Payments banks can disrupt banking industry: AmEx

Marquee credit card company American Express is open to investing in a number of "win-win" partnerships and is watching the startup space with great interest, says the company's South Asia President Sanjay Rishi.In an interview with CNBC-TV18's Malvika Jain, Rishi discussed the company's growth plans going forward, as well as about the company's strategic investment in MobiKwik, which failed to win a payment bank licence.Excerpts from the conversation on CNBC-TV18.Q: How do you see the development over the payments banks licence, in light of your own business and your investment in payments company MobiKwik?A: We have a bank license and we can issue all sorts of payment instruments, except for debit cards. We can issue prepaid cards which we do and we also issue credit cards which is our traditional business and we also have a loyalty programme but that is outside the bank. So for us we can do all of this ourselves. The investment that we put in MobiKwik was to find a way in which we could bring a synergy through a partnership in the sense of giving Mobikwik more customers that they can bring on that platform and using Mobikwik's capabilities to get more customers for American Express. I think the final word is not out on payment bank licenses -- this is the first round. I think that this is the start but it is not the finish and if you talk to Mobikwik, I think their CEO Bipin Preet Singh said that he is hopeful of getting a payments bank license in the second round or the third round. I think there will be other payments bank companies also that will appear on the scene and there will also be consolidations that will happen on the longer line but sending a message that you as a private company can participate in payments is an important message and an important driver I think of electronification.Q: You have in the past said that entrepreneurship is something that is going to drive your strategy in South Asia that is when you had taken charge. So when you talk about entrepreneurship, I do understand that you mean that is not going to be just under the brand of American Express. There would be other companies and initiatives that you would be supporting so what is the future, what sort of the agenda?A: I think first of all we are looking at India with a great deal of excitement, there is a tremendous opportunity. We know it very well, we are very happy with the performance. We also recognise that it is important to go where our customers go and the Indian market presents special opportunities that we must respond to and let me just talk about a couple of them -- you know that 60 percent of the population is less than the age of 30 years.So unless you have solutions that address the needs of young consumers, somebody else will and then it is going to be that much harder for you to displace the incumbent. So we want to become an inclusive brand, we want to go beyond the traditional positioning of American Express as a company which is for affluence and for businesses.For entire interview, watch accompanying videos.