Advertise on podcast: 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 has long been central to Qualco's platforms through machine learning and analytics, with generative AI now being embedded to further enhance workflows and decisioning. Looking ahead, Qualco plans to scale AI-native, cloud-based SaaS solutions globally. A recent milestone is their partnership with France Contentieux, consolidating fragmented systems into a unified, automated collections platform reinforcing Qualco's growing footprint across Europe.

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: European banks focus on efficiency and compliance, Middle Eastern banks on growth, and African institutions on financial inclusion. nCino's competitive edge lies in its vast banking dataset, unified data model, and a three-phase AI roadmap from staff productivity tools to agentic AI and ultimately autonomous banking systems. The biggest industry challenge remains balancing rapid innovation with the security and stability that banking demands.

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 Delivery & Risk Officer of Singapore-based digital banking solutions provider audax. Banks must address their core infrastructure to compete effectively while meeting customers’ increasing digital expectations.

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, CEO of cloud-native, software-as-a-service (SaaS) core banking platform Mambu speaks to Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence.

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-founder of Mudrex, to explore the role of CBDCs in addressing inefficiencies in the financial system, their impact on banks and payment ecosystems, and the emerging opportunities for fintechs. They also discuss the balance between privacy and control, the coexistence of CBDCs and cryptocurrencies, and what it will take for India’s Digital Rupee to scale meaningfully in the years ahead.

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 sustainable data center operations by reducing power consumption through decentralized setups in suburban areas. IOWN’s infrastructure will also enhance security, operational resilience, and disaster recovery. The technology aims to provide banks with high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity for AI computing, improving business continuity and data management. While large-scale deployment may take a few years, IOWN is positioning itself as a key enabler for the next generation of digital financial services

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 and President Mac Thompson speaks to Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence.

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 Intelligence discusses how transparency and better data are reshaping credit, lending, and portfolio management with Rajiv Bhat of martini.ai.

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. With insights on AI-driven decision-making models, the episode also highlights the balance between speed and responsible risk management. As financial institutions scale globally, the need for innovation and regulatory adaptability becomes even more critical.   Discover how AI is not just enhancing but revolutionizing banking and financial services for the future.

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 across $30bn disbursements and 15+ diverse financial ecosystems, offering insights into legacy modernization, modular architecture, cloud adoption, and effective data strategies.    With an eye on global expansion, Veefin is focused on deepening product innovation and forming strategic partnerships in emerging markets like Africa and Asia. Tune in to discover how AI is reshaping the landscape of working capital finance and driving growth across global financial ecosystems.

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 next phase of banking across the Middle East.

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 and Co-Founder of Gieom Business Solutions, about embedding AI-driven intelligence into compliance and resilience frameworks, navigating complex global regulations and emerging RBI guidelines, and how financial institutions can move from reactive, deadline-driven compliance to building transparent, future-ready resilience operating models.

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, automating sweeps, and reconciling in real time. The company’s recon-first architecture replaces end-of-day processes with continuous, rule-driven matching. We also examine how Escrow-as-a-Service is opening secure, conditional fund flows to MSMEs, startups, and real estate players - capabilities once limited to large corporates. With 220+ clients and 40+ bank integrations, TransBnk is positioning itself as a treasury operating layer, built compliance-first and API-driven. The larger ambition is clear: democratise sophisticated banking infrastructure and make intelligent money movement accessible at scale.

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 control to institutions through configurable, low-code tools like Uncia Studio. We also explore how the Pay-As-You-Grow model is reshaping cost economics for SME lenders and NBFCs, turning technology from upfront capex into scalable opex. The broader shift? Lending platforms are evolving from static systems into adaptive ecosystems - where cloud, AI, and embedded learning quietly redefine how credit is designed, deployed, and scaled.