A DIGITALLY DISRUPTIVE ORGANISATION IN ASSOCIATION WITH
MASTERCARD
DIGITAL REPORT 2020
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A DIGITALLY DISRUPTIVE ORGANISATION WRITTEN BY
GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY
SHIRIN SADR
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MASTERCARD
Mohammed Kamal, Senior Vice President, O&T, at Mastercard, on the company’s unique operations, digital transformation, technology trends and its initiatives to combat COVID-19
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hen it comes to the operations at Mastercard, Mohammed Kamal, Senior Vice President, O&T, reflects
on the history of the company. “Just looking at Mastercard’s payment network, it has a unique architecture with triple redundancy 04
built in, operating globally, peer to peer and with local AI decisioning. The way Mastercard and Mastercard’s network has been built over the years is different from some of our competitors, which I believe provides a quicker and higher quality of service for our customers. Beyond our historic payments network, I think Mastercard is in a position to disrupt itself. Where you typically associate Mastercard with credit card or debit card payments, being disruptive has taken us into areas such as account-based and bill payments, which have grown over the years. While we’ve been diversifying into services for some time, we’re also diversifying into multiple payment rails that you typically wouldn’t associate with Mastercard. For me this is one of
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MASTERCARD
“ Mastercard has very rigorous business continuity plans that are tested regularly so we are ready to respond when an unexpected crisis happens, such as COVID-19” — Mohammed Kamal, Senior Vice President, O&T, Mastercard
the big things that makes Mastercard unique compared to some of our competitors.” Kamal adds: “When I look at digital transformation and being disruptive, it is important to move from a
place where the digital and core businesses are not separate to be successful. The core
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business itself has to evolve into being digital rather than adding a digital veneer and keeping the existing core processes in place.” This approach is something that Kamal sees as fundamental when digitally transforming business operations. “It’s visible when you look at a company, which ones have added digital as an afterthought, versus which companies actually reinvented themselves to be digitally native. Much of the time the result is a hybrid. Sometimes you’ll see competing products within an organisation, some that are digitally enabled but which obviously started off in more of
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07 an analog form, and then you have
much more data-rich, so it typically
new products, built from the ground
goes hand in hand with more
up that are digitally native. I believe
advanced warehousing and analyt-
for companies to be successful, it’s
ics capabilities. In addition, digital
important to really reimagine what’s
tends to be exposed through web
possible without the confines and
and application programming inter-
design assumptions of the non-digital
faces (APIs), which require their own
legacy products. If you build new
sets of supporting infrastructure and
products from the ground up, I think it
security capabilities.
opens up new doors when it comes
When it comes to the application
to their flexibility and agility. There is,
of cloud, data and analytics and artifi-
however, a tremendous amount of
cial intelligence (AI), Kamal states
underlying infrastructure and plumb-
that “all are obviously important but
ing needed to successfully pull off a
for various reasons and applied
digital transformation. Digital is
across different industries. For our w w w.ma ste rc a rd . co. u k
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organisation, which accumulates
consumer banks - in a network.
large amounts of data, being able
These new, digitally native products,
to draw insights based on data is
one of their selling points is that they
extremely important and I would rank
enable a richer exchange of data
this the highest out of the three. A lot
than their analog counterparts
of our fraud engines and insight plat-
through ISO 20022 messaging
forms run on aggregated data which
standards. These standards provide
is invaluable. We’re also, however,
the capability to carry a lot more
enabling the exchange of data
information back and forth, driving
between participants in an ecosys-
value for parties in the ecosystem.
tem. Mastercard is very well
This exchange of data enriches the
positioned as a network where we
whole ecosystem, and provides for a
bring together different parties - mer-
more symbiotic relationship between
chants, billers, acquiring banks and
us and our partners.�
Reflecting on the capabilities cloud
use cases, especially in the face of
technology can provide, Kamal
nationalism, where you may need to
explains that “you can gain tremen-
have something hosted in the cloud.
dous amounts of value. But first it is
For that reason, I have generally taken
important to determine the best use
a hybrid cloud approach when going
case for this technology. Mastercard,
down the path of cloud enabling solu-
for example, has a good footprint of
tions. The greatest value I see,
data centres around the world in dif-
however, is that the techniques
ferent regions. In some instances,
applied when using a hybrid-cloud
cloud makes sense and other times it
enabling platform generally make the
doesn’t, but the flexibility of cloud and
platform more scalable, agile and ven-
the ability to leverage an OPEX model
dor agnostic, which in itself is valuable
versus a CAPEX model provides scal-
whether actually deployed in a public
ability and flexibility. I think there are
cloud environment or not.
