STRATEGIC PARTNERS
January 10, 2002
OMAHA, Neb. and DENVER, May 17 /PRNewswire/ -- ACI Worldwide (Nasdaq: TSAI), a leading international provider of enterprise e-payment solutions, and Western Union Financial Services, Inc., a subsidiary of First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC) have agreed to add electronic money transfer capability to ACI's widely-used BASE24 ATM processing software.
The software addition will allow ACI's customers -- primarily financial institutions and ATM network owners -- to provide the Western Union Money Transfer service on their ATMs. BASE24 users in the U.S. include 53 of the top 100 financial institutions and seven of the top 10 ATM networks.
ACI also will provide services to help BASE24 users integrate the new functionality into their existing platforms.
The Western Union ATM Money Transfer service allows a consumer to electronically send money using any participating ATM by swiping an ATM card and then selecting the money transfer option. The user is prompted to select a personalized code and the desired dollar amount to transfer. The ATM provides the cardholder with a receipt and confirmation number.
To complete the money transfer, the sender relays the confirmation number and personalized code to the intended recipient who can retrieve the funds from any participating ATM. No bank card is necessary to receive the funds, and because the combination of the personalized code and confirmation number is unique for every transaction, the process is designed to be secure.
Unlike other person-to-person ATM-based money transfer systems that only allow for money transfers between ATMs, the Western Union ATM Money Transfer service will offer interoperability with Western Union's agent network of more that 33,000 agent locations across the U.S.
"By working with ACI to integrate our money transfer capabilities into their BASE24 platform, we will more quickly expand the availability of our services on ATMs around the country," said Mike Yerington, president of Western Union North America. "The breadth of ACI's installed customer base supports our goal of providing a wide range of alternative distribution options to complement and grow our global agent network."
Western Union acquired the cardless ATM transaction technology to provide its money transfer services (also known as Z-Cash) through an exclusive license agreement with Plano, Texas-based EDS. EDS provides the data processing and transaction switching services to support the Western Union ATM Money Transfer Network.
