ACI INNOVATION AWARDS

Hall of fame

These organizations utilized ACI’s software to bring payments innovation to life.

2019 winners

ANZ New Zealand

New Zealand’s largest financial services group. Representing nearly one in two New Zealanders, ANZ New Zealand has a long track record of demonstrating innovation for its customers. Most recently, the banking leader embarked on an innovative way to ensure security and customer confidence in new digital payment channels, specifically, New Zealand’s modernization initiative of ACH payments known as “Cleared Funds” — by dynamically assessing risk in real time before a transaction is completed using a variety of payments intelligence data sources.


Avant

A leading online lending platform for consumers. Avant, which serves more than 600,000 customers, implemented an API-driven solution that has helped it evolve into more than just a consumer lending company. Its ability to create, support and develop technology in house makes the organization a force in the industry in supporting both the consumer lending market and its growing base of customers.


ING

A Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation. ING embarked on a journey to become a globally scalable bank with one digital platform. As part of this journey, the banking leader worked with ACI on implementing a new agile approach to automation specific to its clearing and settlement solution. This approach has enabled ING to provide better focus on business innovation for its customers while being able to decrease time and financial resources on solution maintenance and support.


PayNet

The national payments network and central infrastructure provider for Malaysia. PayNet implemented Malaysia’s Real-time Retail Payments Platform (RPP) using ACI’s Consumer Payment Processing solution. RPP and DuitNow, Malaysia’s instant credit transfer via proxy ID, are the foundation for payments transformation in Malaysia, which is aimed at modernizing the ePayments ecosystem and driving innovation for the country’s more than 31 million residents.


Universal Studios

Universal Orlando Resort implemented a new and innovative wearable that allows guests at Universal’s Volcano Bay water theme park to wait in “virtual lines” so they can have fun or relax while waiting to experience attractions, make cashless payments — and more. The “Tapu Tapu” wearable debuted at Volcano Bay last summer.

2018 winners

  • ABN AMRO—one of Europe’s largest banks, ABN AMRO implemented several innovative fraud detection and prevention solutions, reducing fraud losses by implementing “Fraud as a Service” and predicting upcoming fraudulent events using non-financial data. With the combination of these innovations, ABN AMRO can predict possible fraud activities before any fraud losses occur.
  • Belk—a leading merchant with department stores based in the Southern United States, Belk’s commitment to innovation is reflected in its ambitious initiative where it is completing a full upgrade to almost every technology touchpoint—from core switching to digital commerce and alternative payment type acceptance and more.
  • DBS— As the largest bank in Southeast Asia, DBS has introduced a revolutionary payment framework underpinned by ACI’s UP Real Time Payments. Since the new platform went live three months ago, it has enabled industry firsts such as the successful launch of the Singapore Fast and Secure Transfers (FAST) payment gateway, as well as the WeChat Pay gateway, which enables customers outside of China the ability to bundle their DBS credit cards with the WeChat Pay service.
  • Erste Bank Hungary (EBH)—one of the largest financial service providers in Central and Eastern Europe, EBH is one of the first banks in the region to fully meet PSD2 and instant payments compliance requirements. It is also one of only a few banks to deploy a future-proofed solution with the ability to deliver additional value, rather than a short-term workaround to meet compliance.
  • LoanCare—a leading United States provider of full-service residential servicing to the mortgage industry, LoanCare’s agents can remain in an application they are already using while providing a new feature for debit card acceptance with little effort, while remaining PCI compliant—an industry first, as debit cards are not integrated into any other system of record for mortgage servicing.
  • Santander Bank—a United States-based wholly-owned subsidiary of Santander Group, Santander introduced a new, multi-layer, secure access platform with its launch of commercial online banking system, Santander Treasury Link. This innovation delivers a single integrated gateway and central provisioning platform, improving the client experience for both clients and the bank’s client onboarding and servicing teams, by enabling the ability to manage access to products and services with greater ease and control. With Santander Link, the branded single sign on digital access platform, the bank plans to add access to more of its cash management solutions in the future.
  • Suncorp Group—one of Australia’s largest banks. Suncorp is well down the journey of true enterprise-wide, real-time payments risk management with Debit Card, ATM, POS, Branch banking transactions and, most recently, Digital Wallet in one solution with remaining Digital banking channel migration also well under way. The initiative has directly addressed the business challenge of achieving a cross-channel, 360-degree view of activity while minimizing friction to genuine customers. This has resulted in being able to provide a more complete picture of the customer, which has not only significantly increased the accuracy of fraud detection, but has also enabled fraud analysts to make quick decisions when an account is alerted as they have all the information needed on the one screen.

