ACI Worldwide Launches Instant Pay Option for Merchants in the UK and Europe

ACI Worldwide, a global leader in mission-critical, real-time payments software, recently announced it has launched ACI Instant Pay — a real-time payments solution that enables merchants to accept instant online, mobile and in-store payments via a simple API integration with ACI Payments Orchestration Platform — in Europe and the U.K.

The move comes against the backdrop of a regulatory push in Europe. Banks across the Eurozone must comply with a proposed European Commission law, mandating financial institutions across the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) countries to offer instant payments under the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme, at the same cost or lower-than-standard credit transfers. The new regulation is aimed at unlocking the benefits of instant payments for European economies.

The U.K. has also embarked on a modernization journey of its Faster Payments scheme via the New Payments Architecture program. Consequently, more merchants are expected to adopt instant payments and reap the benefits they offer for their business and customers.

"Payments need to keep pace with an increasingly digital society. In Europe, 90% of people aged 16 to 74 now use the internet, and 74% buy or order goods online," commented Basant Singh, global head of ACI's merchant business. "In our expanding 'always on' transactional world, giving and receiving money electronically should be as instantaneous as handing over cash. As a long-term champion of instant payments, ACI is ready to help European merchants and their customers take advantage of the instant payments opportunity in the U.K. and Europe."

(Source: Finextra)