Diners Club Discover Interview

Transcription

1 Diners Club Discover Interview NAZARE: Hello, this is Isabel Nazare. I m with PYMNTS.com, where I edit the EMEA newsletter. I m here today with the new president of Diners Club International, Eduardo Tobon. Eduardo is joining Diners Club after a long career for Sovereign Bank. I m also here with David Evans, the author of Paying with Plastic, and the founder of Market Platform and Dynamics. Thank you for joining us today David and Eduardo. NAZARE: Thank you Isabel. Thank you, too. I understand you have some questions for Eduardo? So I ll send it over to you now. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot Isabel, and thank you Eduardo for joining us today. Eduardo, you re running a company that has an incredible pedigree, and just to remind everyone, Diners Club invented the general purpose payment card in So congratulations on your new position. Thank you David, appreciate it. 1

2 And the timing really couldn t have been any better since you managed to escape Boston before Hurricane Sandy. Well, I m still here in Boston today, but thank you for that. The timing has been great, and I m very excited about the opportunity and the possibilities with Diners Club. And if we flood away during the middle of the call, the audience will know why. So Eduardo, tell us briefly about Diners Club and what your role is there? Well clearly, as you pointed out, Diners Club obviously has a lot of firsts. Diners Club was the first multi-purpose charge card, and invented by virtue of that, what the industry is today. Today, Diners Club is slowly being recognized, and my role here is to make sure that we look into the future, continue to be a relevant player, and that we bring back some of the iconic aspects of the brand into the global arena. We re accepted in many, many places, but there s room for improvement and room for growth. Discover bought Diners Club back in What has Discover done with the business to-date? Discover has invested heavily in Diners Club International. Since 2008, as you pointed out, we built a strong global network. We made huge investments in technology for inter-operability, which 2

3 is the ability for the networks to connect to one another, the franchises, and our headquarters, and also on acceptance. So merchant acquiring, making sure that when our customers show up with their Diners Club card, regardless of where they are, their card is accepted. So we ve -- we ve done a lot of that. Discover s strategic priorities, obviously, is to expand its global footprint, and Diners Club provided for that. So the last tidbit I would give is The Nilson Report ranked Discover, as you probably know, the third-largest global acceptance network, in February of this year, Well congratulations for that. Thank you. thank you. And as president of Diners Club International, what s your toughest challenge? Well, the toughest challenge clearly for me is to successfully reinvigorate the ability for Diners Club to be considered relevant, and to be a growing engine within payments around the globe. We re clearly making significant brand investments in collaboration with our franchises. We have franchises around the globe, and we have new initiatives. I just came back from our global franchise meeting last week, and one of the things that I was mentioning to our folks around the globe is five words 3

4 five concepts that I firmly believe in. The first one is the word of possibilities. The second one is ideas. The third is innovation. The fourth is future, and the fifth is growth. They re all interconnected in my opinion. I basically told them that I believe in the idea of possibilities and I believe in the possibilities of our ideas, which leads to innovation, which can lead to growth, and our future is predicated on that. So they re all interconnected. And in doing all that, are you leveraging the Diners Club and Discover brands with the franchises, and if you are, how are you doing that? Well clearly, Discover is a very well-known brand in North America, but we have been opportunistic in certain markets, like in Ecuador, and Russia, we ve actually shared with investors that franchises from Diners Club have made the attempt to also start - successfully I may add - the Discover Card in those markets. So we re now, by virtue of being part of a global company, having an opportunity to bring new products to new markets, and that s an example where Diners Club finds the same value in the brand, and the highly-differentiated concept of cash-back rewards. But PYMNTS.com has started a new -- in Europe, actually focusing on the Europe, Middle East, and Africa. So we re really 4

5 interested in that region. Maybe if you can say a word on what Diners Club is going to be doing to expand card acceptance, and use in the region of the world in the next few years. Well thank you for that, and we also have a very big emphasis in the region. Europe, Middle East, and Africa is a region that we actually have folks, 100% dedicated to its locations, and that number s going to continue to grow, in particular in Europe. I have to say that we have been privileged to have acquirer agreements with market leaders in the UK, like WorldPay, Low Interest Card Net in Ireland, AID with Germany, with Concordance and BNS. Canada with Maneras. So all those things, including global acquirers, like First Data, Global Payments and Elavon are going to help us in Europe, clearly, and that s going to help us on the acceptance front, which is very, very critical; and on the issuing front, we obviously have our franchises very committed to increasing their presence in Europe. You mentioned innovation before, Eduardo, and I want to press you a little bit on that. I work with a lot of entrepreneurs in the payments business, and a lot of them are looking to work with established payment players, just like Diners Club. What should I tell them that Diners Club is looking for? 5

6 Diners Club is looking for something very simple, which is pragmatic, and scaleable innovations that it can connect to its network and its partners. So, we re looking for those entrepreneurs out there, that have that mission and objective, and if that s the case, we re all ears. The last question I have to you, Eduardo, is something that I try to ask everyone, just to let people in the payments industry know something about the personal side of payments professionals. So obviously, you spent a lot of your time doing payments, and you probably have to travel a lot for that, but when you re not doing payments, what do you enjoy doing? Well, lots of different things, but thank you for the question. Last night, I was just at a concert at Symphony Hall here in Boston. It was a tribute for my involvement with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras in a place that s very close to my heart. BSO helps out 500 kids actually get to benefit from music, and I was never a musician myself, but I could tell you that it was an incredible opportunity to see these children over the years as a result of being involved with music. So that s one of the things I do. I dedicate time to my family, but also to causes that I find are very worthy of anybody s time, including myself. 6

7 That sounds -- that sounds wonderful, Eduardo, and I think that s a great thing to do. We really appreciate the time you spent here today with us, and wish you really all the success with your new position at Diners Club, and wish Diners Club success as well. So thanks again, and hope to speak to you again in the future. NAZARE: Thank you so much, David. Thank you Eduardo, and thank you David as well. 7