Murnaghan 13.04.14 Business Papers review with Marion King, CEO Mastercard

ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: It’s time now to take a look through the business pages of the Sunday papers and I’m joined by one of the country’s leading business bosses, she’s the Chief Executive of Mastercard UK, Marion King.  Very good to see you and thank you very much indeed for rolling your sleeves up and taking us through some of these stories.  You’ve got a busy day ahead of you, you’re off to the Olivier Awards, so it’s not all just business, you like a bit of culture as well. 

MARION KING: I do like culture and a bit of pleasure and it’s a busy day in London as the marathon was just outside as well. 

DM: Let’s hope that’s cleared away by the time it starts.  On that with MasterCard’s involvement, is it just about bang for your buck, is it just about you look for high visibility it doesn’t matter what it is or do you care more than just about the bottom line, you care about the cultural life of society as well? 

MARION KING: We care enormously and I care as a British citizen as well and it’s about getting that balance in the economy, it’s about making sure the economy is fair but at the same time making sure that youth, innovation, that independent small traders can all thrive in this economy. 

DM: Okay, that’s the reason why you are doing it then.  Take us through some of these stories then, the Times first of all, real pay finally on the rise. 

MARION KING: There’s an article here in the Times which is ‘Real pay finally on the rise after four years’ and that’s saying that income or disposable income is actually increasing higher than inflation and that’s great news.   What we see at Mastercard from our spending data is that confidence is up, we are seeing spending on the high street going up and up and that is one indication of an economy becoming more confident but what was really exciting in this is the IMF predicting that the UK will be the highest growth economy in the G7, the lead markets in the world but the UK will lead in the coming year which is good.

DM: That is something which I know the Chancellor wanted to make a great song and dance about last week as he was visiting the IMF, of course that was rather blasted off the front page by other issues that I’ll be discussing in other parts of the programme but do you think politically that’s going to feed through into the general election debates. 

MARION KING: I think it helps.  We’re a year before a general election and seeing a positive view, not just locally but from the IMF on the UK economy, is good but consumers and people need to really feel it so it’s all very well that we’ll see this five year rise but we need to feel it in our pockets. 

DM: One of the big issues that you’ve got your fingers on the pulse of is the debt levels and we are told this is mainly a consumer led boom.  Are you seeing people maxing out even more on their Mastercard’s and credit cards?

MARION KING: No, I don't think so.  Of course Mastercard isn’t the issuer, we don’t lend the money, we manage the networks, the technology, the fraud systems that sit behind the scenes that make it all flow but what we are seeing is clearly a drive for responsible lending and responsible borrowing because it is down to the individual as well as to the institution that lends the money so we’re not seeing a maxing, I wouldn’t describe it as that, but we do see growth and we do see consumers’ confidence restoring.

DM: But the problem was during these difficult periods of the last five, six, seven years we were meant to be paying off some of that debt both as a country and personally.

MARION KING: That’s my point of responsible borrowing, it is all very well to have as the credit line is there but you have got to pay it back ultimately. 

DM: Well an awful lot about money being spent on the high streets, you have this from the Independent on Sunday, breaking the chains. 

MARION KING: I love this story because it is a local initiative, it started in Liverpool, it is now moving to Birmingham and this is about independent small high street shops, grouping together issuing a loyalty card for discount for consumers to spend in their stores. People are concerned that we are seeing lots of coffee shops, lots of supermarkets in the high street and the death of the independents and I think that’s really sad, we’ve got to boost independent traders, small traders and give them an opportunity to bring a difference to the high street so I thought this was a great initiative where they are clubbing together, creating a digital card …

DM: Any opportunities for Mastercard there with that card? 

MARION KING: Well there could be and I’ll certainly be giving them a ring because this is about bringing together the online with the offline.  We know that online shopping is growing, it’s exploding in the UK, we are the biggest e-commerce country outside of North America which again is great for our economy and we are a very digitally aware economy but at the same time people like to go to the high street, they like to feel, they like to shop. 

DM: I don’t know whether this is part of the story but I guess with some of these shops, if you really are an independent, a one person or few people operation, its’ very hard to run a website as well and service people who want to shop with you online. 

MARION KING: Absolutely, it’s really difficult so clubbing together, using organisations like Mastercard that can support a network can help provide aggregation and help them get online and do different things so that they can not only be successful on the high street but export as well. 

DM: Win-win there.  Last story we’ve got here, Marion, what guilt?  Mother’s happy to go to work.  Perhaps you can feed in a little bit of your own experience.

MARION KING: I have to confess a personal agenda here!  I went back to work when mine were very young.

DM: How young?

MARION KING: Mine were four months when I went back to work and you’re often asked if you feel guilty and thank God, now we have an official survey that says, of course not.  I think only 13% here on the Mumsnet website said they felt any guilt at all and I think that’s really positive because we’re in a world now where women choose to work, need to work and it’s fine too.  There was a comment here that children could be psychologically damaged if their mothers go back to work too soon, I would say that is nonsense.  If you have a supporting framework and you are comfortable and you’re happy and you pass that on to your children and you’re a great role model, that’s got to be good for the whole family.  

DM: Do mothers, potential mothers, get workplace angst as well, taking that time out?  I know you are ambitious given the level you’ve achieved and we can talk a little about glass ceilings perhaps a little later on but that maternity leave, do you feel hold on a minute, what am I going to miss here?

MARION KING: I think there is anxiety in women and I think now, and I have clearly a lot of women working for me who are anxious about it, if you want to take a year out take a year out because the system supports it but if you don’t want to, there’s no pressure on you to do that.  I have a young woman who wants to come back within six months because she loves her job, they’ve sorted out the childcare which is a personal thing within the family and she wants to get into the groove.  

DM: Presumably they are relaxed because they have got someone in your position who have been through it all, it’s another argument for having more women in senior positions.  

MARION KING:  I absolutely agree, being supportive, understanding, having the choice and there’s no pressure so we do need more senior women in the workplace because again it’s role models and it shows it can work.  

DM: Great to see you here Marion and thank you for spending a very precious Sunday morning taking us through the Sunday papers, very nice of you.  Marion King there from Mastercard.