Welcome to Settled Up, the Payment Expert podcast series where we get to know the person behind the profession.
This week, we speak to Sulabh Agarwal, Managing Director and Global Head of Payments at Accenture, on the music, films, books, sport and comedy that shape him.
Read the full interview with Sulabh Agarwal, Accenture below.
What song do you put on before a big day, and what does it do for you?
There are many, but one that has stayed with me long before Accenture, and since college is Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” It annoyed my parents quite a bit!
What album can you play start to finish, no skips?
Pink Floyd, I would listen to all the way through. The Beatles is another one I rely on, “All You Need Is Love,” from the album “Magical Mystery Tour”.
What’s the film or box set you’ll happily rewatch forever?
I’m not as avid a film watcher as I used to be, but recently I saw a Bollywood film called Dhurandhar, and it was amazing. The sets, the whole film — I thought it was really well done. There are two parts. It’s slightly violent, so you wouldn’t watch it with young kids, but my children, who are 20 and 17, loved it. I don’t go to the cinema that often, but they insisted, so I went.
What’s the book you press on everyone you meet?
I read a lot of philosophy, but one that stands out is The Journey Home by Radhanath Swami. It’s phenomenal. It tells the story of how he left Chicago and hitchhiked all the way to India in search of his goal. He was so focused on his quest in life. If I had even an iota of that zeal, enthusiasm, drive and persistence, I believe I could do a lot in life. It’s definitely an inspiration.
What’s the sporting moment you still go back and rewatch?
Tennis is my thing at the moment, given I’ve started playing over the last few years. I’m sure everyone has watched Roger Federer’s graduation speech at Dartmouth, where he says he won only around 54% of the points he played, yet he has won some of the most Grand Slams in the sport’s history. He’s a class act.
His one-handed backhand is something I only dream of. And Djokovic is still going — good luck to him in chasing the record. I love tennis, and there are so many moments we could keep discussing.
What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen – a sketch, a clip, a stand-up routine?
Amit Tandon. He went to IIT Delhi, where I studied, and he’s become a big comedian. He does shows in London and all over the place, and I find him very relatable. Whenever he’s in London, my wife and I make a point of going. The kids do their own thing — they’re slightly grown up now.
We’ll be talking to Sulabh Agarwal, Accenture, on the next Payment Expert podcast – where we’ll ask where digital money is actually doing real work and where it’s still hype, what has to happen before people let an agent pay without signing off every one, and what’s left for banks if the wallet holds the balance and the agent makes the decision. Catch the full conversation then.
Before the Accenture episode, you can catch up on our latest episode too, where we spoke to Erica Stanford, CMS UK about whether stablecoins move real money or mostly trading flows, why regulators still treat traceable crypto as the higher laundering risk, and what a payments firm should change first to get ahead of AI-enabled fraud.
