The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Ottawa is set to rule on credit card interchange fees. The Globe's Tim Kiladze writes that it is a messy, complex file that has hung over banks and credit card companies for nearly five years. Because so much time has passed since the federal Competition Bureau first tried to tackle the issue in 2010, it can be hard for outsiders to appreciate how much money is now at stake. When the bureau first did its research, it estimated interchange fees, which are charged every time someone pays for goods or services using their credit card, amounted to $5-billion annually. Canaccord Genuity analyst Gabriel Dechaine estimates interchange revenues make up 4 per cent of Canadian banks' earnings per share. If there is a 10-per-cent haircut to interchange fees, Mr. Dechaine expects that earnings per share would fall by 1 per cent, all other things being equal. "While not a devastating amount, it is clearly not helpful to a sector struggling to generate 5-per-cent revenue growth in its Canadian operations," says Mr. Dechaine. He says, "Credit card growth has become more valuable to the banks from a balance sheet perspective."