Press Release

ACI Advances Wholesale Payments Strategy Utilizing IBM Payments Framework

September 15, 2008
ACI Advances Wholesale Payments Strategy Utilizing IBM Payments Framework(New York, N.Y. – 15 September 2008) – ACI Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACIW), a leading international provider of software for electronic payment systems, today announced its plan to create an integrated wholesale payments solution optimized on IBM’s System z platform. The solution will build on the strength of ACI’s market-leading Money Transfer System to help banks meet near-term requirements for SEPA compliance while offering a longer term solution to support the convergence of high- and low-value payments using a service-oriented architecture (SOA). The first release of this solution will be available by the end of 2008.

ACI’s new MTS-eps™ solution will take full advantage of IBM hardware, software and services.  As part of a strategic alliance forged by the companies in 2007, IBM will provide ACI with technical staff and laboratory support for benchmarking and performance tuning its payments software.  The companies will focus a worldwide team of sales and technical specialists dedicating to selling ACI solutions on System z and helping clients simplify migrations from legacy systems.  

The new MTS-eps will provide a consolidated solution capable of processing both low- and high-value payments in a single system.  The first stage increases the functionality of the existing SEPA solution by incorporating the IBM Payments Framework on IBM System p.  Subsequent stages, available on both System z and System p, will incorporate functionality for middle office processing, bulk (ACH) processing and settlement, and the RTGS processing and settlement for which ACI’s current Money Transfer System is well-known. 

MTS-eps will be built on IBM SmartSOA Foundation, IBM Information Management, and Tivoli services management middleware and consistent with the IBM Payments Framework for Financial Services architecture.   

 “Our wholesale solutions strategy focuses on transforming the Money Transfer System into a true SOA solution,” said Ron Totaro, senior vice president at ACI.  “This step in our alliance with IBM brings us closer to our goal of creating a converged solution that serves the entire range of enterprise payments.  With the recent announcement of ACI’s fraud detection solution becoming available on System z, ACI and IBM can offer a uniquely powerful solution to meet the end-to-end needs of wholesale payments processing.”

June Yee Felix, general manager banking and financial markets for IBM, said, “Customers are looking for modern solutions to refresh outdated payments systems.  The combination of ACI’s new MTS-eps software on System z provides our joint clients with world-class performance and SOA flexibility to successfully manage increasing  transaction volumes, regulatory changes and IT cost pressures.”

About IBM

For information about IBM: www.ibm.com

About ACI Worldwide, Inc.

ACI Worldwide is a leading provider of electronic payments software and services to major banks, retailers and processors around the world. The company's solutions enable online payment processing, online banking, fraud prevention and detection, and back office services such as settlement, account management, card management and dispute processing. ACI solutions provide market-leading levels of reliability, manageability and scale to over 800 customers in 88 countries. Visit ACI Worldwide at www.aciworldwide.com.

Any statements in this press release regarding projected results are preliminary and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In addition, this press release may contain other forward-looking statements including statements regarding ACI Worldwide Incorporated, its subsidiaries or third parties’ expectations, predictions, views, opportunities, plans, strategies, beliefs, and statements of similar effect. The forward-looking statements in this press release are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially.

For a detailed discussion of these risk factors, parties that are relying on the forward-looking statements should review the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Form 10-K filed on January 30, 2008, the Company’s Form 10-Q filed on February 19, 2008, both as amended by the Form 10-K/A and Form 10-Q/A, respectively, filed on March 4, 2008, the Company’s 10-Q filed on May 9.2008, and the Company’s 10-Q filed on August 11, 2008.

Contact details

For more information contact:
Catherine Eyres
ACI Worldwide
+44 (0) 1923 812741
Catherine.eyres@aciworldwide.com

Investor Contacts

John Kraft, Head of Strategy & Finance
Email: john.kraft@aciworldwide.com

Global Headquarters:
ACI Worldwide
2811 Ponce de Leon Blvd, PH1
Coral Gables, FL 33134