Amnah Ajmal, EVP Market Development for EEMEA at Mastercard, shares her financial services journey and reveals her early career trajectory was not one without challenges. In this role, she is responsible for acceptance, acquiring, merchants, digital partnerships, fintech’s, strategy and M&A for the region.
Overseeing market development across 80 countries
Ajmal’s responsibility these days is to oversee market development across 80 countries in the EEMEA region, meaning she looks after merchants, digital partnerships, fintechs, governments, strategy and M&A.
Mastercard is a vast entity, employing tens of thousands of people in dozens of countries around the world. But the heart of its business is a universal desire economy that benefits everyone, everywhere. The payments giant is achieving this by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible, providing a seamless, omnichannel experience along the way.
“So may of our clients have the same mission” says Amnah. “If you are aligned at the top from a mission standpoint, it really makes it easy to do business. People buy from people, and we make sure our purpose is directly from the heart. I look after different segments that cut across multiple geographies and have different needs but one mission: to make people’s lives better and transform their digital experiences.”
“Most of our clients are venturing into new lines of business, for example financial services, where we leverage data, trust and distribution with telcos, retailers and marketplaces. They have strong ambitions and we support them in bringing their visions to life!”
The human aspect of technology and its transformative impact
Amnah stresses the collective responsibility to ensure technology advances inclusively, sharing a personal experience of using AI image generation to emphasise the importance of fair representation in technology. The need to train AI models to avoid replicating historical bias data, and the need for ongoing research and leadership efforts to rectify biases in AI.
“I’m a passionate believer that artificial intelligence would redefine every possible industry in every possible way,” says Amnah.
Who is Who
Amnah Ajmal is the Executive Vice President, Market Development, EEMEA at Mastercard.
Prior to joining Mastercard she was heading the consumer bank franchise for Standard Chartered Malaysia responsible for end-end P&L. Prior to Standard Chartered, Amnah worked at Citigroup in UAE, Egypt, UK and Poland. She held a number of positions at Citigroup including Asset Business Head for Poland responsible for full range of consumer asset products, innovation and distribution including credit cards, co brands, personal loans and mortgages.
She was honored to be listed as the top 100 women in Fintech, across the globe, for 2019 by Lattice80 and recognized as the top 25 women leaders in financial technology by the Financial Technology Report US for 2019 & 2020. She was recently recognized as the top 100 women in fintech, across the globe, for 2021 by IBM & Fintech magazine. She also holds the honor of being in America’s top 10 women in Fintech by the Fintech Magazine for 2020.
source: fintechmagazine.com
