Chris Reid, Executive Vice President, North America Services at Mastercard, turned heads at Money20/20 in November when he announced on stage that Mastercard is stopping 700,000 attacks every hour. “35% of all web traffic is fraudulent,” Reid said. “49% of all login attempts are fraudulent.” But despite these frightening numbers, Reid is upbeat about his work, and one of the things that cheers him up are the advances made by cybersecurity startups, whose participation in the industry he welcomes with open arms.

Mastercard has a strong history of engagement with the startup community, having acquired a number of startups over the years, and operating its global Start Path program that helps scale startups in Mastercard’s ecosystem. Reid spoke of his background in retail and the pressing need to always design financial products with security at the center.

As transactions steadily move to the digital realm, payment networks need to stop fraud in real time, as well as authenticate and identify customers in fractions of a second. Reid discussed these challenges and the huge field of opportunity in front of players in payments and cybersecurity. Despite the many threats he sees every day, Reid is upbeat about Mastercard and the many startups in its ecosystem, within and outside of the company’s ecosystem. Listen to the conversation between CCG Catalyst’s Philip Ryan and Chris Reid from CCG’s Bank-Fintech Fusion podcast below.

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