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Couchonomics with Arjun
Decoding the New World Order of Finance - Unfiltered, global, weekly
As tectonic shifts reshape the financial world, Couchonomics continues to explore the trends transforming commerce, capital, and culture. This season, we expand our lens - building on our deep focus in the MENA region while bringing in voices, stories, and innovations from around the globe.
Why? Because the future of finance is no longer regional - it’s interconnected.
Whether it’s AI in Asia, tokenization in Europe, or fintech policy experiments in Africa, today’s financial shifts cross borders, industries, and disciplines.
Whether you’re in the industry or just fintech-curious, tune in weekly as we decode the big moves, bold ideas, and brilliant minds shaping tomorrow’s economy.
Episodes drop weekly. Arabic subtitles available on YouTube: youtube.com/@couchonomicswitharjunsingh438
Learn more: www.couchonomics.com
Season 4 supported by:
Adyen | Mastercard | SC Ventures | Thunes | Hala | e& | Digit 9
About the host:
Arjun's expertise covers a broad range of areas including Fintech, Payments, Digital Assets, Embedded Finance, Application of Emerging Technologies, and the Emergence of New Business Models within the Financial Services Sector in the MEA region and globally.
Arjun is deeply engaged in the Tech Start-Up ecosystem. He serves as a passive investor, advisory board member, and a notable commentator on the rapidly evolving scene.
In recognition of his impactful contributions, Arjun was honored as a Top Voice of the region by LinkedIn in 2020.
Learn more at www.couchonomics.com.
Couchonomics with Arjun
How One Platform Went From 5,000 Cards to Powering Global Banks
Core banking is no longer a back-office topic.
Cloud, payments, AI and digital assets are forcing banks to rethink the foundations of how money moves.
In this episode, Arjun sits down with Vishal Dalal, Global CEO of Pismo, to unpack the evolution of modern core banking, the rise of cloud-native architectures, and why migration, resilience and payments complexity are the real bottlenecks shaping the future.
From a startup getting thrown out of buildings in Brazil to powering global banks across 70 plus countries, Vishal breaks down the hard truths of building critical infrastructure in a world that expects zero downtime, instant scalability and absolute safety.
In this episode:
• How Pismo went from a 5,000-card pilot to powering tens of millions of accounts
• Why resilience, recovery and disaster readiness are now core banking table stakes
• The real challenges of migrating 200 million accounts from legacy systems
• Why every country building its own payment rails increases global complexity
• How stablecoins, tokenized deposits and CBDCs force a rethink of the entire backend
• Why digital assets and real-time settlement are pulling core banking into a new era
• How AI is reshaping migrations, operations, debugging and developer speed
• Why being cloud-only opens some markets and immediately disqualifies others
• How leaders should balance velocity with safety in a geopolitical environment full of risk
👉 Watch now to understand the next chapter of core banking.
#CouchonomicsWithArjun #Banking #CoreBanking #Fintech #Payments #Cloud #AI #DigitalAssets #Stablecoins #CBDC #Migration #FutureOfFinance #Innovation
Partners
Couchonomics with Arjun Season 04 is brought to you by:
Adyen → https://www.adyen.com/
Thunes → https://thunes.com/
Mastercard → https://mastercard.com/
E& → https://www.eand.com/
Digit9 → https://www.digitnine.com/
SC Ventures → https://scventures.io/
Hala → https://hala.com/
Follow us on social media
Arjun’s LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/arjunvirsingh/
Couchonomics LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/couchonomics-with-arjun-singh/
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/couchonomics/
Twitter → https://twitter.com/Arjun_Vir_Singh
TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@couchonomics
Newsletter → https://bit.ly/3WI4A6E
Chapters
00:00 The Pismo origin story and early Brazil journey
02:00 Winning trust through a 5,000-card pilot
04:00 Landing Itaú and scaling to millions of accounts
06:00 Citi’s 76-country ledger and going global
08:00 What modern core banking must deliver today
12:00 The realities of migrating from legacy mainframes
16:00 Payments rails, localization and rising global complexity
20:00 How digital assets, stablecoins and CBDCs reshape the backend
26:00 AI’s impact on migrations, operations and developer speed
34:00 Why safety, resilience and governance
Our website 👉 https://bit.ly/3jk7UH0
Find us on our social media platforms:
- Arjun's LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/arjunvirsingh/
- CCN LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/couchonomics-with-arjun-singh/
- Instagram https://www.instagram.com/couchonomics/
- Twitter https://twitter.com/Arjun_Vir_Singh?s=20
- TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@couchonomics
Subscribe to Arjun's LinkedIn newsletter, Couchonomics Crunch: https://bit.ly/3WI4A6E
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