US-based payments software company ACI Worldwide has introduced its real-time payments solution, ACI Instant Pay, intended for merchants in Europe and the UK.
ACI Instant Pay allows merchants to instantly accept online, mobile, and in-store payments, through a simple API integration with ACI Payments Orchestration Platform.
It can be easily integrated with existing checkout experiences, and provides access to low-cost payments, instant liquidity and reduced risk of fraud, said the company.
The launch of ACI Instant Pay follows a regulatory push in Europe, which mandates that banks across the Eurozone comply with the proposed European Commission (EC) law.
Under the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme, financial institutions across the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) countries should provide instant payments at a cost that is equal to or lower than the normal credit transfers.
The new regulation aims to unlock the benefits of instant payments for European economies.
The UK also plans to modernise its Faster Payments scheme through the New Payments Architecture programme.
ACI said that its instant payment solution helps more merchants adopt instant payments and reap the benefits they offer for their businesses and customers.
Instant payments are important for merchants in the eCommerce business, where they depend on quicker delivery to remain competitive.
The new ACI Instant Pay solution allows merchants to accept payment for their goods and services at reduced operational costs, by eliminating interchange fees.
It enables instant payments reach directly to their bank accounts, with no settlement delays or chargebacks, allowing merchants to release goods and services immediately.
ACI merchant business global head Basant Singh said: “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.
“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.”
Last month, ACI Worldwide added the Swift Go feature to its cross-border payments offering, enabling the banks to use Swift Go through its ACI Enterprise Payments Platform.
