The future of real-time payments: how A2A reshapes the financial landscape

Craig Ramsey, Head of Real-Time and A2A Payments at ACI, discusses compliance and innovation in the context of how A2A payments transform finance.

Could you please provide a brief explanation of account-to-account (A2A) payments and their benefits in comparison to card payments?

A2A payments have gone by many names over the years, including wholesale and corporate payments, though these terms don’t fully capture their broad scope. A2A payments encompass four key payment types that facilitate direct money transfers between accounts: wire transfers (or RTGS internationally), ACH, instant payments, and cross-border transactions. 

Each of these payment types serves various use cases, including P2P, B2B, C2B, and even government payments – highlighted recently by the US government's push to expand A2A adoption. Cross-border payments are traditionally handled via SWIFT and correspondent banking, though new alternatives are emerging. Wire transfers operate through systems like Fedwire and CHIPS in the US, Target2 in Europe, and CHAPS in the UK, while most countries have their own domestic RTGS infrastructure. ACH payments include networks such as SEPA in Europe and FedACH or EPN in the US. 

Instant payments, the newest category, are also referred to as faster payments, real-time payments, or immediate payments. This system enables 24/7, low-cost, instant clearing and settlement, eliminating float and ensuring immediate availability of funds. Unlike card transactions, where pending payments may take days to reflect, instant payments provide real-time balance updates, making them particularly valuable for individuals managing liquidity constraints. 

Ultimately, A2A payments eliminate intermediaries, reducing delays and inefficiencies while giving both senders and recipients immediate access to their funds.

As A2A payments and increased digitisation reshape the payments landscape, how is ACI Worldwide helping financial institutions navigate regulatory complexities, ensure compliance, and minimise risks – particularly in cross-border transactions where security, fraud prevention, and cost efficiency are critical?

ACI processes around USD 5 trillion in A2A payments every day – yes, trillion, not billion. This includes a significant share of wire transactions in the US as well as Target2 payments in Europe. As each payment network introduces new compliance requirements, often on an annual basis, ACI ensures that banks remain compliant by providing a fully maintained and updated gateway. Instead of managing these updates independently, which can be costly and complex, banks benefit from ACI’s centralised approach. A clear example is the global transition to ISO 20022, a regulatory shift that has required banks to invest millions. By handling these updates centrally, ACI reduces the burden and cost for its customers.

Regarding fraud in international payments, the risks are not unique to cross-border transactions. Fraud affects all payment types, whether card-based, domestic, or international A2A transactions. ACI integrates fraud prevention measures into its solutions, allowing banks to incorporate third-party protections. Detecting fraud involves multiple layers of security, starting with transaction scoring, which analyses payment patterns to flag suspicious activity. Anti-money laundering efforts rely on monitoring broader transaction flows rather than isolated payments, helping to identify illicit activities. Additionally, sanctions screening, commonly known as OFAC screening in the US, ensures that payments comply with global regulatory lists and do not involve restricted individuals or entities.

Sanctions screening is a particularly crucial component of international payments, and ACI’s built-in compliance mechanisms help banks navigate these requirements efficiently.

With economies becoming increasingly reliant on digital payments, how can banks ensure availability, resilience, and security in their payment infrastructure? What role do factors like scalability, uptime, and fraud prevention play in meeting customer expectations?

Customer expectations for payments have evolved significantly, both in the consumer and business spaces. Today, people expect payments to be instant, fully trackable, and transparent. They want to know exactly when a transaction will reach the beneficiary, how much it will cost, and where it is in the process. These demands have transformed payments from a traditional batch process into a real-time, always-on system. Even in cases where payment networks do not operate 24/7, the expectation remains the same – immediacy, visibility, and certainty. Given how seamlessly technology works in other aspects of life, it's only natural that payments should follow suit.

However, these rising expectations place immense pressure on banking systems, many of which were built decades ago. Some of these legacy systems still rely on batch-based architectures designed for a different era of payments processing. Even systems developed just ten years ago often struggle to meet modern demands. The shift to cloud-native technology has introduced a more flexible and scalable approach, allowing for improved disaster recovery, elastic processing, and higher availability standards.

Yet, simply moving an old system to the cloud does not magically modernise it. True cloud-native solutions are purpose-built to meet the demands of today’s real-time payments landscape. This shift also enables a reimagining of payments processing – not just adapting old models to new infrastructure, but fundamentally redesigning how payments work to support the next two decades of innovation.

This interview was originally published in the Trends Report: The New Payments Era. Download the report and start building your next-generation payments strategy today.

About the interviewee

Craig has more than 35 years of experience – 25 of which have been with ACI Worldwide – providing specialist consulting to banks across the globe. Through dozens of industry initiatives – including the Euro, CLS, SWIFTNet, UK Faster Payments, FedNow, RTP, New Payments Platform, and ISO 20022 – Craig has helped customers leverage the power of the ACI solutions to meet their payments needs. Currently Head of Real-Time and Account-to-Account Payments, Craig works with customers, prospects, and industry players alike, ensuring that ACI's industry-leading products are always ready to power the world's payments ecosystem. Craig has been a trusted advisor to major global organisations and institutions, including Swift, Nacha, the US Federal Reserve, the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Council. Craig is an Executive Committee Member of the European Credit Research Institute and serves on the US Faster Payments Council Board of Directors.

About ACI Worldwide

ACI Worldwide, an original innovator in global payments technology, delivers transformative software solutions that power intelligent payments orchestration in real-time so banks, billers, and merchants can drive growth, while continuously modernising their payment infrastructures, simply and securely. With nearly 50 years of trusted payments expertise, we combine our global footprint with a local presence to offer enhanced payment experiences to stay ahead of constantly changing payment challenges and opportunities.