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Available for engagements

Payments product leadership,
without the full-time overhead.

15+ years across Tier 1 banks, card networks, and fintech. I bring the business judgement and technical depth most teams can't afford to hire full-time — on the terms that fit you.

Work with me See the work
15+ Years in payments
600K+ Mobile users grown
2.7M+ Cards managed
Global MENA · EU · North America
Umer Qasim
Experience across
MCB Bank 8 Years
HBL Habib Bank
Visa Scheme cert.
Mastercard Issuing
EuroNet Card Host
1Link Scheme
How I work

The depth of a payments specialist. The speed of a fractional engagement.

Most payments problems aren't product problems or engineering problems — they're both. I work across both layers.

⚡

Fractional Product Manager

Embedded PM leadership, part-time. I own roadmaps, run discovery, align stakeholders, and ship — without the overhead of a full-time hire.

Ongoing retainer
🔎

Payments Product Audit

A structured 2–4 week diagnostic across your digital channels, card programme, or payment flows. Delivers a prioritised improvement backlog, not a deck.

Fixed scope
💳

Card Programme & Scheme Advisory

BIN management, scheme certification, Visa/Mastercard rules, issuer-processor relationships. I've built and run all of it.

Project or retainer
🗺️

Digital Banking Roadmap

Mobile banking, self-service channels, digital onboarding. Strategy that accounts for core banking constraints, not just product ideals.

4–8 weeks
👔

Full-Time / Permanent Role

Open to the right senior product leadership role in payments — remote preferred, global. Speak to me before the search firms do.

Remote preferred
"Umer brings a rare combination of strategic product thinking and deep technical knowledge of payment systems. He understands how things actually work — not just how they're supposed to work."
RS
Rabail Saeed Alchemative
Get started

Ready to talk about your payments challenge?

Most engagements start with a 30-minute call. No pitch, no deck — just a direct conversation about what you're trying to solve.

Book a call See case studies
Services

Five ways to work together

Engagements are scoped around your problem, not a packaged solution. No pricing on this page — that conversation starts with a call.

⚡

Fractional Product Manager

Ongoing, part-time PM leadership embedded in your team. I run product discovery, own the roadmap, manage stakeholder alignment, and stay accountable to outcomes — without the cost structure of a full-time hire. Works best for fintechs and banks building payment products who need senior PM capacity without a permanent headcount.

Part-time retainer · Ongoing
🔎

Payments Product Audit

A structured 2–4 week engagement to identify what's broken, slowing you down, or costing you money in your payment flows, digital channels, or card programme. I've run this at HBL across two entities in 10 weeks and delivered a 60+ item prioritised backlog. You get a working output, not a presentation.

Fixed scope · 2–4 weeks
💳

Card Programme & Scheme Advisory

Specialist advisory across card issuance, BIN management, Visa and Mastercard scheme certification, 4/5-party model structuring, and issuer-processor relationships. I've managed 2.7M+ cards across Visa and Mastercard and led PCI-DSS compliance end-to-end. Scoped per engagement — project or ongoing retainer.

Project or retainer · Scoped
🗺️

Digital Banking Roadmap & Strategy

Mobile banking, self-service channels, digital onboarding, customer journeys. I've grown a mobile app from 80,000 to 600,000+ users — the roadmap work behind that number was rooted in core banking constraints, not product theory. Typically 4–8 weeks.

Fixed project · 4–8 weeks
👔

Full-Time / Permanent Role

If you're looking for a senior payments product leader to join your team permanently, I'm open to the right opportunity. Remote preferred, global scope. I operate best where both technical depth and strategic product leadership are required.

Employment · Remote preferred

All engagements are available via Deel, Turing, US LLC, or direct contract. Payment in USD, AED, or Crypto.

Start a conversation
Work

Real engagements, real outcomes

No hypotheticals. Every number here is verifiable.

MCB Bank · 8 Years · Employment

Growing MCB Mobile from 80,000 to 600,000+ Users

Owned the full product lifecycle of MCB's mobile banking platform across eight years. The user growth was the outcome of compound decisions — digital onboarding that removed the branch visit requirement, a branch and contact centre rollout that added a human-assisted channel, and real-time fee deduction that closed renewal leakage. Behind those decisions: ISO 8583 host-to-host switching architecture, Visa and 1Link scheme certification, PCI-DSS compliance across issuing and acquiring, and a 20+ person cross-functional team built from scratch. The platform ran on FUNDAMO (now Visa) at 2M+ users before the final transition.

