How Are Banks Future-Proofing Payments Infrastructure? | Volante’s Nihit Ahuja and Nationwide’s Otto Benz

Nihit Ahuja from Volante Technologies and Otto Benz from Nationwide Building Society discuss how banks are changing their payment systems to keep up with the fast-moving financial world.

Ahjua kicks things off by talking about how payments have always been a key part of banking and mentions that even though banks have invested heavily in tech, the rapid shift towards digital and instant payments means they can’t just wipe the slate clean.

Instead, they often add new tech on top of older systems to handle current needs. Ahjua believes this only fixes short-term issues and doesn’t tackle the bigger challenge of creating a new generation of payment platforms that are built for the cloud and can grow with future needs.

As customers want things to be faster and simpler, banks need to focus on building systems that work well with their clients’ services. For Ahjua, investing in modern payment technology isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s crucial for staying relevant.

Benz adds his perspective, noting how Nationwide tries to balance creating its own solutions with teaming up with others. For front-end digital services that impact customer experience, Nationwide usually develops in-house, enabling quick innovation. On the back end—where things like reliability and compliance matter—they collaborate with trusted partners.

He highlights Nationwide’s work with Form3 as a prime example. Together, they’re setting up a high-performance, multi-cloud payments platform that mixes reliability with innovation. Benz underscores that there’s plenty of cool stuff happening behind the scenes, even when the tech isn’t visible to customers.