IBS Intelligence Global FinTech Interviews

Raj Jathar, SVP Sales Engineering, Azentio   In an era of geopolitical volatility, cyber risk, and regulatory pressure, Puja Sharma speaks with Raj Jathar, SVP Sales Engineering at Azentio, on redefining tech resilience through strategic partnerships, domain expertise, and modernisation that balances compliance, continuity, and customer trust.

Qualco, founded 25 years ago in collections technology, has evolved into a full-spectrum FinTech partner covering the entire credit value chain. Deputy CEO Spyros Retzekas credits this growth to client intimacy, local market understanding, and disciplined international expansion. The company differentiates itself by working closely alongside clients rather than operating as a distant vendor. AI ha...

Joaquin de Valenzuela, nCino's MD EMEA, reflects on his first year highlighting the platform's impact, bankers save 8–10 hours weekly through AI tools. nCino serves over 2,700 customers globally, with banks originating more than $3 trillion in loans on the platform. Cloud-native architecture enables continuous innovation and automatic compliance updates. Across EMEA, priorities differ: E...

Fernando Zandona, Chief Executive Officer, Mambu Securing the future of your bank means securing the next generation of customers. It is a fact that once people pick a bank, they very rarely switch. But how should incumbents square up to the challenges posed by the rush of neobanks coming to the market? How best to pivot without losing sight of core compliance, trust and scale? Fernando Zandona, C...

Karthik Sethuraman, Chief Delivery & Risk Officer, audax Financial Technology Banks now view failure to modernise core systems as an existential risk. In APAC, 93% of banking leaders admitting the right platform is critical to future success – presumably the remaining 7% are contemplating career change! Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence talks banking transformation with Karthik Sethuraman, Chief...

Edul Patel, CEO & Co-founder, Mudrex As central banks globally explore digital currencies, India’s Digital Rupee pilot marks a significant step toward rethinking monetary infrastructure. Beyond faster payments, CBDCs have the potential to reshape settlement systems, enable programmability, and unlock new fintech innovation. In this episode, Vriti Gothi speaks with Edul Patel, CEO & Co-foun...

Masahisa Kawashima, IOWN Technology Director at NTT, discusses how IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network) technology will transform financial services. IOWN's photonic infrastructure enables high-speed, low-latency, and highly reliable data transfer, essential for financial institutions requiring seamless AI and data-driven operations. It allows for efficient, scalable, and sustainabl...

Mac Thompson, Founder & President, White Clay Consolidation in the banking and finance sector is set to continue. Around 180 bank deals were announced in 2025 and there are going to be more to come in 2026. The pressing need to take advantage of developing technologies is one notable cost factor that may drive smaller institutions into the arms of their larger counterparts. White Clay Founder...

Rajiv Bhat, CEO, martini.ai Describing itself as the world's broadest and fastest risk engine, martini.ai aims to redefine how financial professionals access and interpret credit risk data through a free, platform. CEO Rajiv Bhat is leading a movement toward open, transparent credit data as investors and lenders around the world seek real-time visibility into risk. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intellig...

In this episode of The Big Interview, Raja Debnath, MD, and Chairperson of Veefin Group, discusses the evolving future of working capital management, where AI and automation are becoming central to financial stability. He highlights how Veefin is leading AI-driven risk control and multi-lender orchestration to transform liquidity management for MSMEs. He also shares key lessons from scaling Veefin...

As artificial intelligence continues to make waves in the banking sector, this episode dives into how it’s reshaping working capital management. We discuss how AI, APIs, and automation are unlocking new efficiencies in liquidity, supply chain resilience, and sustainable finance. The conversation covers AI’s transformative role in improving credit scoring, fraud detection, and operational agility....

Navigating Bank Partnerships - A West Asia FinTech Guide: The latest from IBSi Perspectives, offers a strategic view of how FinTechs must navigate geopolitical uncertainty while strengthening their relationships with Banks in the region. It provides practical insights on how FinTech firms can work with banks, focusing on partnerships, regulatory considerations, and evolving priorities shaping the...