2017 winners

  • Auchan Retail International – one of the world’s largest retailers, Auchan leveraged new card payments standards and took control of the payment chain to more effectively innovate, improve time to market, reduce costs and ultimately improve customer satisfaction.
  • Everlink – a leading provider of comprehensive, innovative and integrated payment solutions and services to Canadian Financial Institutions, Everlink successfully deployed Proactive Risk Manager, augmenting it with enhanced rules and integration into SMS messaging for a 360-degree measure of customer protection. This deployment is leading the way in Canada with the capability of protecting upwards of 300 FIs and millions of Canadians.
  • MB Financial – a top commercial bank, MB Financial implemented a best-in-class internal training and communication program in which every customer received specialized training related to a major systems conversion.
  • Nicholas Financial – a consumer finance company, Nicholas Financial pioneered new payments channels and technologies to increase electronic payment adoption while reducing print and mail costs—increasing customer adoption and satisfaction.
  • Rabobank Nederland – a leading bank in the Netherlands, Rabobank implemented a complete new debit card payment infrastructure. By standardizing on solutions, Rabobank was able to realize a faster time to market ratio, allowing the bank to be more responsive to new developments like mobile payments with new services, the rapid emergence of wearables, the internet of things and biometrics.
  • The Co-operative Group – the leading convenience retailer in U.K., Co-op established a customer rewards experience unmatched among national merchants; the program has generated significant increases in customer loyalty and community engagement.
  • Westpac New Zealand Limited – a faster payments pioneer in the Asia Pacific region, Westpac NZ implemented a new payments engine capable of meeting the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s mandated go-live date for hourly intraday settlement and interchange of electronic credits and payments. 

2016 winners

Merchant Innovation Award Winners: 

  • Domino’s
  • Allpago
  • Credorax 

Billers Solution Winner:

  • Shaw Systems 

Risk Management Solution Winner:

  • Westpac 

Retail Banking Solution Winners:

  • ING
  • Indian Bank

Wholesale Banking Solution Winners:

  • Rynoh 
  • DBS

2015 winners

  • AGS Transact Technologies Ltd: AGS’ transaction switching services cater to the needs of banks and other financial institutions across the payment transactions value chain. These services include assisting banks in the issuance of new cards, migrating their existing card base and the authorization of cards, enabling improved customer experience. The switching services are built around Postilion, ACI’s market-leading consumer payment solution.
  • Ent Federal Credit Union: A leading Colorado, US-based credit union, Ent provides a full range of financial services. Creating a rich user experience in a cost-conscious manner is a must for the credit union. Ent’s innovative use of Architect, ACI’s single end-to-end solution for banking, mobile, marketing and administration, allowed it to efficiently execute on a mobile strategy that offered the same optimized experience to any Apple or Android device user. The immense popularity of its initiative is evident by the 66,000 active members that regularly use its site.
  • Union Bank of India: A pioneering leader in implementing real-time, any to any payments solutions in the Asia Pacific region using BASE24, ACI’s award-winning electronic retail payment switch, Union Bank is committed to accelerating the conversion of cash to electronic payments. Its implementation of an Identity-enabled payment system highlights the importance it places on reaching the underserved through financial inclusion.

