You have had a successful career in cards and payments for more than 30 years. How did you become involved in this industry?

I became involved with credit cards back in the late 70s when I was responsible for banking coverage with The Financial Times newspaper. These were early days for the card business, and I have great memories of visits to Barclaycard, Access, American Express, Visa, MasterCard and Diners Club. Apart from reporting developments as they occurred, we also had an annual credit cards survey, which became a focus for the sector.

It was around this time that the Times started to see itself as a global newspaper, and soon I was meeting with banks and bankers in the United States and around Europe. It was a very exciting time. Citibank was going national in the United States, using the credit card when it could not open branches across state lines. In mainland Europe, however, the banks were militantly anti-credit cards — and as a result, most missed out on the credit card boom of the following 30 years.

I left the Times to start my own business in 1981 and cards became a major part of our business, alongside retail banking.

What is the most significant change or impact to the payments market you've seen over your career?

It has to be the globalization of the cards business, and with it, the emergence of multi-continental retail banks, issuers, acquirers, networks and processors. Back in the late 70s, John Reed of Citi and Dee Hock of Visa were lone visionaries when they said there was a global market for consumer financial services. Today this is taken for granted.

What do you suppose might be the next big thing to emerge in payments?

Without a doubt, it is e-money — from mobile money and open-loop prepaid cards to Internetbased systems like PayPal. Thanks to e-money, vast populations of the currently unbanked will benefit from modern financial services.

Can you choose two traits that are lacking in the payments industry today, thus creating challenges?

TRUST: Trust in banks is currently at the lowest point in at least 80 years, particularly in Europe and the United States. This has been caused by the current financial crisis, which has greatly damaged the savings, wealth and incomes of hundreds of millions of people. The universal banking system, where banks engage in the provision of all forms of financial services — from consumer banking to derivatives trading — is the main cause of the crisis that we are still going through.

SEPARATION: I believe that retail banking should be a separate sector from wholesale and investment banking, which is why I have been campaigning for countries to legislate for the creation of standalone retail banks.

What are you working on at the current moment?

I have several big projects underway, including the launch of The International Academy of Retail Banking and The International Academy of Cards and Payments. Like the UK's Future of Banking Commission, I believe that retail banking should be a profession. In response, we plan to launch a two-year diploma program across the world later this year.

I'm also heavily involved with the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, which is a global organization and a joint venture with my former Times colleague, David Marsh. It will provide a confidential forum for central banks and sovereign funds to discuss issues of common interest. Fortunately, central banks have a great deal of involvement with retail banking as well as cards and payments.