Real-Time Payments is a Key Driver of Innovation for Majority of Banks Globally, Study by Ovum and ACI Worldwide Reveals

Real-time payments are at the heart of the innovation agenda for the majority of banks worldwide. 96 percent of banks globally state that they will develop new and innovative services on top of their investment in real-time payments in 2019 and 2020, according to the Culture of Innovation Index by ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW) and leading research consultancy Ovum.

The research also reveals that 92 percent of banks globally expect to grow revenue from real-time payments, reflecting the degree to which real-time has come to underpin a new wave of product innovation and revenue opportunities.

"Our research shows that real-time payments infrastructure is either a direct enabler or closely linked with most of the new services and propositions banks are developing globally," said Craig Ramsey, head of real-time payments, ACI Worldwide. "The majority of banks globally are beginning to understand that real-time payments, especially when combined with Open Banking, have a huge potential to help banks grow revenue and attract new customers."

Other key findings:

• Almost half of banks (47 percent) report that real-time payments overlay services are a top three product investment priority, and one in three (27 percent) rank this as their biggest single priority
• Other leading areas of investment are Open Banking (33 percent), leveraging transaction data to improve services (43 percent) and removing friction from the payment authentication process (48 percent)
• 95 percent of banks globally report that Open Banking has helped change the way they approach delivering new products and services; however, 75 percent still view Open Banking/APIs largely as a compliance issue
• 74 percent of banks plan to move mission-critical workloads into public cloud infrastructure either this or next year and 89 percent either have already made significant use of cloud or are planning to make further investments in 2019/20

"The most innovative banks recognize that investment in real-time payments infrastructure is a strong foundation for sustainable innovation," continued Ramsey. "Real-time payments are a key building block for delivering continuous improvements in products and services for their customers."

Visit ACI Worldwide at Sibos 2019 in London (booth Q125) and learn how to accelerate business with real-time payments and open banking strategies. Join ACI's Geoff Tunbridge, director, solutions consulting, as he takes attendees on a global tour of real-time payments in his session, Real-Time Payments - global state of play, lessons learnt, and how to make money (Wednesday, Sept 25, 14:00-14:30, Open Theatre 1).

About ACI Worldwide
ACI Worldwide, the Universal Payments (UP) company, powers electronic payments for more than 5,100 organizations around the world. More than 1,000 of the largest financial institutions and intermediaries, as well as thousands of global merchants, rely on ACI to execute $14 trillion each day in payments and securities. In addition, myriad organizations utilize our electronic bill presentment and payment services. Through our comprehensive suite of software solutions delivered on customers' premises or through ACI's private cloud, we provide real-time, immediate payments capabilities and enable the industry's most complete omni-channel payments experience. To learn more about ACI, please visit www.aciworldwide.com. You can also find us on Twitter @ACI_Worldwide.

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ACI, ACI Worldwide, the ACI logo, ACI Universal Payments, UP, the UP logo and all ACI product/solution names are trademarks or registered trademarks of ACI Worldwide, Inc., or one of its subsidiaries, in the United States, other countries or both. Other parties' trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.