Zafin with Meenaz Sunderji | E165

Delivering on the promise of customer centric banking.

In this 165th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award–winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Meenaz Sunderji, the Executive VP at Zafin. Zafin is a banking software platform that helps financial institutions personalize their services for their customers!

Episode Highlights:

  • 0:31 – Meenaz Sunderji introduces Zafin and its services.

  • 1:32 – What led to the creation of Zafin?

  • 4:31 – Meenaz and Jason dive into what Zafin does for its clients.

  • 6:11 – How many different Legacy COBOL systems was Zafin dealing with to create a unified view?

  • 8:33 – Did any financial institutions come up with a long–term strategy before Zafin came into the picture?

  • 9:50 – Jason and Meenaz explain the difficulties of putting multiple product lines into one framework.

  • 15:00 – How has Zafin dealt with financial restrictions and regulations around the world?

  • 18:19 – Meenaz breaks down how a large publicly-traded company re-engineers its incentive program for the longer term.

  • 20:43 – Jason and Meenaz discuss the opportunities and worries for banks and fintech companies.

  • 23:30 – Meenaz explains how focusing on the customer can build lifelong relationships.

  • 24:27  – Jason and Meenaz dive into infrastructure and the future of embedded finance.

  • 27:19 – What would Meenaz change about the banking industry?

  • 28:00 – Meenaz shares Zafin’s biggest challenge to getting where it is today.

  • 28:37 – What excites Meenaz about his work today and in the future?

3 Key Points

  1. Zafin monitors a variety of financial information to personalize customer pricing and create customized incentive programs.

  2. Silos of customer incentive programs are breaking because banks realize that they are going to lose money if they continue to group customers like that.

  3. Jason and Meenaz believe that old institutions will provide the infrastructure for new financial institutions to move into the future of embedded finance.

Tweetable Quotes:

  • “You are a next–best–action engine that sits over top of their banking system in between the client and their offering.” – Jason Pereira

  • “With competition, like we have in our space, it drives to become better, otherwise you won’t survive.” – Meenaz Sunderji

  • “The traditional banks stand a chance of losing the customer relationship but still handling the plumbing.” – Jason Pereira

Resources Mentioned:

Fintech ImpactJason PereiraBanking