An ACI customer in South Africa since 1997, FNB will continue to leverage ACI's flagship BASE24-atm and BASE24-pos payments software to route and switch ATM and POS transactions across its network. In addition, FNB, the largest merchant acquirer in South Africa, has licensed ACI Proactive Risk Manager to detect and prevent merchant fraud. The adoption of ACI's fraud monitoring software was necessary to comply with Visa's fraud mandate requiring banks to implement an automated risk management solution for acquiring.

ACI software allows FNB's clients, primarily large merchants and retailers, to offer consumers a stable and reliable payments service. In addition, ACI's solutions have been certified EMV compliant with both Visa and MasterCard in anticipation of the local adoption of EMV cards.

With ACI's flagship software, FNB is equipped with a robust and cost-effective platform for merchant acquiring. In addition FNB will benefit from predictability in terms of processing cost and further economies of scale as their transaction volume continues to grow.

FNB's BASE24 system is deployed in Johannesburg to provide processing for South Africa with a separate logical node created to process transactions from FNB's subsidiary in Botswana. In addition to compliance with Visa's fraud mandate, FNB is using ACI Proactive Risk Manager to enhance merchant risk management, thereby further reducing the bank's risk profile.

"FNB is part of a growing list of customers who have chosen ACI technology to help deliver world-class payment processing services," said Richard Launder, president of ACI Worldwide (EMEA). "Our BASE24 system provides stability and enables FNB to meet its demanding service level agreements with large retailers, allowing the bank to grow its merchant base and increase profitability of their business."

"ACI provided FNB with an attractive and very competitive cost per transaction, and in addition the service levels from ACI over the previous term were of a high standard," said Barry de Witt, CEO of FNB Corporate Transactional Banking. "From a business perspective, the reliability and scalability of the system offers FNB a stable platform to grow the business.

ACI's product strategy will continue to support the Bank's current and future requirements, while their consultative approach and advanced technology give us the flexibility to enhance future services. Furthermore, with our corporate division positioning itself as the transactional banker of choice to the South African corporate market, innovative payment and collection solutions are the key to achieve this goal.

"We believe our success is based on cultivating long-term relationships with our customers and proven solution providers such as ACI," added de Witt.