slice’s Leap: From Fintech Disruptor to India’s Next Big Bank | Rajan Bajaj X Dilip Asbe

In this episode of Innovators Playground, Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO, NPCI, sits down with Rajan Bajaj, Founder and ED, slice, for a candid conversation on how a fintech company is rethinking banking itself, from core technology and credit models to AI, UPI, and population scale design.

Here is what the episode dives into:

What it means to build a banking stack in house:
A rare inside look at why slice chose to build its core banking stack in house, how microservices change speed, resilience, and cost economics, and what traditional banks underestimate when they rely on monolithic systems

Why building for the first time users creates the best bank for everyone: How designing credit, onboarding, and risk systems for first time and small ticket users forces fundamentally better product, underwriting, and automation decisions that scale effortlessly to mainstream and affluent users as well

How Credit via UPI is converging into a new financial primitive:
Why Credit card on UPI is not just a new feature but a structural shift in how India will distribute credit, reduce acquisition costs, expand merchant acceptance, and bring hundreds of millions into formal credit for the first time

Where AI actually matters in banking at scale:
Beyond hype, how AI is already replacing large parts of operations, risk checks, customer service, and repayments, and why voice led, multilingual, AI driven interfaces will define the next phase of banking for India

🎧 A must listen for engineers, product leaders, and fintech founders building for India’s next decade of growth.

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