ACI Worldwide Is Building the Infrastructure for Smarter Payments
Hey Payments Fanatic!
ACI Worldwide is expanding ACI Connetic with a new financial messaging layer designed to help banks deal with one of the messiest parts of modern payments: connecting different rails, formats, and systems in real time.
The new capability can translate, validate, enrich, and route payment messages while supporting ISO 20022 and both domestic and cross-border networks. The goal is pretty simple: less infrastructure complexity, better payment data, and more visibility across the entire flow.
But there’s a bigger idea here. As payments become faster and more fragmented, the messaging layer is becoming just as important as the payment rails themselves — especially if banks want to build real-time and AI-driven services on top of them.
And Australia’s Payments Map 2026 shows just how diverse the ecosystem has become, spanning payments, wallets, cards, lending and infrastructure.
Let’s get into today’s Payments stories. 👇 See you on Monday!
Cheers,
INSIGHTS
💡 Australia Payments Map 2026. The latest payments landscape shows just how broad Australia’s fintech ecosystem has become, bringing together hundreds of companies across payments, remittances, wallets, card services, lending, payment infrastructure, and B2B solutions. The map highlights a highly diverse market with fintechs operating across almost every layer of the payments stack. Explore the full map here
NEWS
🇬🇧 3S Money launches business debit cards, expanding its product suite for international businesses. The multi-currency cards complement the firm's existing global account and local IBAN infrastructure across the UK, Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
🇪🇪 Creem announces Airwallex as its new payments infrastructure partner. The Estonian merchant-of-record platform now runs across multiple payment rails to eliminate single-point-of-failure risk for its merchants.
🇦🇪 Citi and Mastercard launch Smart Subscriptions in the UAE, marking Citi's first global deployment of the solution and the first Mastercard subscription management rollout in the Middle East. Citi cardholders can view and manage digital subscriptions directly in the Citi banking app, with issuers adopting the tool seeing a 10% average increase in subscription spend.
🇺🇸 ACI Worldwide expands ACI Connetic with advanced financial messaging, adding cloud-native capabilities for real-time domestic and cross-border payments. The upgrade helps banks modernize payments infrastructure and scale ISO 20022 migration without replacing legacy systems.
🇺🇸 Microsoft, Marvell, and Utimaco deliver a cloud-scale payments security platform, combining hardware security modules with Azure infrastructure. Azure Payment HSM v2 enables financial institutions to secure payment workloads and meet PCI compliance without managing physical HSMs.
🇦🇪 NEOPAY and Deem Finance partner on UAE SME working capital, combining payment technology with financing solutions. The collaboration aims to support small businesses across the Emirates with improved access to capital.
🇸🇦 Alipay+ to launch in Saudi Arabia, enabling cross-border QR code payments between the mada national scheme and Ant International's global wallet gateway. The rollout connects local merchants to over 1.7 billion user accounts across 36 partners in 70 markets.
🇺🇸 Chainlink connects 600+ banks to onchain payments via Bottomline, as the top-three SWIFT service provider launches Global Pay Connect. Institutions can access blockchain payment rails through existing SWIFT messaging standards without replatforming or building bespoke integrations.
🇺🇸 BofA's CashPro App facilitates more than €100 billion in payments approved by European companies. In the first seven months of 2026, transaction volume rose 25% and payment value increased 21% as mobile treasury usage reaches mainstream adoption across the region.
🇨🇳 PayPal meets with PBOC to discuss China expansion plans. The payments giant held talks with the People's Bank of China as it explores broader access to the Chinese market.
🇺🇸 Emburse launches AI-powered accounts payable and payments solution built for growing organizations. The platform aims to automate invoice processing and payment workflows for midmarket companies.
🇺🇸 Ripple adds XRP payments to Stripe and Tempo's AI standard in a new developer kit. The update expands support for automated payments in XRP and RLUSD, with tools that let AI agents manage wallets across blockchains.
🌏 Ripple partners with SBI and Kyobo to complete direct Japan-Korea stablecoin transfer pilot. The trial used RLUSD to settle a cross-border payment between Japan and South Korea without a correspondent bank.
🇬🇧 Payments company Ryft lands £20 million in Series B funding for its expansion push. The Manchester-based firm secured the round led by growth investors to scale its payments platform across new markets.
🇳🇱 Nadya Maffei announces exit from Shopify as she joins payments company Adyen. The executive departs the e-commerce giant to take on a role at the Amsterdam-based payments platform.
🇺🇸 Pagaya appoints payments pioneer Jason Gardner to its board of directors, adding deep industry expertise to its leadership. Gardner, known for founding Marqeta, brings decades of payments and FinTech experience to the AI lending platform.
Trusted reach among senior decision-makers in FinTech, Payments & Banking.
👉 Explore Partnership here
Comments ()