Professor Philip Lane:

I will turn to Ms Derville Rowland shortly but to return to the issue of how I think about consumer risk, I agree with the Senator that credit cards are a clear priority because the temptation is to spend money now and not worry about the interest rate until later. The evidence globally is that the way those credit card contracts are designed is a source of risk for consumers. In general, the credit card system is something we have to monitor. We must remember the way credit cards work. Many people pay off their debt within the month. There is no charge for that, but then there is this high interest rate system. Those high interest rates are an international phenomenon. I do not believe we have any information for the Senator today about whether we are receiving complaints about them, but we can revert to him on that.