ACI Worldwide has announced that a UK retail bank has selected ACI Connetic, a cloud-native payments platform, to process SWIFT, CHAPS, and Faster Payments on a unified infrastructure.
The platform, powered by Microsoft Azure cloud capabilities, enables UK banks to consolidate previously siloed payment systems on one SaaS environment, eliminating fragmentation that drives operational costs, risk, and complexity.
ACI Connetic comes as one of the first platforms to bring Account-to-Account (A2A) payments, card payments, and AI-driven fraud prevention within one cloud-native SaaS environment. The modular design, cloud-native architecture, and open APIs optimise integration, shorten implementation timelines, and deliver faster time to value.
Unified platform addresses operational fragmentation
UK banks traditionally operate separate infrastructure for SWIFT international payments, CHAPS same-day sterling settlement, and Faster Payments instant transfers. This fragmentation requires multiple vendor relationships, separate operational teams, and complex reconciliation processes across payment schemes.
The platform enables banks to consolidate siloed systems, reduce operational complexity, increase resilience across payment schemes, accelerate regulatory mandate adoption, and position themselves for real-time and cross-border modernisation.
Richard Albery, Head of Banking for UK and Ireland at ACI Worldwide, stated that ACI Connetic is gaining global traction, with the UK deployment representing a major milestone. Banks face pressure to modernise quickly as payments grow more complex. ACI Connetic functions as an operating model built for the digital economy, providing institutions with the agility and scale needed for growth.
Adding to this, Christian Sarafidis, Chief Executive EMEA Financial Services at Microsoft, stated that Microsoft Azure is becoming a foundational platform for high-performance enterprise payments. Collaboration with ACI Worldwide helps banks access cloud-native approaches supporting security, compliance, resilience, and scalability while enabling continuous development. Cloud technology plays an important role in helping institutions respond to digital commerce, regulatory change, and rising customer expectations.
Market adoption across multiple jurisdictions
Banks across Europe and the US are adopting ACI Connetic amid regulatory change, heightened competition, and shifting customer expectations. Cloud modernisation represents a strategic requirement rather than solely a technology decision.
UK payment infrastructure comprises multiple schemes, including SWIFT for cross-border messaging, CHAPS for high-value sterling settlement, and Faster Payments for retail instant payments. The Bank of England operates settlement infrastructure through its Real-Time Gross Settlement system.
ACI Connetic's cloud-native architecture enables banks to deploy payment processing without on-premise hardware infrastructure, reducing capital expenditure and operational overhead associated with traditional payment system implementations.
For more information about ACI Worldwide, please check out their detailed profile in our dedicated, industry-specific Company Database.
