Mr. Hemant Baijal is a Senior Business Leader, Global Public Policy at MasterCard. In this role he provides support to MasterCard business units and country operations on community outreach, public policy and advocacy issues related to payment systems development and financial inclusion. He also manages public policy relationships with key international organizations such as the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, IMF, World Bank, United Nations, G20, ITU, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, World Economic Forum, and others.
Prior to joining the MasterCard public policy team he was a Senior Payment Systems Specialist in the Payment Systems Development Group of the World Bank where he provided technical expertise and advice to various governments and international bodies on payment systems policy and payments infrastructure design. He was responsible for leading the development of the General Guidelines for Government Payment Programs. Additionally, he also contributed to the development of the World Bank’s mobile payments policy framework and Retail Payments Policy Package which includes technical advice to governments on addressing policy and payments infrastructure constraints in retail payments. While at the World Bank he co-authored a chapter on Innovation in Retail Payments which is featured in a reference book on payment systems and risk management for regulators – Payment Systems: Design, Governance and Oversight, edited by Bruce J. Summers.
Before joining the World Bank, he worked as a Global Product Manager for government prepaid programs at MasterCard for five years. During this time he was responsible for launching various government payment programs including the Direct Express program with the US Treasury for disbursement of social security benefits to the unbanked. Prior to MasterCard, he worked at Citi and JP Morgan to develop payment products and services catering to the government and corporate sectors.
