The MasterCard brand has been in Colombia for 30 years and according to its president, Federico Martínez, they are leaders in the market.
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What have been the main aspects of the three decades of MasterCard in Colombia?
There are 30 years of general transformation. When you look at what we did 30 years ago as Master Card and what we do today, it’s another world.
We went from embossed physical cards that were mostly credit cards to digital cards that allow you to enter public transportation with a tap. We went from cards that took a couple of days to have the reconciliation so that the business received the money to almost receiving instant money.
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We do something we call the democratization of technological services and digitalization. That is, we allowed people to use platforms like video platforms, e-commerce, things that were unattainable for people looking from the outside. Today in Colombia you can do it with our cards.
We went from the magnetic stripe to the chip, which was something very important in terms of security, then we moved it to contactless and in an incredible time the transaction took place.
What else have they brought to the market?
The possibility of entering the world of the internet that was not so easy before. You can pay and buy from electronic stores globally and locally with our card in a secure way.
We have created a robust ecosystem to accompany the consumer in that moment of purchase, no matter where they are, or where in the world they are, or what type of device they are on.
We have made a very important transformation, but what strikes us most is that we have laid the first foundations to continue growing and developing this market in the next 15 or 20 years.
What can we see?
Stronger, faster, with much more technology and products will come that many people do not understand today. Identity issues, issues of how to handle artificial intelligence agents, which is what is coming in the future with payments with these agents. That you tell an agent, it doesn’t matter which one, “when these tennis shoes that I want in size nine are at a price lower than this, buy them” and he will be in charge of looking for the best offer and begin to delegate to the agents many of their natural purchasing tasks to be there, and we will be present there to provide security, to provide speed, to provide transparency in those payments. We are going to continue transforming the industry. Not as unique, but as part of an ecosystem, which is also very important.
What other news will there be soon?
We are going to be in the marketplaces or on the digital platforms with a button that is going to be called click to pay, it is already starting here, it is a technique so that with a single click you can pay safely, which prevents fraud because what we are looking for is that you do not have to enter the data, but rather that the bank uploads your data to that platform or you sometime, by your own wish, enter your card data on that platform and not every time are you going to buy and why is that important? Because most fraud occurs when people enter data on untrustworthy platforms, or on platforms that are not certified, or when they create something very similar to a page from a respected business and take the data from there.
(Besides: Minimum wage and inflation: effect of wage increase on the cost of living by 2026).
Will cash no longer be an option?
It is important that all payment methods fit into the ecosystems. We believe it is a balance. We believe that there is room for everything. That does not mean that the only way to pay is with cards. No, look, you will be able to pay with cash, with cards, transfer, with wallets. The important thing is that the consumer has the option to pay in some way and that they use the appropriate method for each payment.
There are methods or types of purchases or payments in which we are much more efficient than others. but we cannot close our eyes and say “it is the only thing there is.” We believe the economy is too cash-intensive.
Holman Rodríguez Martínez
PORTFOLIO
