RBS nabs Mastercard boss for payments overhaul

The Royal Bank of Scotland has lured Marion King from Mastercard’s British operations, hoping to overhaul its payments strategy after several failures left the bank exposed to some potentially heavy fines.

According to a Sky News report, Marion King resigned her position as president of Mastercard UK and Ireland this week to join RBS as group director of payments.

Ms King will spearhead the bank’s move towards greater automation of its payments operations, working on mobile apps and contactless payments as RBS attempts to build trust in its payments platforms.

RBS aims to meet a stated target of becoming the leading bank for trust and advocacy among customers by 2020, having been hit by a serious failure of its systems in the summer of 2012.

The failure led to millions of customers being unable to withdraw their money and triggered an enforcement investigation by the City watchdog which has not yet been completed.

Ms King has previously worked for Reuters and Vocalink, the payments company which is now reviewing its future ownership.

Ms King’s exit from Mastercard comes weeks after the payments company lost an EU court battle over cross-border credit card fees, which are likely to regulated in the near future.

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