Bhavana Mallesh, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Gieom Business Solutions Private Ltd.  As regulatory expectations shift from periodic compliance to continuous supervision, financial institutions are rethinking how they manage operational resilience, risk governance and regulatory accountability. Against this backdrop, Puja Sharma speaks with Bhavana Mallesh, Chief Technology Officer an...

Vaibhav Tambe, Co-founder & CEO, TransBnk What happens when money becomes programmable? In this edition of The Big Interview, we spotlight how TransBnk is re-engineering transaction banking from the ground up. Speaking with Co-founder and CEO Vaibhav Tambe, we explore how programmable finance allows businesses to embed logic directly into payments - releasing funds on milestone verification, a...

Hari Padmanabhan, Founder – Chairman, Uncia The discussion moves beyond buzzwords like AI and cloud-native, arguing that most institutions are still in early transformation stages. True AI-driven lending, he suggests, will emerge only when every transaction continuously trains the system. Uncia’s Zero Implementation and Self-Serve model challenges traditional, time-heavy deployments - shifting con...

Brajesh Khandelwal, EVP and Head – Lending Intellect Consumer Banking, Intellect Design Arena Limited As artificial intelligence reshapes the future of lending, financial institutions are rethinking how credit is assessed and delivered across underserved sectors. Against this backdrop, Puja Sharma speaks with Brajesh Khandelwal, EVP and Head – Lending at Intellect Design Arena, about embedding AI...

Sundararajan S., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of i-exceed technology solutions i-exceed explores the future of digital banking through three key pillars: AI-powered personal financial management, real-time risk mitigation, and unified customer profiles. By leveraging predictive AI and low-code platforms like Appzillon, banks can modernize quickly while maintaining transparency, enhancing...

Raj MKK, CEO of CreditNirvana.ai, discusses how agentic AI is reshaping the credit and collections cycle by replacing manual, fragmented workflows with autonomous, hyper-personalised recovery processes. Focusing on India and Southeast Asia, he highlights the role of multilingual voice intelligence in overcoming regional language barriers, improving compliance, and enhancing borrower experience. Ra...

Ashish Lath, Founder & CEO, SaveSage Loyalty programmes and credit card rewards promise value, but for many consumers, the reality is complexity, fragmentation, and missed opportunities. As digital finance evolves, technology is beginning to change how users track rewards, optimise spending, and make more informed credit decisions. In this episode, Vriti Gothi speaks with Ashish Lath, Founder...

Debiprasad Sarangi, Founder and CEO, iServeU From soundboxes in small-town kirana stores to APIs running national banks, India’s FinTech stack is quietly rewriting how participation scales. Puja Sharma speaks with Debiprasad Sarangi of iServeU, on the infrastructure powering this shift.

Piyush Bagaria, Co-founder, SalarySe   Salary-linked finance is reshaping how Indian employers think about retention, responsibility, and financial wellbeing. Puja Sharma speaks with Piyush Bagaria, Co-founder, SalarySe, on how salary-linked finance is pushing financial wellness from the HR desk to the boardroom. 

Kevin Flood, Director of Payments Ecosystem Strategy, FIS For years, banks have been pouring money into app development, yet the next revolution in customer interaction may not happen in an app at all. A global shift is underway towards conversational finance – where relationships begin and end in a message thread. Consumers don’t want to download another app, they want to chat, ask and act. Robin...

Siddharth Ugrankar, CEO & Co-Founder, Qila.io Blockchain has long been associated with hype and experimentation, but its real value is now emerging in highly regulated environments like banking, insurance, and financial services. As institutions prioritise security, compliance, and transparency, enterprise-grade blockchain is becoming a practical foundation for next-generation financial infras...

Anar Qasem, Vice President of MENA, Cleareye.ai Trade-based money laundering is how criminals move dirty money across borders disguised as legitimate trade. Banks are spending millions but are still missing most suspicious activities, in part because 80% of global trade operates on open account terms with minimal documentation. So, what can be done? Anar Qasem, Vice President of MENA for Cleareye....

Jeeja Gopinath, Managing Director, Zentis AI & Techvantage.ai Artificial Intelligence is moving beyond experimentation to become a core driver of transformation across banking, financial services, and FinTech. But as institutions grapple with legacy systems, regulatory scrutiny, and the need for responsible innovation, translating AI vision into real-world impact remains a challenge. In this e...