Mobile Banking Digital Onboarding ISO 8583 Visa Certification PCI-DSS Card Issuance FUNDAMO Product Lifecycle
Read full case study →
600K+Registered users grown
2.7M+Cards under management
2M+Users on FUNDAMO platform
4.1 ★Google Play rating
HBL — Habib Bank Limited · Consulting

Rapid Digital Banking Audit: Pakistan & UAE

Commissioned to run a compressed 10-week diagnostic across HBL's digital banking operations in Pakistan and UAE. Assessed mobile channels, customer onboarding journeys, card product gaps, cross-entity inconsistencies, and operational inefficiencies. Delivered a 60+ item prioritised improvement backlog to senior digital leadership — structured by impact, effort, and dependency. The engagement also covered the first-ever instant car loan approval flow in Pakistan's banking sector, built through HBL Mobile, and a WhatsApp Banking financial transaction proof of concept.

Digital Audit Product Strategy Digital Banking Mobile Banking WhatsApp Banking Multi-entity
Read full case study →
60+Item prioritised backlog
10 wksFull mandate delivered
2Entities — Pakistan & UAE
HitPixel LLC — US Fintech · Contract

NetValve Payment Gateway — MVP for High-Risk CNP Market

Led greenfield product development as Product Owner for NetValve, a new payment gateway entering the Card Not Present market for high-risk merchants in the US and EU. Owned the full product scope from zero — requirements, merchant onboarding flows, payment processing design, fraud controls, reporting, and delivery coordination through to live deployment. MVP delivered within committed timelines and went live October 2022.

Payment Gateway Card Not Present High-Risk Acquiring MVP Delivery US/EU Market Product Owner
Read full case study →
Oct '22MVP live — on schedule
US + EUMarkets served
🌐 netvalve.com
Banking Client · MENA · Freelance (Confidential)

Card Tokenization for Tap & Pay and E-Commerce

Leading product delivery for a multi-stakeholder tokenization programme at a MENA retail bank. Scope covers NFC Tap & Pay via the bank's mobile app using Mastercard MDES, and Card-on-File tokenization for e-commerce merchants. Coordinating across five organisations: the bank as card issuer and token requester, Mastercard as payment scheme and MDES wallet provider, Thales as SDK provider, EuroNet Worldwide as card host and processing engine, and Avanza Solutions as mobile development partner. Active delivery, ongoing.

Tokenization Mastercard MDES Tap & Pay NFC Payments Card-on-File E-Commerce EuroNet Thales SDK
Read full case study →
5Stakeholder organisations coordinated
2022–Active, ongoing
🔒 Client confidential
US Financial Institution · Freelance (Confidential)

Embedded Payments PM — Regulated US Financial Institution

Functioning as senior payments PM embedded within the product team of a US financial institution running a prepaid and banking programme. Work spans the full payments and compliance product surface: overdraft product redesign, 1099 reporting enhancements for regulatory compliance, Finastra debit card integration, Scheduled Payment Disclosures, MoneyPass ATM issue resolution, and Chat Support enablement. Also driving BRD development across Visa+, Mastercard Move cross-border services, FedNow RTP fraud working group participation, TBoM Suspicious Activity Reporting, and Zelle RTP fraud oversight. Compliance training completed across Reg Z, Reg E, Dodd-Frank/UDAAP, and BSA/AML.

Prepaid Banking Overdraft FedNow / RTP Visa+ Mastercard Move Finastra Reg Z / Reg E BSA / AML BRD Development
USRegulated financial institution
ActiveOngoing engagement
🔒 Client confidential
Full project history

27 projects across 7 engagements

The five case studies above are the highlights. Below is the complete record.

