Open to opportunities · Netherlands · Germany · UAE · United Kingdom
Pranjal Kumar Senior Product Manager · Payments
I lead product strategy for issuing, tokenization, and core payment processing platforms powering next-generation cards, wallets, and agentic AI payments at Mastercard Principal Member level.
Senior Product Manager with 20+ years in technology and 13+ years in fintech, specializing in card issuing, cross-border payments, payment orchestration, digital wallets, and virtual cards. Deep expertise across SEPA, SWIFT, ISO 20022, Open Banking, Tokenization, Embedded Finance, AML/KYC, fraud prevention, and instant payments, delivering secure, compliant, and scalable payment platforms that process billions in transaction volume.
A BNPL app's customer applies for a prepaid card inside the app. KYC is shared with the issuer, the issuer re-screens, creates the card in its vault and HSM, ships a numberless plastic and funds it. Switch the screening outcome, form factor and funding model to see how the issuer's side changes.
Screening outcome
Form factor
Funds held by
KYC reliance ≠ accountabilityThe BNPL app captures KYC, but the issuer still owns the AML decision. Every applicant is re-screened, and the reliance reference is kept for audit.
Numberless by designNo PAN, CVC or expiry is printed. Details appear only in the issuer SDK's secure view, so the programme manager's backend stays out of PCI DSS scope.
Minor units, real currenciesBHD carries three decimals and AED/SAR two. Every amount travels as minor units plus the ISO 4217 code, so 50.000 BHD never turns into 50.00.
Token Platform
Apple Pay on an Issuer-Processor Stack
Where each issuer-side service sits in a card-add, an in-app push, a tap and a token kill, and exactly what data crosses each hop. Teal tiles are the services we build and run; grey tiles are Apple, Mastercard and the merchant side.
Digitisation eligibility rules, FPAN-level velocity and balance, card-event triggers
EXTEND
Clearing
Carry token / DPAN data through settlement into client reconciliation
EXTEND
The architectural call
Take pre-digitisation as web services, not ISO network messages.
It versions independently of the 8583 stack, keeps token decisioning out of the auth engine's critical path, and narrows the cardholder data environment for PCI DSS.
The ISO path stays wired as a fallback if MDES web services are unreachable.
Signature System
Core Card Payments
A MT-0100 travels six hops from tap to decision. I sit on the functional side of this exact platform at Infinios — at every hop below, I own the business rules, controls and approval strategy; my engineering team implements them at the switch.
Card Payment Flow
Money Movement
Authorization vs Capture vs Settlement
Three phases carry one payment from a hold to real money in the merchant's account. The glowing pulses trace each flow — the 0110 response looping back to the merchant, down into capture, and back up through settlement.
Card Program
Corporate Cards
A transaction moves from the cardholder's tap through the merchant POS and Mastercard's network to the card issuer for a real-time approve/decline decision. Spend policies are enforced live — a Controls Management App sets per-card limits and keeps the ERP synced on every change. Every outcome, approved or declined, streams into Dashboard & Reports and reconciles back to the ERP automatically, providing full visibility, zero manual matching.
Card Program
e-Wallet: Travel Cards
A multi-currency virtual card linked to an e-wallet app. Customers load local currency, convert into any major currency (USD, EUR, GBP, SGD, JPY, AUD, CAD, CHF) at standard FX rates, spend on POS and online worldwide, then unload back at any time — the wallet keeps a live, running balance across every currency the customer is holding.
The Message Layer
ISO 8583, Field by Field
Select a data element to see what it carries. This is the message my platform runs on — read from the product and functional side: what each field means for decisioning, compliance and the cardholder experience.
Field values are illustrative. Blue-edged fields are ones whose business logic (rules, controls, decisioning) I define from the product side.
Cross-Border & Compliance
Cross-Border Payment Solutions
From a customer instruction to funds landing with the recipient — the compliance and routing chain a cross-border payment runs through, and where it lands on SEPA, Faster Payments, ACH or SWIFT rails.
Cross-Border Payment Flow
Local Rails
Local Payments - Eurozone
Local Euro payments are processed as real-time Account-to-Account (A2A) bank transfers over domestic payment schemes (e.g., iDEAL, Bancontact, Bizum), with funds moving directly between bank accounts via SEPA rails—no card networks involved. Customers authenticate using their banking app or registered mobile number (e.g., Bizum), enabling secure instant payments without entering card details, PANs, or CVVs.
Teal loops show funds circulating within a country's own domestic scheme; red dashed lines mark borders local switches cannot cross — each Eurozone country settles only through its own rail.
Enterprise Integration
Integrated Payment Solutions For ERPs
ERPs (SAP, Oracle, Dynamics, etc.) generate approved supplier payment instructions and send them to the payment integration platform via APIs or ISO 20022/file-based interfaces. The payment integration platform validates, screens, approves, routes, and executes payments through the most appropriate banking rail (e.g., SEPA, SWIFT, ACH, or instant payments). Payment confirmations and settlement statuses are returned to the ERP for automatic reconciliation, financial posting, and end-to-end payment visibility.
Proven Impact
Key Accomplishments
35%
Reduction in Unauthorized Transactions — Architected a multi-layer rules engine (program, funding, card level) for real-time spend controls.
