Mastercard co-president says Southeast Asia and Latin America are strong growth areas

DAVOS, Switzerland Reuters- Southeast Asia and Latin America are strong growth regions for Mastercard after Russia pulled out in March, and India's 2021 ban on it from issuing new cards, the company's co-president for international markets said.

Southeast Asia is exciting due to the right demographics, adoption of technology and digitisation, and governments focus on financial inclusion, according to Ling Hai, who told the Reuters Global Markets Forum that countries in the region would also benefit as supply chains shift away from China.

Hai said that Mastercard was ready to comply with India's 2018 rules that required foreign card networks to store Indian payments data locally for unfettered supervisory access. The goal is to be 100% compliant. We are taking tangible steps to get there, if we need to localise in India. Mastercard suspended its operations in Russia in March - a market that accounted for roughly 4% of its net revenue in 2021 - over its invasion of Ukraine.

In Russia, if an opportunity arises to improve rules and regulations in areas such as financial inclusion, sustainability and data privacy, Mastercard will work together with other stakeholders in the ecosystem, including the government itself, Hai said.

Hai said Europe was an exciting market for the company due to its post-COVID economic recovery and the scope of innovation that the continent offers.

The payment network company is focusing on high-growth areas of business, such as business-to- business payments flows, telecommunications and retail.