Seven of the World’s Top 20 Banks Rely on ACI Solution to Detect Fraud and Fight Identity Theft

OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW), a leading international provider of software for electronic payment systems, today announced that it signed 18 new license agreements for its fraud detection solution in the last 12 months, bringing the total number of ACI Proactive Risk Manager™ customers to more than 120 worldwide. With fraud on the rise, the number of customers using ACI’s comprehensive fraud detection solution has grown more than 60 percent during the past three years, making it one of the company’s fastest selling products. The software now monitors more than 1.8 billion transactions every day for banks worldwide, including National Australia Bank, BNP Paribas in France, Citizens Bank, Huntington National Bank, CIBC in Canada, and Compass Bank.

“With ACI’s Proactive Risk Manager, we were able to detect the fraud quickly, monitor it, and reissue all the compromised cards, minimizing losses.”

“ACI continues to build on its leadership position in the electronic payments industry,” said Philip Heasley, president and CEO of ACI Worldwide. “Our top-of-the-line product suite provides all the services that financial institutions demand to protect their customers from identity theft and potential fraud. With ACI solutions, banks are able to fully protect a customer’s account as a whole, rather than piecing together a variety of different products to offer less effective protection.”

The company also introduced today a quick and simple online fraud reduction calculator www.aciworldwide.com/prmcalculator, much like a mortgage calculator, that allows financial institutions to determine the effectiveness of their current fraud prevention system.

Identity Theft is on the Rise

According to Gartner Research, 15 million Americans were victims of identity fraud during a recent 12-month period, while the average identity fraud loss more than doubled in 2006 to $3,257 from $1,408 the year before. The four key crimes that lead to identity theft include Internet fraud (hoax emails that trick users into providing personal data), data compromise (hacks into corporate and government databases that include consumer data), ATM fraud and card skimming. All of these crimes include the theft of consumers’ credit and debit card numbers.

Citizens Bank recently used ACI Proactive Risk Manager to detect a debit card skimming scam involving point of sale terminals at a Rhode Island grocery store chain, according to Mark Macheska, AVP of card risk prevention at the bank. With ACI’s fraud detection solution, Macheska’s team noticed a suspicious spike in ATM transactions in California, monitored the activity, and found the point of compromise to be the grocery stores in Rhode Island. The police were informed, resulting in the arrest of four people who recently pleaded guilty to the scam.

“The potential loss could have been huge, more than US $1 million, if the crooks had used every card they had skimmed,” said Macheska. “With ACI’s Proactive Risk Manager, we were able to detect the fraud quickly, monitor it, and reissue all the compromised cards, minimizing losses.”

Compass Bank, which began using Proactive Risk Manager in 2001, says it also has benefited from using the software. “We were able to reduce about 25 percent of overall fraud loss immediately, and we have continued to increase that percentage annually,” said Brad Hitson, vice president of risk management at the bank.

In addition to serving well-established banks, ACI has seen substantial growth in the number of financial institutions using Proactive Risk Manager in emerging markets. During the past six months alone, ACI has announced four new fraud detection customers in Africa including Access Bank, Unity Bank, Zenith Bank and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System.

“Supporting the development of emerging markets around the world is extremely important,” said Derren Jones, director of fraud and risk management at ACI. “Fraud is a global concern, and as the acceptance of financial products such as credit cards grows, the need to protect the card issuing institution remains key. Our global reach allows ACI to deliver proven solutions to emerging markets to take advantage of software used by top banks elsewhere.”

Fraud Reduction Calculator

Banks must be able to predict fraud so it can be stopped before it happens. ACI’s new quick and simple fraud reduction calculator, available on its website at www.aciworldwide.com/prmcalculator, helps financial institutions quickly determine the effectiveness of their current fraud detection system. It lets organizations assess their potential for improved performance by measuring what can be achieved with an improvement in percentage of fraud detected, driven by an improvement in the point at which fraud was detected in each instance.

“Existing solutions often ignore the most important metric of the model, the point of detection. By ignoring this measure, people can get a seriously misleading indication of actual performance. If the point of detection is lowered, fraud will be found earlier, which results in lower losses,” said Jones. “Ultimately, the best way to measure the success is to have a balance of three elements, and that’s the approach we take at ACI with Proactive Risk Manager. We see it as the three pillars of fraud performance: by measuring the point of detection, false positive rates and finally the detection rate, you get a complete understanding of your performance. The three pillars methodology has been proven by a number of ACI’s high-performing customers around the world. When using the reduction calculator, the golden rule is the earlier fraud is detected, the lower the losses an organization will suffer.”

About ACI Worldwide

Every second of every day, ACI solutions are at work processing electronic payments, managing risk, automating back office systems and providing application infrastructure services. Founded in 1975, ACI is a leading international provider of solutions for retail banking, wholesale banking and cross-industry systems. ACI serves more than 800 customers in 84 countries including many of the world's largest financial institutions, retailers and payment processors. Visit ACI Worldwide on the Internet at www.aciworldwide.com.

Any statements in this press release regarding projected results are preliminary and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In addition, this press release may contain other forward-looking statements including statements regarding ACI Worldwide Incorporated, its subsidiaries or third parties’ expectations, predictions, views, opportunities, plans, strategies, beliefs, and statements of similar effect. The forward-looking statements in this press release are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially.

For a detailed discussion of these risk factors, parties that are relying on the forward-looking statements should review the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Form 10-K filed on May 11, 2006 and the Company’s Form 10-Q filed on June 29.