Money20/20: Pismo & Rethinking Modern Payment Infrastructure

Pismo is at the centre of a structural shift in payments infrastructure, with financial institutions moving from batch processing to real-time, data-driven systems.

Speaking with FinTech Magazine at Money20/20, SVP and General Manager Leo Collado outlined how the company’s cloud-native, API-based platform is designed to help banks and fintechs modernise both core banking and payments capabilities at scale.

Building for real-time finance

At its core, Pismo’s proposition is in response to a broader industry transition: payments have moved from back-office processes to real-time decision points that influence customer trust and revenue.

“Payments have become a real-time decision that drives revenue and trust,” Leo explains, “and client demands are changing. 

“One thing is they want everything on-demand – immediacy, reliability, right now. The other is personalisation.”

Leo argues that these expectations fundamentally reshape infrastructure requirements. 

Legacy systems built for batch processing struggle to deliver the immediacy and contextual intelligence now expected by consumers.

“What that means in the world of infrastructure is that you have to be able to go from batch-based processing to real-time processing, which is what Pismo does,” he adds.

“Then you think about contextual personalisation, it requires a lot of data – churning of the data and AI algorithms – that legacy infrastructures were not designed to manage and handle.”

This shift underpins the make-up of Pismo’s architecture, which is designed to support continuous data streaming and real-time processing across banking and payments use cases.

The rise of multi-rail orchestration

Rather than a single dominant payment method emerging, Leo sees increasing fragmentation – and opportunity – coming about across payment rails.

“I don't think that one will dominate over the other,” he foresees. 

“What’s happening is you’re seeing the emergence of new channels – whether that’s RTP payments, stablecoins, digital currencies – and new ways of paying will continue to emerge.”

The strategic priority, he suggests, is orchestration: enabling institutions to manage multiple rails seamlessly.

He continues: “I think the real unlock is going to be having an orchestration layer that’s able to manage all of them at the same time. 

“The winners will have the ability to intelligently manage whatever channels emerge.”

This aligns with Visa’s broader strategy following its acquisition of Pismo, positioning the platform as a foundational layer for multi-rail enablement across global markets.

Account-to-account vs cards

In conversation with FinTech Magazine, Leo also addresses the growing momentum behind account-to-account (A2A) payments, while pushing back on the idea of direct competition with cards.

“A2A gives you immediacy – in real time – and control. If you compare that to cards, cards still have an advantage in terms of experience and global reach.”

Instead, the emphasis again returns to orchestration rather than replacement.

Leo continues: “I think the real unlock is being able to orchestrate either/or and being ready and prepared for wherever the customer wants to pay.”

AI and adaptive experiences

AI is now a critical layer in next-generation payments infrastructure, particularly in enabling hyper-personalised experiences.

Leo says that with AI being everywhere today, it plays a key role in providing richer data.

“I call this adaptive behaviour analytics – which is, in simple terms, understanding your consumer, understanding their behaviour, what they do, how they purchase, how they spend their money – and being able to deliver on that,” he explains.

Leo points to a shift away from static rewards towards dynamic, contextual engagement.

“I think AI will power the next era of loyalty, will power the next era of customised experiences. It's no longer buy one, get one free or a 20% discount. It's actually delivering unique experiences in real time.

“You combine that with a real-time, cloud-native, API-based, composable platform like Pismo and you’re able to deliver magic.”

Enabling always-on, invisible payments

Looking ahead, Leo expects the most significant transformation to come from the disappearance of friction in payments.

“I think the biggest change is going to be because we’re moving away from batch-based processing after the fact. The world is going to be always on, always on-demand,” he predicts.

“So I think when you look at the future, you’re going to see payments that are seamless, invisible and very personalised.

“So it’s not just about processing a lot of transactions, but how do you do it in a world where you have to deliver better experiences and deliver in real time.”

Leo adds that events like Money20/20 highlight two converging themes: AI and multi-rail payments.

“AI is here to stay and AI will continue to push us to deliver more experiences to our consumers,” he concludes.

“What I’m really looking forward to seeing is the industry convening to ask: how do we put it all together? How do we build this orchestration layer to make sure that we fulfil the promise to our consumers that wherever they want to buy, wherever they want to pay, however they want to pay?

“We’re going to be there for them.”