Davos 2024: Mastercard's $7 bn cybersecurity investment shows commitment to safety: Ling Hai, President, International Markets

Ling Hai, President, International Markets at Mastercard

Mastercard has spent $7 billion in the last five years to strengthen its cybersecurity systems, Ling Hai, President of International Market at Mastercard said.

Speaking with Moneycontrol at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Hai made a strong pitch for leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Cybersecurity to mitigate fraud.

“Cybersecurity is a good case for AI, and we will see this technology get more sophisticated. We have spent $7 billion in the last 5 years in cybersecurity and AI is a very important component of that. On an annual basis, we prevent 125 billion transactions from being hacked,” he said.

The global leader reiterated the need for banks and companies in the payments and digital products space to take charge to create awareness about cybersecurity.

“The whole mobile payments trend is here to stay and will continue to evolve. But we need to get the cybersecurity aspect right. Fraud is an emerging issue, and often it targets the most vulnerable populations, including the elderly and SMEs. This is where banks and global networks like us will step in,” he said.

Keeping up with the mobile payments innovation

On the question of cards keeping pace with the ongoing innovations in the digital payments space such as Tap-and-Pay NFC payments and QR scans, Hai said Mastercard will continue to place the safety and security of consumers at the top, followed by ease of usage.

“Cards sometimes become a misnomer. It is just a way to refer to the underlying wallet. It could be anything. Whether it is using contactless technology or tokenisation, we have anonymised the data,” he said.

He further adds, “Who knows tomorrow your credentials may be bundled with biometrics. You may not even need a phone. What will not change is the underlying wallet.”

New opportunities

Mastercard is scouting for newer opportunities in B2B payments and cross-border remittances, to diversify the usage of its card-based solutions.

"It’s a huge opportunity. Reconciliation is a tall challenge. Using our virtual number, we have created a mechanism where we enable businesses to receive payments timely and efficiently,” said Hai.