The 2040 Banker

“UPI itself is not a business. It is a public payment infrastructure - more like a highway. The money is made from everything around it.”

In this episode of The 2040 Banker, we sit down with Vivek, a seasoned banking and payments professional, to unpack how India’s payment ecosystem has evolved from net banking and OTP devices to an API-driven world - and where UPI, credit cards, RuPay and digital banking could take us next.We go beyond UPI transaction volumes to ask the bigger question: If UPI transactions don’t directly make money, where does the value actually come from?We explore how banks are using transaction data to understand customer behaviour, deepen relationships, cross-sell financial products and extend credit to customers who historically had little or no access to it.The conversation also dives into the economics of co-branded credit cards, why fintechs should view cards as a customer-acquisition and retention strategy rather than a short-term revenue play, how RuPay and UPI can strengthen each other, and why India’s next wave of growth may come from merchants and customers beyond the top of the pyramid.We also discuss the future of BHIM, UPI Circle, tokenisation, CBDCs, fraud prevention, bank-fintech partnerships and the role of trust in the next generation of digital payments.This is Season 2 of The 2040 Banker — a podcast exploring how global banking has evolved over the last two decades, and where it’s headed in the next one.Whether you work in banking, fintech, payments, lending, credit, risk, or digital financial services, this episode offers a deep look at the forces shaping India’s financial ecosystem — from payment infrastructure and customer data to credit, fraud, trust and the technologies that could define banking by 2040.👉 Subscribe for more conversations with banking and fintech leaders.👉 Tell us in the comments: **Will UPI and credit cards still coexist in 2040 - or will one ultimately dominate?**#UPI #DigitalPayments #CreditCards #RuPay #Fintech #Banking #DigitalBanking #Payments #2040Banker---Watch The 2040 Banker episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH1DwwQHLEcsYmp_Pq5mjYTAR9CHpG0ff🎧 Stream The 2040 Banker episodes onSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6o8MInqUz9xUOvSLMKvwQS?si=39dcd38634214445Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-2040-banker/id1770762072---💡 About Refo:Refo is a next generation digital banking core for embedded finance founded by fintech veterans and backed by advisors and angels from Google, ex-regulators and banking professionals.🌐 Check out RefoWebsite: https://www.refo.devLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/refo-inTwitter: https://x.com/RefoDev---Vivek on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivek-manchanda-8b9b20b/Nitin Sharma on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nitinsharma11/

“Balance sheet is history. Bank statement alone is a mystery. And bank statement coupled with bureau and GST data is artistry.”In this episode of The 2040 Banker, we sit down with Deepak, an experienced credit and lending professional, to unpack how MSME lending has transformed over the last two decades - from collateral and physical verification to data-driven underwriting, AI and digital footprints.We explore what makes MSME credit fundamentally different from retail lending, how lenders can balance fraud prevention with customer experience, and why the future of credit will depend on combining technology with human underwriting expertise.

This is Season 2 of The 2040 Banker - a podcast exploring how global banking has evolved over the last two decades, and where it's headed in the next one.Whether you work in banking, fintech, lending, credit, risk, or MSME finance, this episode offers a practical look at how data, AI and digital infrastructure are reshaping the way businesses access credit.

👉 Subscribe for more conversations with banking and fintech leaders

"The software itself never fails." In 25 years of large-scale bank transformation projects, that's the biggest lesson Manoj - Senior MD and Financial Services (FSI) lead at Accenture India - has learned.In this episode of The 2040 Banker, we go deep with Manoj on the last two and a half decades of Indian banking technology - from core banking implementation in the early 2000s, to mobile and API banking, to where AI agents are taking the industry by 2040.-------------------------------------------------------Watch The 2040 Banker episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH1DwwQHLEcsYmp_Pq5mjYTAR9CHpG0ff🎧 Stream The 2040 Banker episodes onSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6o8MInqUz9xUOvSLMKvwQS?si=39dcd38634214445Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-2040-banker/id1770762072-----------------------------------------------------💡 About Refo:Refo is a next generation digital banking core for embedded finance founded by fintech veterans and backed by advisors and angels from Google, ex-regulators and banking professionals.🌐 Check out RefoWebsite: https://www.refo.devLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/refo-inTwitter: https://x.com/RefoDev-----------------------------------------------------Manoj Bhadgaonkar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manoj-bhadgaonkar/Nitin Sharma on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nitinsharma11/

In this episode of The 2040 Banker, Vanamali Sridharan, CTO at Five Star Business Finance Limited, unpacks how banking has evolved, what still hasn’t changed, and what a truly customer-centric future might look like by 2040. From designing for Gen Z to the realities of embedded finance, this conversation explores the layers of modern banking, the cultural shifts required, and how trust — not branches — will define the banks of tomorrow.

In this episode of The 2040 Banker, Rich Nill, Ex-CIO at PNC, unpacks the evolving technology landscape in banking—especially the diverging paths of commercial and retail. From the shift toward platform thinking and modular cores to the challenges of real-time systems and technical debt, this conversation dives deep into what it takes to modernize core banking. Whether it’s Thought Machine, Zeta, or Refo, the future of credit stacks and decision engines is being reimagined. Tune in for an honest, tech-first view on where banking infrastructure is headed—and why the core transformation is a marathon, not a sprint.

In this episode of "The 2040 banker", Rohit Kilam, CTO-HDFC Life shares his experience across financial services and talks about how banking and insurance are related and what can we expect in the coming decade for insurance and banking tech.

Maxim Afanasyev, Financial Services Industry Head for JAPAC at Google Cloud shares deep insights on how cloud, real-time banking, and Gen AI are transforming the financial landscape. From tackling integration challenges and ensuring compliance at scale to exploring the future of banking in JAPAC vs America/EU, Maxim offers a compelling perspective on the hard tech problems banks face and the path ahead for digital transformation.

In our second episode in this series, Aman Narain (ex-Google, HSBC, Standard Chartered) shares with us his immense experience of Banking as an industry, his views on Global and Local banks, how Tech Companies are different than Banks, role of Aggregators and the Fintech Revolution, and the future of Banking.

In our first episode in this series, Rajeev Uberoi (ex-RBI, Citi, Standard Chartered) shares with us his immense experience of Banking as an industry, the Historical evolution, role of Globalization in Indian Banking context, how Public and Private banking institutions are vastly different, and the future of Banking.