What Fifteen Years on Core Banking Software Taught Me About Explaining Money Clearly

Long before I distributed a single mutual fund, I was responsible for the software that moved money through the branches I worked in. Five years as IT In-Charge, troubleshooting and monitoring partially computerized branches during the years Indian banking first shifted onto core systems. Fifteen years, in total, hands-on with Finacle — the core banking platform most Indian banks still run on today. That background shapes how I think about money more than almost anything else in a thirty-nine-year career.

What "core banking software" actually means

Every time you check a bank balance, transfer money, or see a transaction post, there's a system underneath doing the actual bookkeeping — updating ledgers, applying interest, reconciling entries, across every branch, in real time. Finacle is that system for a large share of Indian banks. Being responsible for it meant understanding, at a granular level, exactly how a rupee moves from one place to another inside the banking system — not the marketing version, the actual mechanics.

Being there when banking went digital

I was IT In-Charge during years when branches were only partially computerized — some processes still manual, others newly automated, and constant troubleshooting in between. That's a very different kind of learning than reading about digital transformation after the fact. You learn what breaks, what confuses people, and what actually needs explaining versus what people can simply be shown.

How this shapes the way I explain investing today

Systems work trains you to think in terms of "what actually happens, step by step" rather than in slogans. When I explain a SIP, a KYC process, or how your money actually reaches a fund house, I'm not reciting a sales pitch — I'm describing a system I once had to make work, and later, had to explain to colleagues and customers who'd never seen the machinery behind their bank statement. That habit of turning a system into a plain explanation is, I'd argue, the most useful thing fifteen years on Finacle actually gave me.

Why this matters for you

Most people distributing mutual funds have only ever sold mutual funds. They can tell you what a scheme is, but not necessarily how the infrastructure underneath your investment — KYC, folios, NAV updates, redemptions — actually functions. When something feels confusing or opaque about the process, that's usually a systems question, not an investment question. It happens to be the one I'm unusually well placed to answer.