ACI Worldwide announced on February 17, 2026 that a leading UK retail bank has selected its Connetic cloud‑native payments hub for deployment, marking the platform’s first customer win in the United Kingdom. Connetic unifies SWIFT, CHAPS, and Faster Payments in a single SaaS environment, and also brings together account‑to‑account, card, and fraud‑prevention capabilities in one integrated solution.
The deployment demonstrates Connetic’s ability to deliver a fully integrated, real‑time payments solution to a mid‑market institution, validating the platform’s promise of lower‑risk modernization and faster time to value. For ACI, the win expands Connetic’s addressable market beyond large banks to mid‑sized institutions and fintechs, providing a tangible proof point for the company’s broader strategy to grow the platform’s adoption across Europe and the U.S. and to unlock new recurring revenue streams.
"ACI Connetic is gaining real global traction — and the UK deployment is a major milestone. Banks are facing unprecedented pressure to modernise quickly as payments grow more complex. ACI Connetic is more than a new payments product — it’s an operating model built for the digital economy, giving institutions the agility and scale they need to grow," said Richard Albery, head of banking, UK and Ireland at ACI Worldwide.
"Microsoft Azure is increasingly becoming a foundational platform for high‑performance enterprise payments. Our collaboration with ACI Worldwide helps banks access a cloud‑native approach that supports security, compliance, resilience and scalability, while enabling continuous innovation. As payments continue to evolve, cloud technology is playing an important role in helping institutions respond to digital commerce, regulatory change and rising customer expectations," added Christian Sarafidis, Chief Executive EMEA Financial Services.
Connetic was first unveiled in May 2025 and was further enhanced by ACI’s November 2025 acquisition of Greek fintech Payment Components, which added advanced messaging features. The partnership with Microsoft Azure underpins the platform’s cloud‑native architecture, positioning ACI to compete with players such as Stripe, PayPal, Adyen, FIS and Fiserv. The deployment aligns with a broader industry trend of banks centralising payment processing to streamline operations, reduce fragmentation, and navigate evolving regulations such as ISO 20022 and potential changes to CHAPS settlement hours.
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