RBI is one of the most progressive regulators – Alfred Kelly, Global CEO Visa Inc.

The whole idea of money is, according to some, under threat, whereas others would say it’s waiting to disrupt the way we conduct business and transactions. Alfred Kelly, global CEO of Visa, one of the largest card network operators, Visa sees a change in terms of the strategy used for the market space not only in India but also the world.

Operating in the country since 1980, Alfred Kelly Jr believes that India is still a big cash society, and yet it has drastically changed quite a bit in the last five and a half years. We’ve seen 40% growth just in the last year. And our share in the country is about 50%. And a lot of this comes because foundational elements of payments is the fact that it’s an infrastructure and it comes with lots of different partners. And we partner with traditional financial institutions. We partner very closely with fintech, we partner very closely with merchants.

So we see India in short, as a market that has grown tremendously in payments in the last six years. But it’s still in the early part of a growth trajectory that I see happening over the next ten to 20 years. And I think what we’ll see in India in this meeting in 2042 will be unrecognizable from where it is today in 2022, most certainly. 

I think smart regulation that does the things that I said it does, and a good, fair, competitive environment helps all, boosts rise and helps make the ecosystem in a particular country that much better as you look to the future.

Kelly believes that the competition is a part of what we live each day, and payments is a great business. “Money movement is a great business and lots of people are increasingly taking an interest in it and governments are taking an interest in it. And I look at the RBI as one of the more progressive regulators around the world. I think the RBI is a leader in trying to displace cash. They’re a leader in trying to introduce more protections into the ecosystem. They’ve been a leader in trying to make sure that there’s a place in the ecosystem for fintech.

That’s our job as a company that has the honor of doing business in a country like India. So for example, we’ve worked very hard to make sure that we’re compliant with the data, localization rules that were put in place by the RBI. We also look at our role in the ecosystem with regulators in the case, sometimes with top competitors, to make sure that we’re doing things that are good for the overall ecosystem. So one of the things that the RBI did in conjunction with the networks is to really promote tokenization, which actually helps protect all transactions. And that’s a really good thing for the ecosystem. It’s a very positive development for the ecosystem. So whether it’s India or it is Singapore or it is Brazil or Mexico or it’s the United Kingdom, competition is something that we live with every day. Regulation is something that we live with every day. And again, I think smart regulation that does the things that I said it does, and a good, fair, competitive environment helps all, boosts rise and helps make the ecosystem in a particular country that much better as you look to the future.

They most certainly do. But the grounds that many of your peers have, especially the global peers, is that the problem with India remains the gold boats keeps shifting, and especially in a sector, in a space like payments, which is evolving literally every day, it becomes problematic. Business models get disrupted. That is, stability in terms of regulation and policymaking is something that is missing in India. That’s the common refrain that we keep hearing from several of your global peers. Isn’t that indeed something that’s worrisome adds Kelly