100K
Seafarers on E-Wallet Platform — Led 12-member team developing global salary transfer app, improving FX rates and fund availability.
15%
Authorization Approval Uplift — Decline-pattern analysis, routing fixes and velocity tuning lifted issuer approval rates — tracked live to EXCO via Power BI.
60%
Reduction in Manual Operations — Automated funding workflows and decline analysis, freeing teams from repetitive manual effort.
80%
Invoicing Process Efficiency — Revamped invoicing automation achieving 99.9% pricing accuracy across 50M+ transactions.
T+0
Stablecoin Settlement, No SWIFT — Delivered stablecoin–Mastercard integration enabling near-real-time cross-border settlement, eliminating legacy SWIFT dependencies and fees.
0→1
New Card-Programme Revenue Line — Scaled card and wallet infrastructure via bulk issuance, tokenized prepaid cards, and SVA/e-wallet architecture into a recurring revenue stream.
45%
Reporting Efficiency Boost — Transitioned legacy Financial & HR systems to Oracle Fusion + HCM Cloud across 600+ employees.
4 Wks
Budgeting Cycle Cut — Led enterprise Anaplan FP&A implementation consolidating 4 business groups and 30+ financial reports.
Built the core payments platform covering card issuance, tokenization, settlement and wallet infrastructure for crypto exchange and Travel GDS clients globally.
Delivered a unified crypto + fiat embedded wallet and card — enabling clients to spend digital and traditional currencies under one card experience.
Replaced SWIFT with Mastercard stablecoin cross-border settlement — saving ~$35K annually while improving settlement speed and reducing FX exposure.
Launched PAN-less, multi-currency prepaid cards for crypto clients — a 0→1 embedded payments product with real-time spend controls and compliance built in.
Architected a multi-layer rules engine (program, funding, card level) — cutting unauthorized transactions by 35%.
Launched high-value single-use VCNs (up to 100K BHD) for premium GCC clients — secure, large-ticket instant cross-border payments with merchant-level controls.
Led Apple Pay integration via MDES — enabling tokenized embedded wallet provisioning across regulated markets.
Integrated the payment gateway with Mastercard MPGS — improving cross-border settlement speed and cutting reconciliation errors by 30%.
Product Manager — Payments & Finance Platforms
Marcura Group
Jan 2015 – Aug 2024
Led a 12-member team to build a SEPA-linked embedded e-wallet and Mastercard co-issued card programme (MarTrust) for 100K+ seafarers, live for spend and cash withdrawal across Globe.
Directed cross-border payment integration across trust accounts — 3 payment channels with fallback routing, raising FX margins 20% and transaction efficiency 85%.
Incorporated Amazon Payment Services (Payfort) as an embedded merchant acquiring gateway to receive global customer card payments.
Automated Revenue and Cross-Border Payment Volume reporting for each Customer and Product, Month-on-Month and Year-on-Year.
Analyzed transaction data to identify and mitigate fraud patterns and chargebacks across payment channels.
Oversaw the full lifecycle of payment system integration to improve transaction processing.
Embedded auto-debit payment collection directly into customer virtual accounts, automating invoice settlement and saving bank charges.
Incorporated card payment acceptance into the invoicing platform, increasing cash flow by $2M annually.
Product Owner
DA-Desk (a Marcura Group company)
Oct 2012 – Dec 2014
Owned SEPA and ACH settlement analysis for banking account reconciliation, consuming MT940/941/942 and ISO 20022 message files across customer accounts.
Ran transaction and volume analysis on ACH and SEPA settlements to track cross-border disbursement flows for global shipping agents.
Built a "Financial Dashboard" giving real-time visibility into payment transactions processed per customer, daily.
Owned the end-to-end product lifecycle for the DA-Desk digital disbursement payments platform — sprint planning, execution and delivery across bi-weekly agile sprints.
Delivered 10+ EPICs for payment-platform upgrades, prioritizing the user stories with the highest impact on transaction processing.
Conducted rigorous UAT on payment and settlement workflows to catch defects before deployment, minimizing production issues.
Maintained minimal production downtime on the payments platform, protecting daily disbursement operations and customer satisfaction.
Bridged DA-Desk's cross-border disbursement processing with Marcura's group-wide financial and payments reporting.
Technical Lead — VLSI & Semiconductor
Wipro Technologies (Intel) · Cyient
Jun 2005 – Aug 2011
Part of Intel Ivy Bridge R&D — first layout team on 45nm/32nm fabs globally. Awarded Best Individual Contributor.
Layout design for Mobile processors, SRAM/DRAM memory compilers across 28nm–90nm technologies.
Network Engineering
HCLTech · vCustomer
Sep 2003 – Jul 2004
CCNA Certified.
Providing Network and Infrastructure support to End user of Cisco Networking products
🤖 AI Strategy & Ethics📊 Data Science & Machine Learning🏅 Lloyd's Certified Internal Auditor🎖️ CSPO Certified
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Open to senior product leadership roles in FinTech, Digital Payments and Financial Technology —
across the Netherlands, Germany, the UAE and the United Kingdom, and open to global opportunities beyond. Open to relocation — NL Highly Skilled Migrant, German Blue Card, UK Skilled Worker sponsorship; UAE Golden Visa holder.
