CIMB Bank Selects ACI Worldwide for Unified ISO 20022-Compliant Payments Platform

ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a global innovator in payments technology, today announced that CIMB Bank, one of ASEAN’s largest banking groups and Malaysia’s second largest financial services provider, has selected ACI’s payment solution to converge all account-to-account transactions—real-time, ACH, RTGS, and cross-border—onto a single, ISO 20022-native compliant platform.

This unified platform serves as the foundation for CIMB Group’s regional payments infrastructure, starting with its headquarters in Malaysia. It enables richer data exchange, straight-through processing, and enhanced interoperability, security, and compliance—key drivers for the industry’s shift toward ISO 20022 standardization. The solution reduces the complexity and risks associated with siloed legacy systems, improving operational efficiency and agility while minimizing costs.

Ros Aziah, Group Chief Technology Officer at CIMB Bank, said:
“CIMB’s payment transformation is a bold re-architecture of our core payments infrastructure to unify all payment flows. This enterprise-wide initiative is a cornerstone of our Forward30 Strategy, built to future-proof operations, accelerate digital convergence, and deliver seamless, secure, and intelligent payment experiences for both consumers and businesses. Aligned with ISO 20022 and powered by our partnership with ACI Worldwide, CIMB is positioning itself at the forefront of next-generation banking.”

The collaboration between CIMB Bank and ACI Worldwide recently received recognition at The Asian Banker (TAB) Global Financial Technology Innovation Awards 2025, winning in the “Best Corporate Banking and Payment Technology Initiative in Asia Pacific” category. TAB highlighted the project’s technological innovation, customer-centric approach, and its ability to enhance security, scalability, and adaptability to evolving regulatory requirements.

Leslie Choo, Senior Vice President and Managing Director – APAC at ACI Worldwide, commented:
“ACI is proud to be the strategic partner behind CIMB’s full-scale payment transformation—a complex, end-to-end overhaul unifying payment operations across multiple transaction types onto a modern ISO 20022 platform. Our award-winning partnership underscores how forward-thinking banks like CIMB are leading the digital-first economy in Malaysia and the ASEAN region.”

With five decades of experience, ACI Worldwide powers 26 domestic and pan-regional real-time payment schemes globally, including Malaysia’s Real-time Retail Payments Platform (RPP), developed with national payments network PayNet. The company supports all 10 of the world’s largest financial institutions by asset value, enabling trillions of dollars in transactions daily.