ACI provides tailored consultancy and professional services to plan, design and implement the solution, reducing complexities for customers and simplifying SLA management via a single vendor.

ACI’s digital central infrastructure provides central banks and financial institutions with a one-stop solution encompassing real-time central infrastructure integrated with digital overlays like Request to Pay, QR-code payments, back-office management platform and AI-powered fraud technology. It also includes value-added services such as merchant onboarding and management, dispute management and multiple-aliases management.

“With the demonstrated success of real-time payments in many countries, there is increasing demand for countries to evolve to the next phase of growth and launch new payment methods and innovative digital use cases on top of their payment rails. ACI empowers central banks with a secure central payments infrastructure to accelerate real-time payments growth and enables banks and financial institutions to capitalize on that growth with solutions integrated with digital overlays,” said Debbie Guerra, chief product officer, ACI Worldwide.

Global real-time payment volumes hit a record high in 2022 with 195 billion transactions - a year-over-year growth of 63.2% - according to ACI’s 2023 Prime Time for Real-Time report. Countries across the globe are at different stages of maturity in their real-time payments strategy, with some eager to expand their domestic networks and others looking beyond their borders for the next significant real-time payments boost. Motivated to broaden financial access and stimulate economic growth while safeguarding national autonomy, governments and central banks are pivotal forces spearheading the development of centralized real-time payment infrastructures.

“With digital central infrastructure integrated with ACI Enterprise Payments Platform, ACI offers the complete end-to-end solution for enabling rapid adoption of real-time payments within a country and accelerating growth and digital enablement,” said Craig Ramsey, head of real-time payments, ACI Worldwide.

The benefits of real-time payments intensify as central banks and financial institutions deploy innovative digital overlay services on top of modernized central payments infrastructure. From the UAE to the U.S., new schemes have launched or are planning to launch with features that India pioneered at scale, such as QR-code payments and Request to Pay. For example, in Bahrain, nearly 60% of electronic payments in the country are processed in real time - forecasted to rise to 78.6% by 2027. With the support of the Central Bank enabling easier use through digital apps like BenefitPay, real-time payments are helping to promote financial inclusion and bolster financial stability across the economy, fueling stronger economic growth.