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volume 9 • fall 2016
Anything that happens in payments will likely involve Walmart, given the chain’s status as one of the world’s most in uential and largest retailers. And standing along that frontier of innovation and adoption is Mike Cook, Walmart senior vice presi- dent and assistant treasurer.
A farm boy from western Missouri —an upbringing that instilled a “get it done” attitude along with a desire to have a career that didn’t depend on drought and other uncertainties of weather—Cook earned a degree in nance and a job at the U.S. O ce of the Comp- troller of the Currency before deciding that government bureau- cracy wasn’t for him. The retailer hired him in 1993, and in that nearly quarter century of work, he has taken pride in helping to build “a world-class payments team that includes some of the brightest and most talented individuals in the payments eld.”
That team has, among other tasks, developed the Walmart Pay mobile payment service, which rolled out to all of the chain’s 4,600 U.S. stores in 2016 after debuting in Arkansas and Texas. Part of the chain’s mobile app, which already has 20 million active users, Wal- mart Pay works with any iOS
or Android device at any checkout lane and with any credit, debit, prepaid or Walmart gift card users load into the Walmart mobile app.
Still, Cook knows that getting consumers to think outside the
box when it comes to payments is no easy task. “Consumers haven’t been terribly excited about pay- ments innovations,” he says. “However, it’s clear consumers are embracing services, such as Uber, that payments innovation helps to enable. Our customers
in China, for example, are rapidly adopting mobile wallets and e-gift o erings in-store. Our customers in the United States are respond- ing positively to our latest o er- ings of Walmart Pay and Sam’s Club Scan and Go. With both new services in the United States
we’re seeing strong repeat usage and growth.”
Payments Battles
Cook and Walmart also have been on the edge of payment regulation and interchange issues. Indeed,
he fought for the Durbin Amend- ment. “The most important thing we learned from that experience was that merchants can work together to successfully challenge the status quo in payments,” he says. And now, Walmart is engaged
the Best idea in payments
“One of the most impactful initiatives has been con- vincing the company to view payments strategically and to invest in building out a world-class payments team to advocate, negoti- ate and innovate in support of our strategy.”
in a highly publicized and high stakes legal dispute with Visa
over interchange and signatures. “The European Union has capped credit card interchange fees at 0.30 percent, and credit card usage has continued to grow,”
he says. “That single event set a new global standard. Why would Walmart, or any merchant— whether they are in Canada, the U.S. or any other country—pay 1.50 percent or more when we pay 0.30 percent for exactly the same service in Europe?”
Looking toward the future, Cook, like many leaders in the industry, credits Uber with creating a suc- cessful model of what frictionless payments can be. “The broken payments market, and the ine - ciencies embedded within it, is a drag on the world economy that ultimately has negative implications for all consumers,” he says. “It is exciting to know that we have the opportunity to address key issues that plague consumers and mer- chants around the world.”
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Mike Cook
Senior Vice President, Assistant Treasurer, Walmart