Mastercard appoints insider Ling Hai CFO in leadership reshuffle

June 2 (Reuters) - Mastercard named Ling Hai as chief financial officer on Tuesday to succeed Sachin Mehra, who will step into the newly created role of chief business officer, as the payments giant reshuffles leadership as part of a management restructuring.

The reorganization, effective August 3, is aimed at strengthening customer focus operations under a single leadership structure and improving coordination across markets.

"The changes to the management team signal to us that Mastercard is moving to unify its customer focus across all markets," said RBC Capital Markets analyst Daniel R. Perlin.

Ling Hai, who has extensive international operating experience, previously led Mastercard's business across Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Mehra, who has been CFO since 2019, will now oversee global country operations as well as sales enablement, partnerships and digital commercialization under a unified go-to-market leadership structure, Mastercard said.

As part of the reorganization, Linda Kirkpatrick, president of the Americas, will become chief services officer, taking over from Craig Vosburg.

Perlin said the changes could be positive if they result in improved regional interoperability and deeper enterprise relationships with global customers.

The reshuffle comes as Mastercard is investing in stablecoins and expanding its commercial payments and services businesses as it seeks growth beyond its traditional card-network operations.

Growing regulatory clarity and wider adoption of stablecoins have also created new opportunities in digital payments, prompting Mastercard and rival Visa to compete for an early advantage in the sector.

In April, Mastercard reported first-quarter profit above Wall Street estimates as resilient consumer spending helped sustain transaction volumes across its payments network.

However, a surge in global energy prices is raising concerns that consumer spending strength may come under pressure, leading to an uncertain economic outlook.

(Reporting by Prakhar Srivastava and Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)