress financial literacy online portal as a proof point of that. The BMO SmartProgress portal organizes topics such as budgeting, credit management and preparing for retirement, enabling Canadians to learn more about how to manage their finances in a widely accessible and innovative environment.

Thank you for your attention. I would be pleased to answer your questions.

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