---
title: "Dhaval Varaiya - Head of Financial Operations & Payments | APAC in Mumbai Metropolitan Region | Tal"
description: "Meet Dhaval Varaiya, FinTech & Payments Operations Leader | Head of Financial Operations & Payments – APAC | Scaling USD 1.5B+ Merchant Ecosystems | Scheme Compliance, Reconciliation & Strategic Banking Partnerships based in Mumbai Metropolitan Region. AI stack includes gemini, grok, and openai."
image: "https://tal.club/meet/dhaval-mahasukhrai-varaiya/share-image"
---

# Dhaval Varaiya on Tal

## Headline

FinTech & Payments Operations Leader \| Head of Financial Operations & Payments – APAC \| Scaling USD 1\.5B\+ Merchant Ecosystems \| Scheme Compliance, Reconciliation & Strategic Banking Partnerships

## About

Results\-driven FinTech and Payments Operations Leader with 23 years of experience driving high\-scale digital payment operations, merchant acquiring, core banking workflows, lending, and operational excellence across startup \(0→1\) and global enterprise environments\. Currently serving as Head of Financial Operations & Payments at Fiserv, leading a 42\-member APAC team managing a monthly transaction ecosystem of USD 1\.5 billion\. Expert in building and optimizing end\-to\-end reconciliation and settlement frameworks, scheme compliance \(Visa, Mastercard, Amex, RuPay, UPI\), dispute management, and interchange optimization—delivering 100% fund\-flow accuracy and multi\-crore cost savings\. Key Highlights: 0→1 & Scale\-Building: Founding team member at Jupiter Money and Citrus Payment Solutions, building robust operational frameworks across debit cards, credit cards, BNPL, vKYC, and payment gateways\. High\-Volume Scale: Managed payment operations processing ₹1,000 Cr/month at PayU/Citrus and USD 1\.5B/month at Fiserv across APAC\. Regulatory & Compliance Standards: Deep expertise in ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 1, PCI DSS SAQ D, VAPT, RBI guidelines, and payment scheme mandates\.Process & RPA Automation: Certified Six Sigma Black Belt and Green Belt with proven success cutting manual effort by up to 45% and raising SLA adherence to 98\.5%\.

## Location

Mumbai Metropolitan Region

## AI stack

gemini

grok

openai

## Work experience

Head of Financial Operations & Payments \| APAC at Fiserv, Oct 2025 \- Present · 1 yr 2 mos, Mumbai, 1\. Lead merchant payment operations strategy across APAC, overseeing a 42\-member regional team and managing a USD 1\.5 Billion/month transaction ecosystem\. 2\. Manage multi\-network reconciliation and settlement frameworks \(Visa, Mastercard, Amex, RuPay, UPI\) with 100% fund\-flow accuracy\. 3\. Govern regional scheme compliance and international regulatory mandates across diverse APAC markets\. 4\. Spearhead dispute management, chargebacks, and interchange optimization, reducing dispute losses by 15% \(\~₹8 Crores annualized savings\)\. 5\. Drive RPA and process automation initiatives, reducing manual processing effort by \~20% across regional workflows\. 6\. Lead PA\-CB \(Cross\-Border\) operational readiness and regulatory setup across key jurisdictions\.

Director Operations \(Founding Team\) at Jupiter, Dec 2019 \- May 2026 · 6 yrs 6 mos, Mumbai, 1\. Built BAU operational architecture from scratch for FinTech and banking products, driving process automation that improved team productivity by 35% and lowered processing times by 30%\. 2\. Managed the full lifecycle of core banking and transaction workflows across IMPS, NEFT, RTGS, IFT, and debit cards\. 3\. Launched operational procedures for new product lines including BNPL, Bill Payments, Gift Cards, and Digi Gold\. 4\. Governed partner bank and vendor SLAs, boosting SLA compliance from 91% to 98\.5% and reducing TAT breaches by 40%\. 5\. Established end\-to\-end credit card operations supporting ₹225 Crore first\-year business volume\. 6\. Scaled vKYC and banking operations across partner banks \(Federal Bank and CSB Bank\) for 3 million customer accounts with a 70\-member team\. 7\. Maintained ISO 27001:2013, SOC 2 Type 1, and PCI DSS SAQ D compliance while anchoring VAPT assessments\.

Head of Operations at Nestaway, Apr 2018 \- Dec 2019 · 1 yr 9 mos, Mumbai, 1\. Established Mumbai branch operations, recruiting and scaling property management and support teams\. 2\. Sustained a positive Net Promoter Score \(NPS\) for 9 consecutive months via robust service agreements and QA controls\. 3\. Recovered ₹1\.5 crore in overdue receivables within 6 months, reducing outstanding dues by 28%\.

Associate Director – Operations at PayU, Oct 2016 \- Apr 2018 · 1 yr 7 mos, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, 1\. Directed payment operations managing ₹1,000 Crores/month in transaction volume across card, net banking, and UPI channels\. 2\. Built in\-house reconciliation, customer care, and nodal account audit frameworks, reducing manual reconciliation effort by 45%\. 3\. Designed operational processes and RBI risk controls for Citrus Wallet and LazyPay \(BNPL\)\. 4\. Rolled out BIN Sponsorship and managed Visa/Mastercard acquiring relationships and three\-way reconciliation\.

Founder Team Member \- Operations / Service Delivery at Citrus Payment Solutions Pvt\. Ltd, Aug 2011 \- Oct 2016 · 5 yrs 3 mos, Mumbai

## Education

PGDBM, MBA, SVKM's Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies \(NMIMS\)

Bachelor of Commerce, Business/Commerce, General, Mumbai university

[View the original profile](https://tal.club/meet/dhaval-mahasukhrai-varaiya)

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