"India's ingenuity is contagious," says Mastercard's Global CEO Michael Miebach

Mastercard's Global CEO, Michael Miebach, has identified notable opportunities in India's credit access and commercial payment sectors, stressing the country's robust digital economy.

Miebach announced the establishment of Mastercard's largest global facility in Pune, Maharashtra . This site will serve as one of seven tech hubs worldwide as the company plans to intensify its expansion efforts in India, according to a report by CNBC-TV18.

Miebach highlighted the potential for enhanced credit access in India and commercial payments, given the nation's digital growth. He highlighted that innovations such as passkeys and biometric authentication are pivotal for expanding e-commerce in the country.

Reaffirming Mastercard's focus on India, Miebach shared that the company has invested $1 billion over the past five years, including the latest tech hub covering half a million square meters, which he described as "state of the art."

He praised India's unique ingenuity, stating it sets the nation apart globally. Miebach attributed this to India's talent pool, economic scale, innovative spirit, and cultural factors that have influenced Mastercard's decision to bolster its presence. He also mentioned that Indian teams collaborate with other global tech hubs for co-innovation.

According to Miebach, India's technological infrastructure has unlocked opportunities for 1.4 billion people and facilitated the country's transition to a mobile-first economy.

Mastercard aims to enhance security measures by replacing traditional passwords with biometric data, such as fingerprints or facial recognition, through tokenization. Currently, the company processes 1 billion such transactions weekly. In India, this biometric feature was introduced in August, in partnership with PayU and Axis Bank.

Miebach stressed the strength of India's fintech ecosystem. Additionally, Mastercard plans to tokenise all e-commerce transactions in Europe by the end of the decade. In June, the company reported a net income of $3.3 billion, with a global card count that grew 7.2% year-over-year, reaching 3.42 billion.