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Payment processor ACI Worldwide Inc. reported Thursday that Toronto-based BMO Financial Group, the parent company of Bank of Montreal and Chicago’s Harris Bank, has rolled out ACI’s payments hub, which can connect banks to real-time payment services.
The rollout took nine months, which BMO and Naples, Fla.-based ACI characterized as quite fast. “The launch of our payment hub is a cornerstone of our payment-modernization strategy and a very exciting step forward for BMO and our clients,” Sharon Haward-Laird, BMO Financial Group’s head of North American treasury and payment solutions, said in a news release. “Our speed to market differentiates BMO, and has been a significant win that has positioned us well to adapt quickly to shifting demands and enable the new payment rails we are working toward in the coming months.”
ACI’s services in the rapidly expanding faster-payments sector include UP Real-Time payments, which facilities real-time gross settlements, messaging through the SWIFT payment system, and automated clearing house transactions. ACI’s UP Immediate Payments service system provides the hub with gateway connectivity to real-time payment systems around the world.
The ACI-BMO development comes as the Payments Canada organization is overseeing a program to modernize Canada’s payment system and the Federal Reserve is embarking on its payments-improvement project in the U.S.