2014 winners

  • AGS Transact Technologies Ltd: Banking and Payments Excellence Award – In response to the changing relationship between banks and customers due to the rapid adoption of mobile phones, AGS Transact Technologies Ltd utilized ACI’s Postilion suite to design Card Maintenance through SMS, providing customers a host of mobile-based card services through SMS.
  • DBS Bank: Innovator of the Year Excellence Award & Wholesale Payments Excellence Award – DBS Bank developed its award-winning corporate internet and mobile banking payment platform, DBS IDEAL, with the help of ACI Universal Online Banker, providing customers with a single login to access account statements and securely initiate transactions on a real-time basis. To date, IDEAL serves over 162,000 corporate users in 104,000 institutions that access the platform across more than 100 countries, processing more than 40 million transactions annually.
  • Dupont Community Credit Union: Online Banking Excellence Award – Three months after launching its online channel with both ACI’s Bill Payment and Architect Banking, 80 percent of the Dupont Community Credit Union’s active account holders adopted the online channel for its flexibility and ease-of-use, far exceeding goals.
  • Federal Bank of India: Customer Service Excellence Award – Federal Bank leveraged ACI’s BASE24 to develop its Card Online Management and Inquiry Tool (COMIT) service, which enables the bank to better address customer demand for managing card parameters.
  • Interswitch: Retail Payments Excellence Award – Prior to the emergence of electronic payments in Nigeria, transactions were solely cash-based, posing significant financial implications and economic challenges to both businesses and individuals. Driven to solve these challenges and with ACI’s Postilion as an enabling technology, Verve was launched by Nigeria’s leading integrated payment processing and transaction switching company, Interswitch. With the introduction of the Verve Chip + PIN card, both individuals and organizations have adopted electronic payments for their everyday transactions, and over 20 million Verve cards have been issued in Nigeria. Verve is the country’s most dominant card brand with a growing 60 percent market share.
  • Quickteller: Product & Services Innovation Excellence Award – Quickteller, built with ACI’s Postilion, is a Value Added Service (VAS) platform that provides customers convenient and secure access to vital services via Web, ATM and Mobile. Powered by the Interswitch network, Quickteller offers customers efficient services that include funds transfers, bill payments and airtime recharge, in addition to seamless online ticket purchase. Quickteller is Nigeria’s fastest growing lifestyle enabler brand.
  • IndusInd Bank: Operational Excellence Award – IndusInd Bank, which utilizes ACI BASE24, was recognized for three initiatives: Cash-on-Mobile service, which allows customers to withdraw or send money to a recipient by using only the recipient’s mobile number and allows the receiver to withdraw funds from any IndusInd Bank ATM without using any card; second, a service, which enables customers to change their ATM Pins via an Interactive Voice Response system; and third, Stop Cheque application, which streamlines the process through which customers can stop payment on checks.
  • Lee County Electric Cooperative: Electronic Bill Pay & Presentment Excellence Award – Lee County Electric Cooperative, which utilizes ACI’s Electronic Bill Pay & Presentment (EBPP) Services, increased its convenient payment options from 2 to more than 20, leading to a 10 percent increase in customer satisfaction and $3 million in annual cost savings.
  • TEB: Payments Fraud Excellence Award – As fraudsters develop new ways to unlawfully gain information about people and transactions, TEB, with the help of ACI Proactive Risk Manager, has worked to combat attacks while maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction and convenience.
  • Merit Recognition recipients:
    • ABN AMRO: Retail Banking
    • First Data: Product & Services Innovation
    • Maybank: Operational Excellence
    • UKRCard: Operational Excellence

2013 winners

  • Union Bank of India: Overall ACI Excellence Award Winner – UBI’s Talking ATM has set a benchmark for accessible banking in India and provided financial access to the blind person in getting cash on their own at anytime. It has provided greater banking usability for the blind, illiterate and aged populations. The development of a configuration on BASE24 host end, made it possible to develop a bilingual Talking ATM solution that uses synthetic speech and requires no special ATM card/binto initiate speech mode. BASE24 host software has the capability to process the message data related to voice guidance and uses it  to develop a config file download solution. 
  • Federal Bank of India: Product Innovation, Public Voting Winner – Federal Easy Gold is a new benchmark in the industry as far as loan against pledge of gold is considered. If customer convenience is the need, Easy Gold is the solution. It is an innovative scheme and the first of its kind in India. It is an overdraft facility against a pledge of gold that offers the comfort of withdrawing the loan amount using a debit card. The loan amount can be withdrawn through the ATMs of any bank/agency world over, or can be used to make merchant payments via POS (Point of Sale) terminals. Customers can also request for cheque book facility under the scheme.
  • Mercantile Bank of Michigan: Mobile Banking and Payments Excellence – ACI’s efforts to build an industry leading mobile banking solution has exceeded our expectations, and given Mercantile a platform to build a mobile experience that rivals/exceeds that of many of the largest banks in the world. A well -designed native app user interface across iOS, Android, Black Berry platforms and especially the new tablet-specific layout has been generating a very positive response from our user base.  Beyond that, the depth of features and functions within the new apps (including P2P, bill pay, and the upcoming RDC) can compete well with any FI offering. 
  • HDFC: Operational Excellence in Self-Service – HDFC’s Green Pin Project – ending physical paper PIN mailers to customers for new cards or new PIN requests – was supported and delivered by integrating web services and BASE24. Green Pin is supported for instant PIN generation and bulk PIN generation. In both cases, the customer would receive a 6 digit “AUTH code” via SMS on their registered mobile number. This “AUTH code” has to be used along with the physical ATM card and customer’s mobile number at an HDFC Bank ATM (10,000+ across the country) to validate the customer. Then the customer can select an ATM PIN for further transactions.
  • Bankart d.o.o: Operational Excellence in Fraud Management – Bankart, a large regional processor, faced competition from other processors within the local market.  In order to successfully compete, Bankart realized it would have to offer increased levels of service to customers, particularly around the area of fraud prevention. Bankart also had to ensure that it would have robust processes and practices in place designed to meet the latest PCI DSS compliance requirements coming into force. To achieve these goals, Bankart implemented a tokenization service for their BASE24 authorization system to support the authentication and verification of card payments, at the same time replacing their existing fraud prevention service with the introduction of ACI Proactive Risk Manager, the first version 8.0 installation in the world.
  • The Palmetto Bank: Customer Experience Excellence Award As a community bank, we know well the challenges of keeping pace with the demands for new banking technology and being able to offer competitive solutions with other larger institutions in our market, which is why we partnered with ACI to help us complete a total upgrade of our self-service channels in 2012. The first driver of this move was that we were in need of an upgrade of our nearly 18 year-old voice system that we were running with our core provider. There was also an even greater need to be able to have a more comprehensive platform for our self-service banking channels that provided both the bank and our customers with a consistent user experience, which wasn’t currently possible with our disparate channels.  

