IBM has announced a partnership with application software vendor ACI Worldwide for developing service oriented architecture-based payment system to share information across banking applications.

Under the terms of the agreement, the software from ACI will run on IBM's System z mainframe, DB2 database, Websphere middleware, Tivoli IT management software and Crypto-chip technology. According to IMB, ACI also plans to host the software in its data centers for enterprises, which need an on-demand payment system.

A version of ACI's BASE24-eps money transfer software will be optimized for System z along with a wholesale payments product for the single euro payments area (SEPA) and real-time fraud detection technology, IBM said.

The company said that in future, the alliance would focus on smart card, dispute management, online banking and implementation of its payment framework through a payment hub.

Additionally, the two companies plan to form joint sales and technical teams for selling the combined technologies in addition to helping companies migrate legacy systems to the new products.

"Our alliance with IBM signals a strategic repositioning of ACI to focus on solutions that offer an end-to-end framework for integrated payments," said Philip Heasley, chief executive at ACI. "Together we will offer a unique payments solution differentiated by its low cost of ownership, improved risk management and comprehensive architecture for improving payments productivity."

The alliance is primarily aimed at financial services industry and target banks trying to migrate from old payment systems running on legacy platforms, which are expensive to maintain and difficult to integrate with newer systems. The companies intend to offer service oriented architecture (SOA) platform for XML-based integration.