Security Bank Corporation and ACI Worldwide have been named winners of the “Best Payment Technology Initiative in Asia Pacific” at The Asian Banker Global Financial Technology Innovation Awards 2026. The recognition covers a joint project that replaced Security Bank’s fragmented payment systems with a single, cloud-ready platform capable of handling both low- and high-value transactions in real time.
The results speak for themselves: transaction volumes across domestic payment rails grew 35% year on year, processing capacity tripled, and the platform achieved 99.99% uptime since deployment.
What the Overhaul Actually Changed
Before the transformation, Security Bank operated across multiple disconnected payment systems, each handling different transaction types with varying degrees of automation and visibility. The new platform, built on a microservices architecture and deployed in a cloud-native environment, consolidates all of that into a single operational layer.
Transaction processing, monitoring, investigation, and reporting now run in one environment, which reduces manual intervention and improves straight-through processing rates. The platform is also built to the ISO 20022 messaging standard, which governs how financial institutions exchange payment data globally. That gives the bank a foundation that is compatible with evolving regulatory requirements while still working alongside legacy systems during the transition.
InstaPay, the Philippine real-time retail payment system, went live on the new platform within 10 months and quickly scaled to more than 10 million transactions per month.
Key outcomes at a glance:
| Metric | Result |
| Transaction volume growth | 35% year on year |
| Processing capacity | Tripled |
| Platform uptime | 99.99% |
| InstaPay go-live | Within 10 months of rollout start |
| InstaPay monthly transactions | Over 10 million |
Why It Matters Beyond the Award
For everyday banking customers, the impact shows up in faster, more reliable payment processing. For the bank, it means being able to roll out new payment products and comply with regulatory changes without having to untangle a web of legacy systems first.
Leslie Choo, senior vice president and managing director for APAC at ACI Worldwide, said the project moves beyond infrastructure work. “By simplifying operations, accelerating time to market, and enabling new revenue models, it moves beyond modernization to creating a competitive advantage for the bank,” he said. “This goes beyond speed, giving Security Bank the control, agility, and resilience to lead in a digital economy and raise the bar for the region.”
John Cary Ong, executive vice president and wholesale banking segment head at Security Bank, framed the shift as a change in how the bank thinks about payments altogether. “Payments are no longer a back-end utility. They are a front-line experience and a competitive differentiator. Together with ACI, we have built a modern payment platform that allows us to move at the speed of our customers, scale with confidence, and innovate without being held back by legacy constraints,” Ong said.
The rollout followed a phased approach and was executed through a collaborative model that ACI and Security Bank describe as combining deep domain expertise, agile delivery, and strong executive support on both sides.