Is inflation finally on the retreat? Can labor markets withstand an economic slowdown and demographic

headwinds? Will the tense geopolitical climate ease or escalate? This is the Outthinking

Investor. Join us as we re-examine the past, present-day opportunities and future possibilities

in global capital markets. The Outthinking Investor, an award-winning podcast from PGM.

This podcast is intended solely for professional investor use. Has performance is not a guarantee

of future results? There's an old saying in finance that cash is king, but when it comes

to payments, the debt is suggests that it's no longer exactly the case. According to

the latest World Pay Report, cash now figures in less than 20% of in-person transactions

around the world. The payments tend to retreat from the beginning, because it's really focused

on getting people to use electronic forms of payment. In fact, if you look at like the

US, for example, you basically have been moving around 2-3% of payments from cash

and check to some form of direct electronic, just about every single year. Total card volume

is ex-China today at $20 trillion, and there's another $14 trillion worth of cash and check

left to digitize. Even at 80% level, card penetration is growing. So yes, we are moving towards

a cashless society. A new technology is promised to kick these trends into a higher gear.

The terminal on the till of the merchant. Now, depending on how old one is, one is used

to that, at least in the developed world. But that is not everywhere, but everyone has

a phone. So electronic payments can end up in a super simple way in everybody's hands,

and for our business, that's a massive growth opportunity. Mastercard is already seizing

that opportunity. After dipping in 2020, revenues shot past pre-pandemic levels in 2021, driven

by a rebound to consumer spending. CFO Sachin Mehera knows that this boom is likely to fade,

and he's set on finding ways to keep the momentum going.

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