About Craig Vosburg
In August 2019, Mastercard president Craig Vosburg discussed the company's partnership with Goldman Sachs and Apple to introduce the Apple Card. Vosburg described the card as a "digital-first" product that utilizes Mastercard's technology to create a new consumer experience, aligning with how consumers who identify with the Apple ecosystem live their lives. He highlighted security features such as the absence of a printed number on the card and the use of tokenization, where card credentials are scrambled into a code recognizable only by Mastercard and Goldman Sachs, allowing compromised credentials to be deactivated if used elsewhere.
Vosburg stated that increased transparency and awareness for consumers regarding their financial affairs is a positive development, noting Apple's integration of payment information into the phone's operating system. He also commented on the U.S. economy, saying consumers continue to spend, supported by low unemployment and high consumer confidence, with retail spending growing 3.2 percent in the second quarter of 2019. When asked about interest rates, Vosburg said Mastercard does not set rates or earn income from interest, as that is managed by banks.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Craig Vosburg's recent appearances.
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Transcript (12 segments)
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Interviewer0:11
Directly on Apple Pay, not swiping. Are those incentives aligned with what you're looking to do at Mastercard?
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Craig Vosburg0:19
Well, there's a number of reasons we're really excited about this program. I think first and foremost, it represents a first for us in terms of putting into the marketplace what we're calling a digital first card. It's utilizing Mastercard's technology in conjunction with Apple and Goldman Sachs as the partners that are bringing this to market to really create a new kind of consumer experience. Why is that good? Why is digital first good? Because it aligns with the way so many consumers are living their lives, and in particular consumers who identify closely with Apple's brand and the Apple ecosystem. They are very closely connected to those devices.
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Interviewer1:11
At the same time, it's coming to market with it. How much more secure is this with no printed number on the card? Within the wallet app, you can get a one-time-use number that cycles through so people don't have to worry about somebody copying down the number.
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Craig Vosburg1:29
Not having a card number on the physical card, if the consumer chooses to get that, helps certainly because somebody can't just write that down and take it. But the real key to the enhanced security here is happening behind the scenes where we're tokenizing the card credentials. We're taking the digital representation of that 16-digit number and scrambling it into a code that only we and Goldman Sachs can recognize. We know where it's meant to be used.
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Interviewer2:10
About late fees, charges, interest, payments. They're trying to get people to understand interest better. What do you think about that? Is it a criticism of what we've already built in this business?
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Craig Vosburg2:22
I wouldn't call it a criticism, but I think anything that brings more transparency and more awareness to consumers so they can make better decisions about how to manage their financial affairs is a good thing. There's certainly a lot of information that banks provide to consumers around their payments activities, their payments due dates, interest obligations, etc. Apple's taking that another step further by integrating a lot of that into the operating system of the phone to make it very easily accessible and adding their own twist to that.
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Interviewer3:11
We're starting to get some retail earnings. Some of them are softer than expected. You're seeing names like Kohl's trade lower on that. We know that so much hinges on the consumer right now. How would you assess the health of the American that's going out and making purchases and what that means for the economy?
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Craig Vosburg3:27
We continue to see consumers showing up well as it relates to consumer spending. The fundamentals that underpin consumer spending, with low unemployment rates and still relatively high degrees of consumer confidence, are translating into healthy levels of growth in retail spending. In the second quarter, we saw overall retail spending grow by about 3.2 percent. That trend has continued into July, measured by our spending pulse estimates that measure overall spending in the US economy.
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Interviewer4:11
Up and voting with their wallet and continuing to spend, we see as a positive sign. Closing out an Apple Card again, are we going to see anybody else do this? Because word was that Visa was wary about getting into this partnership. Others, other than Goldman Sachs, maybe didn't want to take the kind of risk that Apple wanted to put on the table. Is this going to be a proof? Are we going to see other numberless cards with these kinds of no-fee deals?
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Craig Vosburg4:37
Well, I think this is a unique set of circumstances because of Apple's ability to integrate the card with the operating system on the phone. That's an important part of being able to deliver a lot of that value proposition. Others could potentially seek to do that. I can tell you we were very eager to...
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Interviewer5:10
Disconnect between credit card interest rates and interest rates in general?
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Craig Vosburg5:15
As you know, Mastercard is not in the interest rate business. We don't set rates, we don't make money on interest income. Banks set rates as they see fit and manage that across the breadth of their consumer portfolio.
