Pankaj Asthaana | Vice President - Digital Payments & Labs, Middle East & North Africa
MasterCard

Pankaj is responsible for commercializing digital payments and Labs initiatives for Mastercard in MENA.  
With over 19 years’ experience, he has acquired a deep understanding of the payments business and ecosystems. Pankaj has supported the evolution of contactless payments, online commerce and remittances in various markets in MEA and APAC. He has two key patent inventions filed that are being used to commercialize Mastercard’s QR payment solutions globally.
In his current role in MENA, Pankaj has championed the proliferation of mobile based tokenized contactless payments, secure card on file payments, QR payments and remittances. He has worked on the launch of Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay in UAE and various issuer mobile wallets in MENA markets that use contactless, secure e-Commerce, QR and remittance solutions of Mastercard. 
Pankaj is a strong believer in working with non-FIs, government, merchants, fintechs as well as players from other industries to develop safer and scalable payment ecosystems that displace cash and build financially inclusive economies.