ACI Worldwide Unveils Connetic for Cards Payments Hub

ACI Worldwide has announced the launch of ACI Connetic for Cards. This next-generation, modernised card payments suite is fully integrated within ACI Connetic, which ACI claims is “the industry’s first” unified cloud-native payments hub. 

Modernising the heart of retail payments

Despite the rise of real-time payments, cards continue to dominate globally. Fuelled by contactless adoption, e-commerce growth and B2B digitisation, global card transactions totalled 776 billion in 2024 and are projected to reach 1.1 trillion annually in 2029 – a 43% increase, according to research from Nilson Report. 

ACI Connetic for Cards aims to address this volume by unifying the company’s global strengths in acquiring, issuing and ATM solutions. 

ACI currently processes more than 300 billion card transactions annually, and this enterprise-grade modular suite supports the full transaction lifecycle. It captures and authenticates data across all channels, intelligently routes transactions to the appropriate hosts or networks, and securely authorises and clears to support settlement between institutions.

Thomas Warsop, CEO and President, ACI Worldwide comments: “When we introduced ACI Connetic, we set a new benchmark for how banks operate in the digital economy.  With ACI Connetic for Cards, we’re bringing that standard to the heart of retail payments –  modernising the issuing, acquiring and ATM capabilities banks depend on. It gives institutions a future-ready foundation that improves flexibility and agility by opening a low-risk path to new services, new payment types and continuous innovation.”

Efficiency through unified operations

As global card usage rises, banks are reassessing how well existing platforms support future demand. By unifying mission-critical functions, the suite provides the scale and resiliency needed to modernise processing operations and drive business growth.

The suite offers several key benefits:

• Trusted card payment processing: Mature, globally compliant capabilities refined over more than a decade
• Unified payments operations: A cloud-native, API-first platform with embedded fraud management and digital identity capabilities 
• Operational efficiency: Full integration with A2A payments to deliver greater resilience across the entire payments ecosystem.

“Banks need payments infrastructure that can evolve without elevating risk,” says Bill Farris, Head of Issuing and Acquiring at ACI Worldwide. 

“ACI Connetic for Cards brings card processing and account‑to‑account payments together on a single, cloud‑native platform, enhanced with advanced fraud and identity intelligence to deliver stronger resilience and operational efficiency. This is modern payments infrastructure built to evolve at the pace our customers require without risking stability.”

Accelerating innovation for consumer demand 

To streamline operations and accelerate innovation, financial institutions are increasingly adopting unified architectures. The new  infrastructure is built to evolve at the pace that can keep up with consumer demand. 

Peter Hüftlein, Head of Product Accounts, Solaris SE notes: “At Solaris, we value both the innovation and the depth of capability delivered through ACI Connetic. The unified, cloud-native approach supports us to simplify operations, accelerate change and innovate across payment types with far greater control. 

“ACI Connetic for our instant payments capabilities gives us a resilient, modern foundation that supports our growth and lets us deliver new customer experiences at speed.”

ACI Connetic was introduced in 2025, and its momentum has continued through 2026 with new deployments. ACI Connetic for Cards builds on this progress by applying the same unified approach to modernising card payment processing operations.