In a significant development poised to reshape the European payment landscape, Solaris SE, a prominent Berlin-based embedded finance platform, has announced a strategic partnership with global paytech leader ACI Worldwide. This collaboration will see Solaris consolidate all its Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) transactions onto ACI Worldwide’s innovative ACI Connetic payment hub. This move represents a pivotal step for Solaris in modernizing its payment infrastructure and enhancing its capabilities within the dynamic financial technology sector.
The Dawn of ACI Connetic: A Unified Payment Solution
Earlier this year, ACI Worldwide unveiled ACI Connetic, a revolutionary payment hub designed to address the increasing complexities faced by financial institutions globally. ACI Connetic stands out as a unified, cloud-native architecture that seamlessly integrates a comprehensive suite of payment functionalities. These include robust account-to-account (A2A) payment processing, efficient card processing, and advanced, AI-powered fraud prevention mechanisms. This consolidated approach allows financial entities to operate with greater efficiency, agility, and security, simplifying what has traditionally been a fragmented and resource-intensive operational domain.
Tom Warsop, CEO and President of ACI Worldwide, underscored the strategic importance of this platform. “ACI Connetic represents a significant step-change in our commitment to supporting financial institutions as they navigate the complexities of the global payments landscape,” Warsop stated. He emphasized that in an environment characterized by escalating payment complexity and stringent regulatory demands, ACI Connetic provides the necessary agility, resilience, and innovative framework crucial for driving digital transformations, ensuring sustainable growth, and achieving long-term success for its clients.
Driving Digital Transformation Through Centralized Payments
The decision by Solaris SE to migrate its instant payment capabilities to ACI Connetic aligns perfectly with the broader industry trend of embracing centralized payment processing. Industry analysts and financial institutions alike are increasingly recognizing the profound benefits of payment hubs. These systems offer a streamlined approach to managing diverse payment types, significantly reducing operational overheads and fostering an environment conducive to rapid innovation. By centralizing operations, organizations can achieve enhanced oversight, improve data analytics, and respond more swiftly to market changes and evolving customer expectations.
The advantages extend beyond mere operational efficiency. ACI Connetic empowers financial institutions to simplify their intricate operations, accelerate the pace of innovation, and comply with emerging regulatory and compliance requirements with unprecedented agility and at a reduced cost. This holistic solution is engineered to mitigate the risks associated with disparate payment systems, offering a robust and scalable foundation for future growth. Solaris SE joins a growing roster of esteemed financial services entities globally—including leading clearing and settlement systems such as the Bank of England, Swift, the US Federal Reserve, and The Clearing House—that are integrating their payment capabilities into ACI Connetic, a testament to its industry acceptance and effectiveness.
Solaris SE: Pioneering Embedded Finance in Europe
Solaris SE, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, has carved a niche for itself as a leading European embedded finance platform. Its journey began as Solarisbank in 2016, securing a German banking license and quickly establishing itself as an innovative force. The company rebranded to Solaris in 2022, concurrently transitioning its legal status from a German AG (Aktiengesellschaft) to an SE (Societas Europea or European company). Today, Solaris offers a sophisticated Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform, enabling a diverse clientele, from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to multinational corporations, to seamlessly embed a broad spectrum of financial solutions into their offerings. These solutions span digital banking, payments, card services, and lending, democratizing access to financial services and fostering a new era of digital commerce.
Carsten Höltkemeyer, CEO of Solaris SE, articulated the strategic rationale behind this partnership. “Migrating our instant payments capabilities to ACI Connetic marks a key milestone in Solaris’ digital transformation and growth journey,” Höltkemeyer stated. He emphasized that this move not only future-proofs Solaris’ payment infrastructure but also significantly accelerates service innovation, thereby enhancing the value proposition delivered to its partners and their end customers across the European continent. This collaboration is set to bolster Solaris's ability to provide cutting-edge, reliable, and scalable payment services, reinforcing its position as a frontrunner in the embedded finance space.
ACI Worldwide: A Legacy of Payment Innovation
With a heritage spanning since 1975, ACI Worldwide boasts a long-standing history as a Finovate alum since 2011, and also an alum of the FinDEVr Silicon Valley conference. The company provides cutting-edge solutions that power intelligent, real-time payments orchestration, enabling banks, billers, and merchants to deploy modern payment technologies seamlessly and securely. ACI Worldwide’s impressive client roster includes the top 10 banks globally, and it directly or via Payment Service Providers (PSPs) enables over 80,000 merchants. Additionally, thousands of businesses and organizations benefit from its comprehensive bill payment solutions.
Headquartered in Elkhorn, Nebraska, ACI Worldwide demonstrates its vast scale by processing 25 billion cloud transactions and more than 225 billion consumer transactions annually. This immense processing capacity and extensive experience solidify ACI Worldwide's position as a critical enabler of the global payment ecosystem. The partnership with Solaris SE further exemplifies ACI’s commitment to driving innovation and efficiency in payments, extending its reach and impact within the rapidly evolving European market.
Conclusion: A Synergistic Future for European Payments
The collaboration between Solaris SE and ACI Worldwide marks a significant advancement in the pursuit of more integrated, efficient, and resilient payment systems in Europe. By consolidating SEPA payments onto the ACI Connetic platform, Solaris is not only optimizing its own operations but also setting a precedent for enhanced service delivery and innovation in embedded finance. This synergy between Solaris’s pioneering BaaS platform and ACI’s robust, cloud-native payment technology promises to deliver substantial benefits, including improved scalability, heightened security, and faster time-to-market for new financial products. As the digital economy continues to evolve, partnerships like this will be instrumental in shaping a future where payments are seamless, secure, and truly unified across borders.
