Singapore – August 10, 2021 – ACI Worldwide, a leading global provider of real-time payments and digital payment software solutions, today announced an expanded multi-year strategic alliance with Microsoft to deliver payments solutions in the cloud. The alliance will accelerate and expand ACI’s cloud payments offerings in Microsoft Azure as more financial institutions (FIs) embrace digital transformation.

With global demand for SaaS-based payment offerings increasing, ACI and Microsoft will closely collaborate on innovations that empower FIs to launch new solutions, add new services to their existing platforms and deliver those new capabilities more quickly and with greater agility. They will also provide FIs greater efficiency of operations, scalability, data protection, data sovereignty and better user experiences—ultimately creating new revenue streams. 

ACI and Microsoft have a successful track record of jointly helping customers quickly grow and expand into new markets, including a top 20 global bank, a leading US-based digital bank with more than 30 million customers and the leading card issuing and banking-as-a-service software platform in Latin America. These organizations required cloud-enabled solutions capable of meeting time-to-market and growth goals, and chose ACI’s cloud payments offerings deployed in Azure—enabling them to deliver innovative, market-leading and future-ready payment services to their current and future customers. 

“This alliance between ACI and Microsoft can support banks in their quest for payments modernization. Recent Aite Group research among 21 of the top 100 retail banks indicated that payments modernization is high on the strategic investment agenda of banks, to meet the increasing competition in the payments value chain. Based on the survey, Aite Group estimates revenue at risk for retail banks of 10 to 15 percent of retail bank payments revenue,” said Ron van Wezel, senior analyst, Aite Group. “Banks see cloud technology as an important element of payments modernization initiatives. Cloud technology enables banks to run a more cost-efficient operating model while providing the agility and modernity that legacy on-premises models lack. Speed to market and cost savings are mentioned most often as advantages that cloud banking can bring to an organization.”

“More of our customers are turning to the cloud to modernize their mission-critical payment systems, driven by the need to operate more efficiently as well as a growing need for speed, agility and innovation in bringing new payment offerings to market,” said Jeremy Wilmot, chief product officer, ACI Worldwide. “Cloud modernization is a top strategic priority at ACI, and we are excited about this expanded alliance with Microsoft—together delivering and operating an unmatched payments platform and ultimately helping our customers grow their business by focusing on differentiation.”

“Throughout the pandemic, ACI Worldwide has been a leader in keeping the world’s banking industry performing optimally and has accelerated the growth curve to the cloud to drive innovation, cost savings, resiliency and new customer experiences,” said Bill Borden, corporate vice president, Worldwide Financial Services at Microsoft. “The powerful combination of ACI’s SaaS-based payments offerings and Microsoft Azure enables financial institutions to serve their customers more effectively, and we look forward to expanding our joint efforts in the months to come.”