Mastercard Chief Financial Officer Ling Hai, who assumed the position on August 3, 2026, addressed investor queries regarding national payment systems by citing the company's infrastructure partnership in the United Arab Emirates. Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference, Hai stated that the UAE serves as a playbook for working within domestic payment sovereignty initiatives and could be replicated across other international markets.
In the UAE, Al Etihad Payments (AEP), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Central Bank of the UAE, owns and operates the national card switch and domestic scheme Jaywan. Following the rollout of co-branded debit and prepaid cards in March 2025, AEP announced an expanded partnership on July 21, 2026, covering switching and processing infrastructure and establishing a new Mastercard network node in the UAE. Hai reported that Mastercard entered a joint venture with AEP with a routing mandate for debit transactions, stating that upon completion of the implementation, Mastercard will process almost 100% of domestic debit transactions.
Mastercard is not the exclusive partner of the UAE payments entity. On the same date as Mastercard's July 2026 announcement, UnionPay International signed a memorandum of understanding with AEP to enable acceptance of Jaywan single-branded cards across UnionPay's international network, while also broadening issuance of co-branded UnionPay-Jaywan cards after executing their first transaction in November 2025.
Hai also referenced Mastercard's domestic positioning in China, where its joint venture with NetsUnion Clearing Corp. obtained a bank card clearing license from the People's Bank of China on November 17, 2023. As of September 10, 2026, Hai noted that international cards could be used via tap-to-ride payment on public transit networks in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu, characterizing Chinese domestic processing as a medium-term revenue opportunity that underpins outbound international card spending.
Sources
- TIKR.com · 2026-09-28
