Mastercard’s Michelle Meyer Becomes Company’s Chief Economist

Mastercard has named Michelle Meyer as its chief economist and head of its think tank.

In running the Mastercard Economics Institute, Meyer and her team will be responsible for delivering economic, financial policy and market thought leadership, the company said in a news release Wednesday (Nov. 29).

“The Mastercard Economics Institute helps businesses make sense of the macroeconomic climate and derive relevant information to address their needs,” said Raj Seshadri, president, Data & Services. “I have no doubt Michelle’s expertise and acute economic perspective will bring our global insights and analyses to new heights for our customers.”

Meyer joined Mastercard last year and has been serving as the company’s chief economist for North America. (Her name will be familiar to readers of PYMNTS’ retail sales coverage.)

Before Mastercard, she was head of U.S. economics at Bank of America Global Research and served as senior U.S. economist at Barclays Capital.

Mastercard released quarterly earnings last month which showed a “resilient” consumer boosting its revenues, even as it warned that spending was slowing.

As PYMNTS reported, the company’s earnings showed gross dollar volumes up 11% to $2.3 trillion from last year, while overall U.S. spending rose 5.4% across both debit and credit cards. Credit spending was up 6.8%, while debit climbed 3.9% from a year ago.

And CEO Michael Miebach said on a conference call with analysts that cross-border travel “remains strong” and coming in at 155% of 2019 levels in the third quarter.

He added that “we see substantial runway for growth through the long-term potential in person-to-merchant payments. The sizable opportunity to address new payment flows, our diverse suite of fast-growing service capabilities and our investments in areas of future growth like open banking and digital identity.”

Earlier this month, a company official gave an interview in which he said the widespread adoption of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) faces obstacles due to consumer comfort with traditional forms of money.

CBDCs would have to become as widely accepted as cash to ensure user convenience, Ashok Venkateswaran, Mastercard’s blockchain and digital assets lead for the Asia Pacific region, said in an interview with CNBC.