MasterCard Inc., the second-biggest credit-card network, hired Ajay Banga, the former chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc.’s Asia Pacific unit, as president and chief operating officer.

Banga, 49, joins MasterCard on Aug. 31 and will report to Robert Selander, 58, who cedes the president’s title and continues as CEO, according to a statement from the Purchase, NY-based company. Banga may be Selander’s successor, a separate filing showed.

The company will give Banga a $4.2 million signing bonus and $4.9 million in restricted stock, according to a regulatory filing. He joined New York-based Citigroup in 1996 and was named to his most recent post in 2008, MasterCard said.

Citigroup, the recipient of $45 billion in US government rescue funds, lost more than half its stock-market value so far this year.

It closed $3.17, up 4 cents.