Mastercard’s (MA) CEO Ajay Banga on Q3 2016 Results
Perspective on the economy largely unchanged
“Our prospective of the economy remains largely unchanged since last quarter you’ve all seen the U.S. GDP growth report this morning. We’ve continued to believe like we said in the previous quarters that the U.S. is on a steady growth path with consumer confidence, unemployment, and wages holding firm. Of course, unless something unforeseen our growth coming out of the upcoming elections, but basically the U.S. had a steady growth path.”
Markets across Europe showing gradual recovery
“Many markets across Europe are showing a gradual recovery, led by Germany, as economic sentiment hold steady, unemployment rates are continuing to decline. Although uncertainties from Brexit and its impact on Europe remain a concern, I think it will take a few years to understand the full implications. ”
Picture is still mixed in Asia, Brazil seems to be bottoming out
“In the Asia the picture is still mix. In China, both exports and imports were down sharply. And you all know the concerns over inflated asset values. In Australia, however, business confidence is up, and India continues its relatively strong growth trajectory. In Latin America, Brazil even though is expected to remain in a recession for the near future seems to be bottoming out. And the political environment seems to be stabilizing, which should hopefully improve economic condition over the next six to twelve months. In Venezuela, the political and fiscal crisis is deepening. In Mexico, the economy continues to expand, but with increasing dependence on consumer spending growth.”
China outbound increasingly going to other Asia
“So the first part, the second part, which is actually a transactional piece of information on outbound China. I think you’ll find growth to certain parts of the world, but not to others. It’s not coming into the U.S. and Europe as it used to. It’s actually going much more to the Asian markets, so Australia through Japan, so those parts of the world. That’s actually similar to what I may have said at Investor Day, but I don’t fully recall if that question came up. But that’s kind of what we’ve seen on the China part of it.”
No one has figured out safety and security
” anybody who will tell you that they figured it out of safety and security. It’s probably somebody you should run a mile from, because there is no such right answer. There is a continuous effort of people break into everyone systems. You read that all the time. So you only have as good in safety and security as the efforts you keep putting into it to keep your clients having products and capabilities that keep them — keeping their promise to their consumers. So we recently launched a series of products that use our official intelligence and machine learning in the safety and security phase. We are going to keep doing that.”
My IR person gets nervous when I speak because I don’t stick to the script
“So first of all I’m glad you called them prepared remarks, Barbara’s, also nervous when I’m speaking because she’s tracking all that I’ve said. I don’t always follow the script. But I will use your comment as proof of my being relatively helpful. The second part is the UK, so to the other question, I’m just cracking up a little. I’ve taken it out on Barbara for 10 years of this. So the UK, be careful about assuming that a lower currency will necessarily lead to inbound travel, either tourist related or business related. It works in a place like the UK because it is one of the world’s most attractive tourism destinations.”
Outward US travel strong still, inward weak
“Kind of shopping destinations, the U.S. right now inward tourist traffic is down with the dollar being strong whereas outdoor travel by Americans is quite strong. And so those are just natural things that we ought to do as well.”