Opus CEO TM Praveen on shaping the future of payments

TM Praveen is the CEO of Opus, a leading global provider of innovative payment solutions. Celebrating 25 years in business this year, Opus has cultivated lasting trust and relationships across the global payments ecosystem. Praveen talks about the payment trends on the horizon, the limitless potential of the digital economy, and how Opus is leading the payments modernisation wave.

How has Opus helped organisations gain a competitive advantage in the payments ecosystem?

We were one of the early players to understand that digital is the future of payments. I strongly believe that payments are increasingly becoming a critical part of an organisation’s decision-making process, which simply means that payments should be a primary driver of business strategy and not just a side project.

In the last 25 years, our innovative products and services in the payments domain have found great success in the market. We are backed by a team with vast technical expertise and several years of experience working with key players in the industry, including those on the Fortune 500 list.

From filling product gaps to providing client diversification, our digital solutions suite helps a diverse global customer base with payments transformation, digital enablement solutions, and product engineering services.

What will the payments ecosystem of the future look like?

Over the last two years, the rapid evolution in payments innovation has caused a phenomenal transformation across banking, fintech, and online commerce.

We are seeing new and exciting use cases of blockchain, the shift to real-time payments gaining momentum, and the payments ecosystem being redefined to accommodate the needs of the growing metaverse community.

I believe, as we fast forward to a new frontier, a digital-first approach will be foundational to the future of payments and in all this, a renewed focus on cloud, AI, data, and security is a must.

As the CEO, what has been your role in preparing Opus for the digital future?

Over the years, we have carved out a space for ourselves on the world stage with over 200+ customers in 35 countries across five continents. We have achieved this with our relentless focus on execution and technical excellence – as well as by staying true to our core value system of passion, pride, and perseverance.

At Opus, we are fostering a culture of continuous learning and futuristic thinking where we do not shy away from disrupting the status quo. To double down on digital transformation and retool operating models, we ensure that our teams remain nimble to respond to rising client needs and rapidly changing market conditions. We believe that strategic foresight is key to gauging our client’s next move and gearing up for shifting market conditions. 

How can organisations thrive through disruption?

To scale up in the world of payments, you need to view disruption as an innovative process. Technological progress and innovation are the linchpins driving disruptive business models in payments.

Innovation is not just the process of ripping out legacy rails for newer versions. With payment shifting to the background and the overall experience being the differentiating factor, there needs to be a greater focus on the development of value-added payment services for users. Businesses choose to work with Opus because we offer an innovative payments ecosystem upon which our clients can build disruptive capabilities.

What can we expect from Opus in 2023 and beyond?

Opus is among the next generation of solution providers, leading one of the biggest revolutions in payments history. We are uniquely positioned to deliver advanced, real-time payment platforms that give our clients the immediacy, functionality, and convenience they need.

Our team of global payment professionals comes with unmatched domain expertise and product engineering capabilities that are critical in ​​accelerating the modernisation of payment solutions. 

We are helping our clients remain at the forefront of digital transformation by powering large-scale transformations of monolithic architecture and enhancing customer-centricity by re-engineering products to be more modern, agile, and innovative.

In the years to come, we look forward to shaping the competitive landscape of payments and creating long-term advantages for our clients and their consumers.

About: TM Praveen is the CEO of Opus and a highly accomplished global payments leader with over 20 years of experience. A veteran in the payments industry, Praveen has an immense wealth of insights to share on payments innovations, emerging technologies, fintech, and financial services.