ACE is an innovative fintech that is redefining how people manage their financial lives. It began as a money remittance service, ACE Money Transfer, with over a million customers sending money to over 100 countries worldwide. In recent years, it has expanded its offering by launching an all-in-one financial platform called ACE Union.
ACE Union is an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) product designed to streamline how people manage their financial lives. It gives its users access to a range of financial services, including online banking, payments, mobile top-ups, and rewards through a single mobile application.
At the core of the offering is the ACE Union card, powered by Checkout.com's end-to-end issuing solution.
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ACE and Checkout.com have worked together since 2018, when ACE began using Checkout.com's acquiring solution to power its money transfer business and achieve faster funds settlement. When the ACE team learned that Checkout.com was issuing cards as a card issuer, processor and program management (aka end-to-end), they ensured they were at the front of the queue to use Issuing.
"Card issuing is a fragmented space, with many providers at each stage of the value chain," says Arslan Naeem, Chief Compliance Officer at ACE. "This has historically made it complex for companies like ACE to enter the market and launch a proposition."
The barriers to entry that Naeem references extend beyond the costs and complexity of onboarding multiple providers in order to issue, process and manage cards. It includes the resource requirements required to deal with multiple APIs, disparate data sources, and reconciliation—costs and complexity that stop many companies that are exploring issuing cards in their tracks.
"When we heard that Checkout.com was building a solution in-house, we saw the barriers to entry disappear and decided to embark on this journey together," Naeem adds.
"ACE is one of Checkout.com's pilot Issuing customers and today issues fully branded multi-use physical cards that its customers can easily add to their preferred digital wallet. "It's incredibly special to see our brand in our customers' hands with the physical card," says Rehan Ashraf, Relationship & Development Executive at ACE. "While the ability to virtualize these cards provides that seamless online and offline experience for our users."
Issuing also gives ACE complete control of its card program on the backend. For instance, by leveraging Checkout.com's Auth Relay service, ACE can approve or decline transactions in real-time based on its rule engine.
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With a track record of success working together, the ACE team knew that Checkout.com would deliver. The team also knew they would receive the same dedicated level of customer service.
"We've always valued our acquiring relationship with Checkout.com," says Ashraf. "The team is always quick to respond should we have questions or issues that need resolving. That level of service and the energy of the Checkout.com team is the same on the issuing side."
The ACE story exemplifies how embedded finance is transforming the financial landscape by enabling any brand to launch a range of financial products to meet the needs of its customers. By partnering with Checkout.com, ACE has seamlessly diversified its revenue lines beyond remittance services and laid the foundations for further innovation.
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