Raj Seshadri

Chief Commercial Payments Officer, Mastercard

Search every verified Raj Seshadri interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a September 2020 virtual session, Raj Seshadri, Chief Commercial Payments Officer at Mastercard, discussed the company's use of data and analytics. He stated that Mastercard processes roughly 87 billion transactions per year across 2.6 billion cards, and described the data collected as "very limited and anonymized" to protect individual privacy. Seshadri emphasized that "data itself is not a competitive advantage," arguing that the key is how organizations think about and deploy data. He also addressed security, noting that Mastercard uses a "multi-layered approach" including machine learning and acquisitions such as RiskRecon and Strategic to perform vulnerability scans. Seshadri commented on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, observing that the shift to touchless retail had "flipped traditional high-touch customer service on its head." He also discussed artificial intelligence, stating that Mastercard focuses on "minimizing biases and unintended consequences" by being deliberate about data use and analytical techniques. The session covered Mastercard's Spending Pulse report, which Seshadri said predicts retail market trends by combining Mastercard transaction data with third-party data to estimate total retail spend.