Jack Henry to Buy Payrailz, Expands Payments Industry Presence

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc., headquartered in the southwest Missouri town of Monett, announced Tuesday that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the digital payments company Payrailz in Glastonbury, Conn., for an undisclosed amount.

The purchase will add to Jack Henry’s digital payment capabilities to grow its offerings of real-time P2P payments and artificial intelligence-driven solutions for credit unions and banks.

According to a statement released Tuesday, Payrailz will incorporate its products and services, which includes cloud-native, API-first, AI-enabled commercial and consumer digital payment solutions, into Jack Henry’s payments ecosystem once the acquisition goes through. Officials stated they expect the deal to be finalized by Aug. 31, 2022.

“We are excited about the opportunity to add these next-generation solutions to our payments capabilities,” Greg Adelson, president/COO of Jack Henry, said. “Our company is engaged in technology modernization that is supporting banks and credit unions with innovative solutions that enable them to respond to business opportunities and challenges, and to improve the financial health of their accountholders. Considering the importance of modern digital and payments strategies to financial institutions, we plan to acquire Payrailz as a strategic addition to our payments ecosystem, which enables our clients to simplify the complexity of payments, modernize their existing payment channels, and remain at the center of their account holders’ payment experiences.”

According to officials at Jack Henry, the acquisition will also enhance its payments-as-a-service (PaaS) strategy as it sees “growing demand for PaaS with a virtual payments hub that consolidates money-moving solutions and supports numerous payment channels and types.” The statement added, “Payrailz strategically complements this hub with next-generation capabilities for consumer and commercial bill pay, real-time person-to-person (P2P), account-to-account (A2A), business-to-customer (B2C) payments and more.”

Fran Duggan, CEO and founder of Payrailz, said, “We are confident joining Jack Henry is in the best interest of our clients and our associates.”

Duggan added, “As part of Jack Henry, we have the opportunity to leverage its financial strength and stability, extensive operational infrastructure and industry, payments and security expertise. Joining Jack Henry also enables us to build on our market reputation and accelerate our vision of providing smarter payment experiences. This acquisition provides significant growth opportunities with frictionless access to Jack Henry’s existing clients and offers our clients peace-of-mind that Jack Henry has a long-term commitment to investing in the Payrailz platform and shares our service culture and standards. We are sincerely excited to join one of the industry’s most respected and successful fintechs.”