EP 414 - How Programmability Changes the Game for Payments - Kanupriya Sharda (Tazapay) and Abhishek Padhy (Aspire)

Instant payments are often described as the new baseline in modern finance. But speed alone does not define progress. In many cases, “real-time” only applies within narrow limits, small transaction sizes, or pre-funded domestic rails. Cross-border flows remain constrained by liquidity requirements, fragmented standards, and compliance bottlenecks.

In this episode of the Asia Tech Podcast, featuring Kanupriya Sharda, Chief Business Officer at Tazapay and Abhishek Padhy, Head of Product Payments and FX at Aspire we cut through the noise around “instant payments” to reveal a deeper truth: speed alone is no longer the real frontier in payments.

Some of the topics that Kanupriya and Abhishek covered in detail:

• “Real-time” is often real-time only for small money and with a crucial caveat: it’s mostly true for domestic payments in parts of Asia, but it breaks down fast when you zoom out to cross-border and B2B.
• Pre-funding is the hidden architecture of “instant” payments and it’s incredibly expensive.
• Stablecoins aren’t just a “crypto” story, they’re a liquidity and settlement story.
• The next advantage isn’t only speed, it’s certainty and transparency.
• AI isn’t replacing compliance, it’s compressing time and expanding context.
• The contrarian view on consolidation: payments aren’t commoditizing as fast as people claim.