‘India missing out on best AI tools’

nNEWDELHI: Ajay Banga headed Mastercard (MC) as the CEO for the last 10 years, during which the payments processing company raised it revenue by manifolds as the world moved to a more digital economy. Recently, he announced he will resign on 1 January 2021 and be replaced by chief product officer Michael Miebach. He spoke to HT’S Padma Rao Sundarji over his decision and his insights about running the business in India.

You steered MC from a $26.5-billion credit card company to a $301-billion finance giant in ten years. Naturally, many are surprised by your announcement to step down. You have said ‘it was time to do so.” Why?

When I joined Mastercard, I had said that if the board wants me to, I’ll stay for ten years. Ten years is a pretty good, long run. And I had a great run.

But at the end of the day, those numbers you quoted came about because I have a very good bunch of people here. That is my job: to build teams and a work culture. Now, I am very ready for Michael Miebach to take over.

Coming to Mastercard in India, in what state is your current market share? Is it growing, shrinking or stagnant?

It is growing. We are number 1 in terms of the number of debit cards issued, we are growing in credit and we hope to become number 1 in that sphere as well. India is a growth market in absolute terms. I know there are a lot of doomsday predictions but look, I am an optimist and I believe that India is going through the same ups and down that the USA, China, and all others do too.

Home grown Upi-based payment systems such as BHIM have grown phenomenally. Have they dented the marketshares of Visa and Mastercard?

Upi-based payments systems are mostly about B2B transactions which we have not played. Whether card or bank account, the choice should be left to the consumer. We are not in the consumer business but in the business of infrastructure payment.

One of the key sticking points between the US and India are issues like data localization and the push for domestic companies such as Rupay. What’s the way out of that deadlock?

The Indian government has given us a pretty level playing field in most cases. India wants to have a domestically owned payment network to grow and compete with global networks. So do France, Canada, Mexico, Australia, China and many others so I’m not fussed about that. As far as data localization is concerned, we are one of few players who met the commitment to RBI that by October 31, 2019 to localize data as per their guidelines. My issue lies elsewhere. It is that India is losing the chance to use the best global Artificial Intelligence (AI) and fraud prediction tools. When you localize too much, you lose the chance of making these algorithms work for you, be applied to Indian data.

What are your views on current Indian policies, regarding foreign investors?

Over the last 15-20 years, India has been attempting to open up to investment. In all areas that India wants to grow and in which India wants to create jobs, enhance the quality of life, etc., India is doing that already.