TECHNOLOGY & INFRASTRUCTURE CONSULTING

Building Payment Infrastructure That Scales

Regulated institutions are advised on designing and strengthening payment infrastructure technology that operates reliably under scale and regulatory scrutiny. Drawing on experience supporting issuer-grade systems in production, focus is placed on architecture, security, and operating model decisions that ensure infrastructure remains resilient, auditable, and scalable—before growth or compliance risk compounds.

Advisory Focus

Building Blocks for Scalable Payment Infrastructure

CARD91 provides execution-informed advisory across the core layers of regulated payment infrastructure—covering architecture, deployment strategy, security, and operational governance.

Payments Architecture Advisory

We help institutions design core payment architecture that scales predictably without introducing fragility.

• Issuance and transaction processing system design
• Authorization, clearing, and settlement flow structuring
• API-first, modular, and service-oriented architecture planning
• High availability, redundancy, and fault isolation design
• Throughput, latency, and peak-load capacity planning

Infrastructure & Deployment Strategy

We advise on infrastructure models suited for regulated, high-availability payment workloads.

• Cloud, on-premise, and hybrid deployment strategy evaluation
• Regulated cloud environment and workload segregation planning
• Network isolation, access control, and perimeter security design
• Capacity forecasting, cost control, and scaling models
• Disaster recovery, failover, and business continuity architecture

Security & Compliance Architecture

Security and compliance are designed into the infrastructure—not added after deployment.

• Alignment with RBI, PCI-DSS, and applicable global standards
• Data localization and data residency architecture
• Encryption, key management, and privileged access control
• Fraud monitoring, control frameworks, and risk signal visibility
• Audit-readiness, logging, traceability, and evidence systems

Operations & Governance Design

We help define operating models that support reliability, accountability, and regulatory oversight at scale.

• Incident response, escalation, and post-incident review frameworks
• System monitoring, alerting, and observability design
• Vendor and third-party infrastructure risk governance
• Reconciliation, exception handling, and settlement reporting systems
• Regulatory visibility and compliance reporting workflows

Advisory Leadership

Subject-Matter Experts in Regulated Payment Programs

CARD91’s advisory teams bring 100+ years of collective experience across regulated payment programs. Supported by strong academic foundations, including IIT Kanpur, our advisors work one-on-one with leadership teams to validate critical decisions—ensuring programs are structured to launch cleanly, scale responsibly, and remain audit-ready.

Leadership Cards

Ajay Pandey, Founder of CARD91 with 25+ years of experience in building and scaling payment and fintech businesses.

A.G. Ramakrishna, 25+ years across banking and fintech, leading product strategy and ecosystem partnerships.

Navneet Kumar, 25+ years of experience building scalable banking and payments technology platforms.

Puneet Mathur, 25+ years in enterprise architecture, integrations, and large-scale banking systems.

Advisory Coverage

Infrastructure Support for Regulated Growth Across

Banks Modernizing Legacy Infrastructure

Modernising issuer and payment stacks with resilience, auditability, and long-term operating control.

Payment Companies Building Core Systems

Designing processing foundations that scale predictably—without fragility across authorization, clearing, and settlement.

Enterprises Embedding Payments

Structuring embedded payment infrastructure with clear governance, security controls, and operational accountability.

Global Organizations Localizing Infrastructure

Advising international teams on deploying compliant, localized infrastructure aligned with regulated market requirements.

Get Clarity Before You Commit

Connect one-on-one with CARD91’s advisory team to validate critical payment decisions — before regulatory, financial, or execution risk compounds.