Solaris joins ACI network to enable SEPA Instant payments

Solaris has gone live on ACI Worldwide’s payments platform to enable SEPA Instant Credit Transfers for its banking and fintech clients across the Single Euro Payments Area. The integration allows customers to send and receive euro credit transfers that settle within seconds via ACI’s processing network.

Solaris connected its settlement and account-management systems to ACI’s platform, which provides clearing, real-time processing and the messaging standards used for euro instant payments. Solaris will expose the capability through the APIs and banking services it provides to partner fintechs and marketplaces.

SEPA Instant transfers are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and settle within seconds across participating SEPA countries, subject to limits set by the European Payments Council. ACI’s platform will manage transaction routing, message orchestration and interoperability with other banks and service providers on the SEPA Instant rails.

The functionality covers use cases such as instant payroll, merchant payouts, peer-to-peer transfers and time-sensitive supplier payments. For fintechs using Solaris for regulated account infrastructure, the integration removes the need to build and certify a direct connection to the SEPA Instant rails. Solaris will continue to handle regulatory compliance, liquidity management and customer onboarding while ACI provides transaction processing.

Solaris and ACI previously worked together on payments connectivity projects; the recent go-live expands Solaris’s ability to offer real-time euro transfers at scale. ACI Worldwide operates processing platforms used by banks and processors to support instant credit transfers, card processing and fraud screening.

SEPA Instant Credit Transfer was introduced by the European Payments Council in 2017 to allow immediate transfers across participating banks in the single euro payments zone. Adoption has increased as banks, processors and payment service providers add support for the rails and as demand for faster settlement grows in e-commerce, marketplaces and business-to-business payments.

The integration will make instant euro transfers available to a broader set of fintech partners and their end customers without each company having to build direct links to SEPA Instant infrastructure. The firms will operate under applicable euro clearing and payments rules as the capability is rolled out through Solaris’s API-driven services.