ACI Worldwide Is Buying Its Way Into the Next Generation of Card Switching

Hey Payments Fanatic!

Card payments are still growing fast, but a lot of the infrastructure processing them was built long before cloud-native architecture became the norm.

ACI Worldwide wants to change that.

The payments technology giant has agreed to acquire Cranium Ventures and its SYNAP microservices-based card switching technology, bringing it into ACI Connetic for Cards. The deal is designed to accelerate ACI’s move toward cloud-native card processing across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.

With global card purchase transactions projected to top 1.1 trillion by 2029, modernising the infrastructure underneath them is becoming a pretty important problem to solve.

And while ACI is upgrading the rails, Block is showing what strong payments economics can look like, posting $3.17B in gross profit in Q2.

Let’s see what else is happening today in payments. 👇

See you tomorrow!

Cheers,

Marcel

INSIGHTS

💡 $3.17B in Gross Profit in Q2 2026. Block delivered $3.17B in gross profit (+25% YoY), with adjusted operating income up 57% and a record $1.02 EPS. Cash App gross profit reached $1.97B (+31%), while Square generated $1.16B (+13%), as Block raised its full-year guidance across gross profit, operating income, and EPS. The full story can be checked here

NEWS

🇺🇾 dLocal and Alternative Airlines partner on flexible payments, for travel bookings in emerging markets. The deal connects Alternative Airlines to local BNPL providers in Colombia and Brazil via dLocal's BNPL Fuse platform, with more markets planned.

🇬🇧 Checkout.com selects Thrive as its new learning platform, covering compliance onboarding and skills development. The payments processor, which handles over $300B in global payments, will use Thrive's AI-powered tools across its global team.

🇺🇸 Klarna and Rare Carat team up, to bring flexible payments to engagement ring shopping. U.S. customers can now choose Pay in 4 or 0% APR financing on purchases that average $5,000 to $6,500.

🇺🇸 ACI Worldwide to acquire Cranium Ventures, adding microservices card switching to ACI Connect for Cards. The cloud-native technology strengthens ACI's payments orchestration platform.

🇺🇸 OpenPayd strengthens its U.S. position through the acquisition of 43 state licences. The deal expands the embedded finance provider's regulatory coverage across the United States.

🇺🇸 Block opens up its Cash App Score to other lenders. The move lets external lenders access Cash App's proprietary credit scoring data to broaden lending decisions beyond traditional bureaus.

🇮🇱 PayPal lays off nearly a fourth of its employees in Israel, as part of a global plan to cut 20% of its workforce over two to three years. The restructuring targets $1.5B in annual savings and aims to accelerate AI use across company operations, with 60 to 75 Israeli roles affected.

🇺🇸 Visa launches enhanced A2A Protect innovations, to help financial institutions stop fraud before money leaves accounts. The new capabilities detect and block suspicious A2A transfers in real time.

🇧🇪 Wise is the first company named under Belgium's AML regime. The National Bank of Belgium published the decision as part of its new name-and-shame strategy following FATF criticism.

🇮🇳 India is preparing to roll out agentic payments on UPI, allowing AI agents to initiate transactions autonomously on users' behalf. The move would make UPI one of the first major payment rails to natively support AI-driven payments.

🇫🇷 Orange becomes the first merchant in France to offer Wero for bill payments. The telecom giant enables customers to pay bills via the European A2A payment method.

🇪🇬 OPay applies for a digital banking license in Egypt, signaling a major expansion beyond its existing payment infrastructure. The company already operates licensed electronic payment services with over 300,000 merchant points of sale across all Egyptian governorates.

🇱🇺 Wero launches in Luxembourg, expanding its instant payment solution to a fourth market. As Payconiq transitions to Wero, users will gain access to instant account-to-account and online payments.

🇦🇪 Vision Bank launches SME financing, to support cross-border trade from its ADGM base. The Islamic bank will originate short-term trade finance through digital platform partnerships.

🌎 Marcura closes the procurement-to-payment loop, with a new platform connecting purchase orders to supplier payments in maritime. The solution eliminates manual reconciliation across the shipping procurement cycle.

🇱🇻 Handwave announces expanded agreement with Visa, to support biometric payments across Europe. The FinTech will integrate Visa's tokenisation, authentication, and fraud tools to scale palm-based card onboarding securely across European markets.

🇬🇧 Paymentology and Maxim target Africans in the UK, with a credit card for those with limited local credit histories. The programme aims to serve financially established individuals who lack a UK credit footprint despite active financial lives elsewhere.

🇦🇺 Zenith Payments appoints Anthony Drury as CEO. Drury previously held executive roles at American Express, easyJet, Zip, and PayPal, and will lead the company's next growth phase.

GOLDEN NUGGET

One card tap. Three completely separate steps behind it.

Authorization, capture, settlement. Here's what each one actually does 👇

1️⃣ 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (real-time, seconds)
The "can this card pay?" check.
The request routes: Cardholder → Merchant → Acquirer → Card network → Issuing bank
The issuing bank approves (and places a hold) or declines.
No money moves yet. Just a promise.

2️⃣ 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 (end of day, batch)
The merchant tells the acquirer to collect on that approval.
Acquirer → Card network → Issuing bank
The authorized transaction gets added to the clearing file.
Usually batched at the end of the day, not instantly.

3️⃣ 𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 (1-3 business days)
Now the funds finally move.
Issuing bank → Card network → Acquirer → Merchant
This is when the money actually lands in the merchant's account.

The key insight is simple:
"Approved" and "paid" are two different moments.
A card can be authorized in seconds, but the merchant often waits days to see the money.

📷 Source: Solidgate

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