- What attracted you to join ACI Worldwide as Chief Strategy and Growth Officer, and how do you see your role contributing to the company’s vision?
“Two reasons:
First, tech modernization particularly at banks is getting into full swing. The market is ready for new cloud-native payment solutions.
Second, ACI is at a pivotal moment and poised to take advantage of this market dynamic. I was drawn to the opportunity to partner with our exceptional leadership team during a critical acceleration phase that will deliver on our vision for the future of payments.
Central to my role is steering ACI’s growth strategy and shepherding the long-range strategic plan for the commercial rollout of ACI’s payments hub in 2025 – all toward the goal of driving success and delivering real value for the customers we serve.”
- ACI’s goal is to lead in intelligent payments orchestration. Can you elaborate on what this means for the future of the global payments ecosystem?
“Put simply, as bad actors become more sophisticated and as technologies like AI become more advanced and accessible, the global payments ecosystem faces exponential risks.
What we are hearing from customers and analysts alike is that banks want all of this on a single platform. They don’t want to have to choose between functionality and modern technology.
Intelligent payments orchestration is about seamlessly combining real-time payments, AI-driven fraud prevention, and transaction optimization to create a smarter, more secure payments ecosystem across all payment types.
This is one of the areas where ACI excels. We have been a leader in payments intelligence for many years, and we have decades of experience with machine learning. Our fraud and AML efficiencies—as well as our use of artificial intelligence augmentation—differentiate us from any other platform or solution on the market.”
- With your experience advising financial institutions and tech companies, what are some of the key challenges you see in the payments industry today?
“The payments industry continues to undergo rapid change, and it is creating increasing complexity, which brings both challenges and opportunities. The advantage is that we have a highly standardized rulebook that provides stability and reliability – and there is plenty of room to innovate.
However, the complexities inherent to payments can make meaningful innovation a challenge. There are many banks and financial institutions who have fallen behind the curve on digital transformation and payments modernization, and there are many who are relying on incumbent platforms that aren’t cloud-native or innovation-first.
At the same time, increased fraud has seen regulatory requirements become more stringent and more numerous, making modernization not only a competitive advantage but a mandate.”
· ACI’s payments hub is set to launch in 2025. How will this platform impact the industry, and what makes it unique compared to other offerings?
“In short, we’re redefining the traditional payments hub that has been around for decades. What we’re bringing to market is a modern, flexible platform that enables banks and intermediaries to build and intelligently orchestrate payment services with and across payment types while leveraging APIs to integrate a range of services across cloud ecosystems.
The platform is fully cloud-native, deployable as one common infrastructure for all different payment types on a single architecture, and advances ACI’s mission of being able to receive payments from anywhere with the ability to intelligently enrich and route them to where they should go.
The platform makes it easier for customers to integrate and extend the solution without having to customize the core of the product, which also makes it easier to weave together end-to-end financial solutions for consumers and commercial customers via the cloud.
Additionally, ACI’s inclusion of card payments into the payments hub—from issuing to merchant acquiring and ATM acquiring—sets us apart from any other solution currently in the market.”
- You’ve worked with some of the leading names in the payments and financial services sector. What trends or technologies are you most excited about in terms of their impact on growth and innovation?
“In terms of trends, the rise in account-to-account payments has accelerated the demand for real-time payments, and the convergence of payment rails positions banks as primary players in retail and corporate payments.
The move to ISO in account-to-account payments demands modernization, and that means wholesale industry changes that will bring about more payment products and offerings as well as more protection and satisfaction for consumers and commercial customers.
In terms of technology, we are at a tipping point with AI, which presents an exciting opportunity for growth and innovation. These technologies are revolutionizing how businesses optimize transactions, proactively combat fraud, and deliver seamless customer experiences.
ACI is leading the charge here by harnessing AI, machine learning, and intelligent orchestration to empower businesses with real-time decision-making, enhanced security, and greater operational efficiency in an increasingly complex payments ecosystem.”
- How do you plan to address the evolving needs of ACI’s customers, and what role do partnerships play in accelerating growth for the company?
“It’s critical that we have our finger on the pulse of market dynamics, growth opportunities, and solutions that serve our customers in an increasingly complex market environment.
This means being incredibly thoughtful and strategic about the solutions we bring to customers – from payments insurance to integrated corporate payments to blended merchant accounts.
Our partnerships with the leading data and cloud platforms empowers us to deliver on our vision for the future of payments – enabling us to expand our reach, drive innovation, and deliver the next generation of seamless, secure, and intelligent payment experiences.”
- As ACI continues to expand, what strategies will you focus on to drive growth and ensure the company remains at the forefront of payments innovation?
“ACI’s strategy is three-fold: partner closely with our customers, invest aggressively in our technical capabilities, and leverage our deep industry expertise to drive innovation and enhance customer experience and success.
My focus is to ensure that ACI becomes the global leader in intelligent payments orchestration, which will come to life in the launch of our payments hub.
Drawing from my experience consulting on payments and financial services, I look forward to building the foundation for sustained growth to deliver on the future of payments for our customers.”
- What does “accelerated growth” look like to you at ACI, and how do you plan to achieve that in your new role?
“To accelerate growth, we’re looking to capture market share by filling a competitive gap in customer needs and by doing what no one else is doing. That hinges on offering a differentiated payments hub unmatched anywhere else in the market.
Where we win is in our unmatched knowledge, our technical capabilities, and our partnerships. Building payments processing and intelligence capabilities across all the markets we serve is an endeavor that only ACI is positioned to effectively make a reality.
My role is to connect the dots and ensure we’re intensely growth-minded and customer-centric to drive that strategy forward.”
Philip Bruno is ACI’s Chief Strategy and Growth Officer. In this role, he leads the company’s growth strategy, including corporate strategy development and long-range strategic planning. He works with leaders and teams across the business to drive the execution of strategic growth initiatives, monitor market dynamics to inform our strategy, and help ensure the clear communication of our strategy and vision to internal and external stakeholders.
Mr. Bruno brings more than thirty years of experience in payments and financial services from McKinsey & Company, the global management consulting firm. At McKinsey, he served as partner and co-lead of the Global Payments Practice, advising leading financial institutions and technology companies worldwide on strategic growth, digital innovation, customer experience improvement, and operational effectiveness.
Throughout his career at McKinsey, Mr. Bruno shaped strategic initiatives across the payments ecosystem, from established banking institutions to emerging fintechs. His expertise spans digital commerce, retail payments, commercial payments/transaction banking, and payment infrastructure.
Mr. Bruno holds a Master of Business Administration from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania.
