ACI bolstered its Universal Payments (UP) strategy, delivering an unrivaled merchant retail solution to combat fraud. With its acquisition of Retail Decisions (ReD), announced earlier today, ACI strengthens its leadership position in the fast-growing payments risk management space.Securing payments and protecting both customers and their brand reputations”across all channels”is a daunting and complex task. The sense of urgency in addressing security issues is exacerbated in the U.S. where the rollout of EMV is expected to drive more fraud into the online channel as it has in other markets and regions. CNP (card not present) transactions, which are seen often in ecommerce, are not protected by EMV, and will likely experience an increase in fraud. ReD brings immediate value to ACI’s current fraud portfolio with its consortium models, business intelligence offerings, extensive modeling/analytics capabilities, risk analyst expertise and data center footprint. Conversely, ACI brings to ReD customers a strong set of complementary products, greater reach, and, most importantly, UP technology, which no other payments risk management vendor can offer.