Companies across all industries have turned to cloud modernisation for upgraded scalability, resilience, and the way it allows organisations to integrate their solutions into larger ecosystems of applications. This last point is game-changing for banks and their approach to payments. When done right, managing payments and supporting services in a cloud-based ecosystem means they can accelerate time-to-value for new applications and capabilities. And, when they can bring new products to market faster, they can differentiate themselves from competitors further to improve customer satisfaction and, ultimately, grow revenue.
Modernising legacy payment systems is extremely complex – it’s akin to rocket science due to its critical nature. Banks must balance the need to innovate with the non-negotiable need to ensure stable operations in a low-risk, highly compliant environment. The headline challenge is the need to maintain the highest levels of scalability, reliability, and resilience at the same time as undergoing a major transformation. The goal is to transition to new technologies that accelerate time-to-market for innovative solutions without compromising the existing systems' performance. Existing operations must continue to operate smoothly and securely.
The best way to mitigate these risks is to partner with a company that has both deep expertise in advanced technology and extensive experience in banking and payment systems. Few partners can match ACI’s decades of experience operating resilient and reliable infrastructures. We support financial institutions that handle trillions of dollars in daily transactions. That demands a deep commitment to excellence and reliability. By leveraging our experience, banks can modernise their systems with a clear understanding of potential risks and a strategic approach to navigating them.
This topic is close to my heart. I’ve dedicated more than 15 years to supporting underserved communities and advancing financial inclusion. The headline for me is that cloud technology and innovation makes financial services more cost-effective and accessible. It empowers banks, payment providers, and merchants to offer solutions that are more user-friendly and interactive, especially at the point of sale.
Cloud technology is also a pathway to faster development of mobile banking and payments innovations, which are critical for unbanked and underbanked communities. For these groups, mobile phones are often their primary access to both computing technology and the internet. Leveraging cloud technology to improve mobile payment experiences and expand use cases at the point of sale will dramatically expand financial inclusion. When merchants can easily adopt more flexible and inclusive payment options solutions, it makes financial services more accessible and convenient for consumers at a much faster pace.
The growing resilience and scalability of cloud solutions will play a crucial role in advancing payment systems. ACI is heavily investing in modernizing our platform architecture to support innovation in instant payments, including central infrastructure, critical high-value payments, and card-based payments.
We’ll also see a more interconnected financial technology landscape as public cloud ecosystems become more integrated with core banking and ERP systems. That will make it easier and quicker for companies to develop new, impactful solutions. We're excited to see how these innovations evolve and to play our part in supporting intelligent payment orchestration that benefits both consumers and businesses.
Finally, using responsibly collected payments data to derive valuable insights is a growing focus. We’ve expanded the remit of our Payments Intelligence division beyond fraud prevention and into developing data analytics applications that improve digital identity verification and more streamlined customer experiences. We believe that harnessing these insights will lead to faster, more secure transactions and a better financial services overall for both consumers and businesses.
Scotty Perkins is a payments, technology, and compliance leader with deep expertise in payments, retail, and consumer financial services. With nearly 30 years of experience, he has held senior positions in operations, compliance, technology, and business development, specialising in complex business process design for large-scale revenue optimisation programmes.
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. We combine our global footprint with a local presence to offer enhanced payment experiences.
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