ACI Worldwide Names Thomas Warsop CEO

ACI Worldwide has named Interim CEO Thomas Warsop as its official CEO and president.

Warsop, a FinTech veteran and long-time board member, will become chief executive June 1, the payments company announced in a Wednesday (May 31) press release.

“Since joining ACI eight years ago as a member of our Board, and as Interim President and CEO over the last six months, Tom has been instrumental in the refinement and execution of our strategic initiatives,” said Adalio Sanchez, non-executive chair of the ACI board.

“After conducting a thorough search process, and given Tom’s strong management skills, considerable expertise in financial services technology, and deep knowledge of ACI’s business, strategic plan and opportunities to enhance value, the Board is confident he is the right person to continue leading our organization forward.”

Warsop has served as acting CEO since November of last year, following the departure of Odilon Almeida. According to the release, his background includes five years as president of Fiserv, plus leadership roles at portfolio companies for a number of private equity firms.

“At this time and with our strong foundation in place, we will continue to focus on accelerating growth, optimizing our portfolio, and relentlessly exploring opportunities to enhance value for our shareholders,” said Warsop.

Among the company’s recent offerings are a new solution for sending low-value cross-border, real-time payments, launched earlier this month.

As PYMNTS wrote, ACI has added Swift Go to its cross-border payments tool, so that financial institutions can let consumers and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) send cross-border payments directly from their bank accounts.

ACI Worldwide reported in March that it witnessed steady growth amid a “real-time payments revolution, around the world” that is “real and it’s accelerating,” as Warsop said.

Company management said on an earnings call that real-time payments represent about 10% of ACI Worldwide’s business and are increasing by double-digit percentage points. The company already supports more than two dozen real-time payments plans around the world.

This year also saw news that private equity firm Motive Partners was considering an acquisition of ACI, though that plan apparently hit a snag recently due to turmoil in the banking sector and the rising cost of funding deals.

As PYMNTS has written, the company is thought to be a plum target for a takeover, as it is one of the smaller players in the payments space, and because there has been a lot of consolidation in the sector over the past few years.