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :
Mohammed Kamal Title: Senior Vice President, Consumer Applications Mohammed Kamal is a payments industry technologist with a passion for innovation and the Fintech space. He is currently serving as the COO of Consumer applications at Mastercard, leading a cross functional team with a mission of enabling new payment flows leveraging real-time payments (RTP). His responsibilities include technology and operations for retail payments (p2m), BillPay & p2p payment products. He is also responsible for corporate & commercial M&A integration within the Consumer Applications division. w w w.ma ste rc a rd . co. u k
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MASTERCARD
Mastercard has been leveraging AI
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manual enrolment process
for its fraud services for over 10 years.
can take a consumer half an
“We have very advanced fraud detec-
hour - if not longer – trying to
tion capabilities that we provide our
identify and link with the differ-
customers,” says Kamal. “One of the
ent billers they have a
techniques that I think is interesting
relationship with. An assistive AI
with AI is the use of assistive AI versus
solution can bring this time down
fully autonomous AI - or a mix of the
significantly, reducing friction for the
two, depending on the use case.
customer, yet keeping them in control
There’s still tremendous value in hav-
of their personal and financial data.”
ing human intervention and making
Another technology trend Kamal
sure a human is kept in the decision
has seen emerge is the use of open
making loop, but drastically empow-
banking, “we’ve seen a huge amount
ered as a result of the AI. For example,
of action in this space. I use the term
fraud detection is sometimes one of
‘open banking’ loosely because it dif-
those use cases where selectively
fers in different regions of the world,
involving the user in the decision mak-
but it’s the idea that the bank is open-
ing process can provide for a better,
ing their ‘walled garden’ in a con-
more confidence-inspiring user expe-
trolled and secure way so that a cus-
rience. But other use cases could be
tomer can use the data for their
in the space of bill payments, where a
benefit with other products.” In some
S T R AT E GI C PART N ERSHI PS
“When it comes to our partners such as Fulcrum Digital Inc., a critical hallmark that we look for in a collaborator is f lexibility and agility. When collaborating with others we are looking for long term partners that we can share both successes and failures with and create future opportunities. We look for the type of collaborative partners that will share in the risks and the rewards and I think being able to share in that makes for a better relationship in the long run.”
J U LY 2 0 2 0
“ When I look at digital transformation cases the banks themselves are and being disruptive, it is important building new prodto move from a place where the ucts based on this digital and core businesses are not Open banking paradigm. The Consumer separate to be successful” — Mohammed Kamal, Senior Vice President, O&T, Mastercard
Application division here at Mastercard is helping our partners do just that. More generally, in the industry, I am seeing an increase in partnerships and collaboration between banks, which are well positioned with bank grade security and safety compliance built-in, with fintechs that are providing customers experiences the banks have not been able to provide in the past. At Mastercard, we want to support all members of the open banking ecosystem. We’re focused on delivering solutions that will enable these experiences, whether that is delivered just by a bank, just by a fintech, or in partnership.” With many organisations around the world being affected by the impact of COVID-19, Kamal explains that w w w.ma ste rc a rd . co. u k
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MASTERCARD
1966
Year founded
$12.5bn+ Revenue in US dollars (2017)
16,000 Number of employees
“ It’s visible when you look at a company, which ones have added digital as an afterthought, versus which companies actually reinventing themselves to be digitally native” — Mohammed Kamal, Senior Vice President, O&T, Mastercard
“Mastercard has very rigorous business continuity plans that are tested regularly so we are ready to respond when an unexpected crisis happens, such as COVID-19. As you would expect, the teams are executing our operations very well. We work very closely with our customers as well as having our
provide to help them?” Since the outbreak Mastercard has been implementing a variety of initiatives in order to help its customers navigate the impact of the pandemic. When it comes to digital transformation and adopting the current trends within the technology space, Kamal highlights the importance of having the right products and services to be able to capture the opportunities innovation provides. “I think that’s the key message, it’s not always easy to predict what the market will need in one go, but much of the time we are investing in flexible underlying product infrastructure, while the use cases themselves develop more organically. I think it’s important to build with flexibility so that, while you may build a set of technology or products for a particular own VCP processes to ensure that as
use case, or you have a business case
our customers encounter challenges
in mind, you also need to be able to
within their business we are able to
pivot the technology for different use
accommodate them. Our continuity
cases if the need should arise.”
plan not only looks at how our company could be impacted but whether our customers could be impacted, what policy changes we could make, what rule changes? And what can we w w w.ma ste rc a rd . co. u k
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MASTERCARD 2000 PURCHASE STREET PURCHASE NEW YORK 1057 7-2509 T +0207 5575036
www.mastercard.co.uk
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