CIMB Bank, a major banking group in the ASEAN region and Malaysia’s second-largest financial services provider, has selected ACI Worldwide to implement a new payment solution.

The partnership involves deploying ACI’s ISO 20022-native platform to unify all account-to-account transactions—including real-time, ACH, RTGS, and cross-border payments—onto a single system.

The platform will first be launched in Malaysia and will serve as the foundation for CIMB Group’s regional payments infrastructure.

The move is part of CIMB’s Forward30 strategic plan and is aimed at future-proofing the bank’s core operations, reducing reliance on legacy systems, and supporting digital convergence.

The unified system is expected to enhance data exchange, improve operational efficiency, and help meet evolving regulatory standards.

ACI Worldwide currently powers 26 domestic and regional real-time payment schemes, including Malaysia’s Real-time Retail Payments Platform (RPP), which was introduced by national payments network PayNet in collaboration with ACI.

“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,”

said Ros Aziah, Group Chief Technology Officer, CIMB Bank.

“ACI is proud to be the strategic partner behind CIMB’s full-scale payment transformation—a complex, end-to-end overhaul that unified CIMB’s payment operations across real-time, high-value, low-value, and cross-border transactions onto a modern, enterprise-wide ISO20022 platform — and we are honored that our successful partnership has been recognised with a prestigious industry award.

This partnership is a testament to how forward-thinking banks like CIMB can lead in a digital-first economy in Malaysia and across ASEAN,”

said Leslie Choo, Senior Vice President, Managing Director – APAC, ACI Worldwide.