Digital Banking & Mobile
MCB Mobile — Upgrade to the Future
Debit card detachment, multiple account management, digital onboarding, eStatements — single multi-workstream delivery
MCB Bank
MCB Mobile Onboarding via Branch & Contact Centre
One-window registration system for branch staff and contact centre agents — designed and delivered end-to-end
MCB Bank
Real-Time Fee Deduction — MCB Mobile
Replaced manual fee process with automated real-time deduction for new issuance and renewal — closed P&L leakage
MCB Bank
FUNDAMO Platform Management
Product ownership of MCB Mobile's core platform — roadmap, vendor management, integration with core banking — 2M+ users
MCB Bank
MCB ATM / CDM Front-End Upgrade
UI and UX overhaul across entire ATM and CDM fleet — vendor scoping, approval, network-wide rollout
MCB Bank · Dec 2017
HBL Car Loan via HBL Mobile
First instant car loan approval flow in Pakistan's banking sector — end-to-end mobile application and decisioning
HBL
HBL WhatsApp Banking — Financial Transaction POC
Proof of concept for financial transaction capability via WhatsApp Banking channel
HBL
Card Issuance & Scheme Management
Visa Debit Card Issuance
Programme ownership across BIN management, card personalisation, scheme rule compliance, and Visa certification — 2.7M+ cards
MCB Bank
Card Tokenization — Tap & Pay & E-Commerce
Mastercard MDES tokenization for NFC mobile payments and Card-on-File e-commerce — multi-stakeholder active delivery
MENA Banking Client · Ongoing
Card Issuance Processor Operations
BIN lifecycle, MATICA card printing, Automailer dispatch, EuroNet Card Host relationship management
Card Issuance Processor · Ongoing
Finastra Debit Card Integration
Debit card interfacing with core banking systems via Finastra — BRD development and integration delivery
US Financial Institution · Ongoing
Payment Gateway & Acquiring
NetValve Payment Gateway — MVP
Greenfield payment gateway for high-risk CNP merchants in US/EU — Product Owner from zero to live, October 2022
HitPixel LLC
MCB eGate — Checkout.com Technology Partnership
Structured and delivered technology partnership — native checkout, ML risk platform, tokenization, real-time notifications
MCB Bank
MCB eGate — Payment Links
Payment link product enabling merchants without websites to accept digital payments — Django/MySQL/Angular, cloud deployed
MCB Bank
MCB eGate — Preferred Partner Program
Structured framework for strategic merchant and technology partnerships within the acquiring business
MCB Bank
UPI Enablement — MCB Payment Gateway
UPI acceptance capability on MCB's acquiring infrastructure — scheme integration and merchant enablement
MCB Bank
Compliance, Risk & Regulatory
PCI-DSS Compliance
Led full PCI-DSS compliance programme across card-issuing and acquiring at MCB Bank — cardholder data environments, remediation, certification
MCB Bank
BE AWARE, STAY SAFE — Fraud Awareness Initiative
National public service campaign to educate banking consumers on OTP, CVV, PIN, and phishing fraud — #BEAWARESTAYSAFE
MCB Bank · 2018
1099 Reporting Enhancements
Form 1099-INT reporting improvements — operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, Copy A release
US Financial Institution · Ongoing
Scheduled Payment Disclosures
Drafted and implemented consumer disclosures for scheduled transactions — Reg E and transparency compliance
US Financial Institution
TBoM Suspicious Activity Reporting
BRD development and release notes for suspicious activity reporting — BSA/AML compliance
US Financial Institution
Overdraft Revamp & Development
Comprehensive overdraft enhancement plan for prepaid programmes — CAdmin integration, compliance alignment, ongoing
US Financial Institution · Ongoing
Payments Infrastructure & Emerging
FedNow RTP Fraud Working Group
Active participation in FedNow real-time payments fraud working group — Zelle RTP fraud oversight and training
US Financial Institution · Ongoing
Visa+ Phase 6 — BRD Development
Business requirements documentation for Visa+ Phase 6 implementation
US Financial Institution
Mastercard Move — Cross-Border Services
BRD development for Mastercard Move send and cross-border payment services
US Financial Institution
MoneyPass ATM Issue Resolution
Identified and resolved ATM transaction reliability issues within the MoneyPass network
US Financial Institution
LLM-Powered Financial Automation — Payments SME
Embedded SME for a US enterprise AI company — validated LLM outputs against real-world payments workflows including checkout, settlements, disputes, fraud, and post-transaction operations. Assessed accuracy, compliance readiness, and production applicability of AI-generated financial processes.
Turing Enterprises
Credentials

Certifications & technical depth

📋

SAFe POPM

Scaled Agile Product Owner / Product Manager certification

💡

Design Thinking

Certified practitioner

🔒

PCI-DSS

Led compliance across card-issuing and acquiring at MCB Bank

💳

Visa & 1Link Certification

Scheme certification experience — both networks

⚙️

ISO 8583

Host-to-host switching architecture — designed and owned

Domain expertise
Digital BankingMobile Banking Card IssuanceCard Acquiring Virtual CardsTokenization Payment SchemesVisa Mastercard1Link ISO 8583ISO 20022 Payment GatewaysPayment Rails Cross-Border PaymentsRemittances Core BankingSelf-Service Channels PCI-DSS4/5 Party Model BIN ManagementEmbedded Finance FedNow / RTPAI / LLM
Writing

Payments infrastructure, decoded

Long-form pieces for product managers, engineers, and operators building in payments. No fluff. No theory for theory's sake.

Product

What a Payments Product Audit Actually Produces

Live
Architecture

The 4-Party vs 5-Party Payments Model — What It Actually Means for Your Product

Live
Digital Banking

Digital Onboarding in Banking: Why Most Banks Ship It Wrong

Live
Standards

ISO 8583 vs ISO 20022: What the Migration Means for Product Managers

Live
Hiring

Fractional PM vs Contractor vs Consultant — What Buyers Actually Need to Know

Live
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Let's talk about your payments challenge

Most engagements start with a 30-minute call. Tell me what you're working on.

  • 📍
    Lahore, Pakistan — available globally
  • 💼
    Available via Deel, Turing, US LLC, direct contract
  • 💳
    Payment: USD, AED, Crypto
  • 🔗
    linkedin.com/in/popm

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