2012 winners

  • Federal Bank in India: Federal Bank of India has implemented two distinct but related schemes designed to improve access to banking channels and to replace cash transactions with more efficient and cost effective electronic payments. The first project is a partnership with the newly established Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to facilitate transactions from traditionally unbanked individuals by using their unique identifying number and biometric information. The second is India’s first implementation of the Visa Personal Payments service that allows Visa Debit cardholders to receive domestic and cross-border remittance payments in near real-time.
  • Nationwide Building Society: In order to improve its fraud detection rates, minimize the impact of any fraud attempts on its customers, and to maintain its reputation for customer confidence and trust Nationwide Building Society undertook a number of enhancements to its implementation of Proactive Risk Manager from ACI Worldwide. By including richer, more comprehensive customer data and industry fraud alerts within Proactive Risk Manager’s rules and aggregates, and improving its real-time analysis and authorization functionality, Nationwide has created a highly sophisticated level of fraud detection that has placed the building society at the forefront of card fraud detection globally.
  • HSBC Bank: HSBC Bank in the UK has relied on BASE24 to handle debit card transactions for more than twenty years. Over that time HSBC had developed more than 5,000 customisations to the core product, creating a system that took time, effort and expensive resources to respond to changing external requirements. To maximise investment already made in hardware, HSBC undertook a project to upgrade to the latest version of BASE24 and to use standard product for all MasterCard BankNet and VISA VisaNet interfaces enabling it to use standard ACI compliance mandate code making it easier and more cost effective to apply future fixes and upgrades. 
  • Union Bank of India: Thanks to its huge population and rapidly growing economy the value of India’s domestic remittances was worth US$13 billion in 2010 and has an expected growth rate of 15 percent year on year. Of these remittances, 90 percent are channeled through banks. The Union Bank of India has created a one-stop shop for domestic, inter-bank remittances through its extensive network of ATMs. The solution gives customers the option of three distinct remittance services and enables them to send money to their chosen beneficiaries throughout the country using a familiar and convenient channel.  

2020 winners

Alto Indonesia logo

Alto

Alto, a leading national switch in Indonesia, implemented a robust, flexible and scalable retail payments platform to enable rapid time to market for innovative payment services and channels. ACI’s retail payments technology allowed Alto to launch cutting-edge payment services quickly and efficiently, enabling them to be at the forefront of digital payment services in Indonesia and across the ASEAN region.  

The Co-Operative (Co-op)

One of the U.K.’s largest convenience food retailers, Co-op went above and beyond in delivering a seamless and convenient customer experience through its innovative Pay In Aisle technology. The app, which integrates with the ACI Secure eCommerce solution, allows time-pressed customers to scan products on their own device as they shop — delivering a “frictionless experience.” Co-op is the first supermarket in the U.K. where there is no need to queue to check out.  

State Bank of India (SBI)

India’s largest bank, with more than 440 million account holders, seamlessly updated and expanded its payments switching system using ACI’s retail payments technology to meet its requirement of processing more than 30 million daily transactions. Not only has SBI embarked on an initiative to modernize its transaction processing technology, increase resilience and ensure future scalability, it has also implemented enterprise fraud prevention with ACI’s fraud management solution for debit cards, mobile banking, internet banking, pre-paid and UPI payments — at an enormous scale rarely seen globally.

Swarthmore College

Swarthmore, a highly selective U.S. college of liberal arts and engineering located outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, wanted to optimize its students’ payments experience. Working with ACI and its ACI Speedpay solution, the college now offers its students and their families real-time access to all of their account information, as well as the ability to make payments through any device. Since its launch, Swarthmore has experienced 95 percent enrollment in its new payments application.