Accelerating innovation, greater resources and more expertise! Vishal Dalal, CEO, Pismo

By Robin Amlot

IBS Intelligence checked in with Pismo CEO Vishal Dalal to find out what’s been happening at Pismo since the firm’s acquisition by Visa just over a year ago.

In June 2023, Visa announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pismo, a cloud-native issuer processing and core banking platform with operations in Latin America, Asia Pacific and Europe, for $1 billion in cash.

The takeover of Pismo, which completed in January 2024, positioned Visa to provide core banking and issuer processing capabilities across debit, prepaid, credit and commercial cards for clients via cloud native APIs. Pismo’s platform also enables Visa to provide support and connectivity for emerging payment rails, like Pix in Brazil, for financial institution clients.

Vishal Dalal has been the CEO (North America, EMEA and APAC) at Pismo for more than four years. IBS Intelligence asked him how Pismo is faring as part of Visa: “It’s been an exciting journey. Visa is a global leader in payments, and it’s great to be part of their ecosystem. We now have access to greater resources, deeper expertise, and a network that helps accelerate our innovation.

“At the same time, we remain focused on what we do best—providing cutting-edge cloud-native banking and payments solutions. Visa’s support allows us to scale faster while staying true to our mission of empowering financial institutions with modern, flexible, and scalable infrastructure. It’s been a great alignment of vision, and we’re excited about what the future holds.”

How do you see AI changing banking? Will it make existing infrastructure obsolete?

“In my opinion AI isn’t about replacing infrastructure—it’s about enhancing and optimising it. AI relies on high-quality datasets—generated from transactions, user interactions, and the broader environment. Without that data, AI has no predictive power.

“What platforms like ours do is generate and manage this data, allowing AI to improve customer service, risk assessment, and operational efficiency. For example, AI can predict the next best product for a customer, assess transaction risks, and automate processes like payment verification.

“So rather than making existing infrastructure obsolete, AI is another tool to drive better outcomes.”

Can banks rely on platforms installed in the past few years to provide the stability needed to explore AI. Essentially, can legacy platforms support new technologies?

“I think it depends on the platform. Many legacy systems were built before AI was a major consideration, so integrating new technologies can be complex. However, legacy platforms can still play a role, particularly when paired or augmented with modern solutions that provide the flexibility to process and analyse data at scale.

“That’s where platforms like ours come in. We are designed to handle vast amounts of data and integrate seamlessly with the digital ecosystem via APIs. These make it easier to process large datasets, which is critical for AI adoption.

“So, while legacy systems may provide baseline stability, banks looking to fully leverage AI often benefit from working with cloud-native, API-first platforms that enable faster, more efficient data processing.”

Another trend in recent years has been financial institutions launching ‘greenfield’ banks to test new tech. Do you see another wave of that happening with platforms like microservices and APIs?
“I think companies will always need to test new technologies, but the approach is evolving. Rather than launching entirely new greenfield operations, many institutions now focus on high-speed proof-ofconcepts (PoCs) that allow them to validate new technologies quickly and cost-effectively.

“Greenfield projects still have their place, particularly when institutions want to experiment with completely new business models. However, in many cases, a well-executed PoC can provide the same insights with less risk and investment. Our role is to enable that process—helping banks experiment without requiring massive upfront commitments of time and resources.”

How important is it for new solutions to be on the cloud? Has on-prem had its day?

“The first thing to say is that cloud has clear advantages—scalability, resilience, and cost efficiency among them. We wouldn’t have built our business model around it otherwise. But to say on-prem has ‘had its day’ is slightly reductive. It still has a role, especially in regulated environments where data residency and compliance requirements are stringent.

“Our perspective, and the reason we’ve built a cloud-native platform, is that cloud offers the flexibility modern financial institutions need. It allows businesses to scale rapidly, optimise costs, and build resilient infrastructure. For instance, if there’s an outage in one region, cloudbased systems can seamlessly shift operations to another data centre without disruption.

“That said, we recognise that every financial institution has different needs, and in some cases, hybrid models make sense. The key is ensuring that the underlying architecture—whether cloud, on-prem, or hybrid—can support agility and innovation.”

How do microservices-based solutions help future-proof banking?

“Microservices are designed to do one thing and do that one thing exceptionally well. Each has a single responsibility, whether it’s calculating a balance, retrieving data, or processing a transaction.

“Because they’re contract-driven, they remain stable even as technology evolves. This modular approach allows banks to maintain essential functions while continuously building on top of them. That’s why we see microservices as the future: they provide a stable foundation for rapid innovation while keeping core processes efficient and scalable.”

How are you developing your offerings? Anything in the pipeline?

“We focus on three key areas:
• Expanding functionality – Creating new APIs and features that can be reused at high speed.
• Enhancing resilience and scalability – Improving system strength and self-service capabilities.
• Expanding adaptability – Integrating into more payment rails, supporting real-time payments, and adapting to evolving financial models like credit-as-a-service.

“AI continues to be a growing focus for us. Our approach is always to ensure that innovation aligns with real-world banking needs, especially as hyper personalisation becomes the norm.”

What are the biggest opportunities and challenges going forward?

“The biggest opportunity lies in enabling financial institutions to innovate rapidly and at low cost. That means providing them with:
• The right platform – A foundation like ours to build on.
• The necessary skills – Helping institutions work effectively in an API-driven environment.

“Despite APIs being widespread, deep expertise is still uncommon, and scaling that knowledge is crucial.

“On the challenge side, technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace. AI models are improving daily, cloud capabilities are expanding, and even computing itself is shifting with developments in quantum tech.

“The challenge is staying ahead—understanding these changes, identifying second-order effects, and ensuring we deploy the right
resources to remain relevant.”