Mastercard chief product officer Michael Miebach will become CEO early next year, taking over from Ajay Banga, who is moving on to the role of executive chairman.
As part of the transition, Miebach will take over as president from Banga on 1 March, overseeing the sales, marketing, product, services and technology organisations.
Then, he will become CEO and a board member on 1 January, with Banga switching to executive chairman, replacing the retiring Richard Haythornthwaite.
Banga leaves the CEO position after a decade in the job, having previously been COO. Prior to Mastercard he worked for Citi.
Miebach is a 10 year-veteran at Mastercard who has also had long stints at Citi and Barclaycard.
Says Banga: "During the course of Michael’s 10 years at Mastercard, he has been a key architect of our multi-rail strategy-including leading the acquisition of Vocalink and the pending transaction with Nets-to address a broader set of payment flows."
News of the leadership transition comes a days after the payments giant warned that its 2020 revenues could be affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
“If the impact is limited to the first quarter only, we expect that our 2020 annual year-over-year net revenue growth rate would be at the low end of the low-teens range," says a statement.