Mastercard India names ex-SBI Chair Rajnish Kumar as chairman

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BENGALURU (Reuters) – Mastercard on Thursday named former State Bank of India Chair Rajnish Kumar as the chairman of its Indian unit, as the country witnesses a change in the payments landscape with digital transactions gaining traction.

Kumar has held a variety of leadership roles in India’s top lender for 40 years and was its chairman for three years until Oct 2020. He is currently the chairman of payments startup BharatPe.

“Kumar will be involved in augmenting the local leadership team in its efforts to expand our domestic footprint,” Mastercard’s Asia-Pacific President, Ari Sarker, said in a statement.

The U.S.-based card company has faced some challenges in India, including a regulatory curb by the central bank, which barred Mastercard in 2021 from issuing debit and credit cards to new domestic customers over compliance issues regarding storage of payment system data.

The ban was lifted in June 2022.

Mastercard has said that it sees India as a key growth market and has invested $2 billion in the country since 2014 to build technology centres and support innovation in digital payments.