ACI Worldwide Inc (ACIW) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to ACI Worldwide, Inc., reports financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2025. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to John Kraft. Thank you. Please go ahead.

早安，歡迎來到 ACI Worldwide, Inc.，報告截至 2025 年 6 月 30 日的季度財務業績。（操作員指示）提醒一下，本次電話會議正在錄音。現在我想把電話轉給約翰‧克拉夫特。謝謝。請繼續。

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. On today's call, we will discuss the company's second quarter 2025 results as well as our financial outlook for the rest of the year. We will take your questions at the end. The slides accompanying this call and webcast can be found at aciworldwide.com under the Investor Relations tab and will remain available after the call.

謝謝大家，早安。在今天的電話會議上，我們將討論該公司 2025 年第二季的業績以及今年剩餘時間的財務展望。我們將在最後回答您的問題。本次電話會議和網路廣播的幻燈片可在 aciworldwide.com 的「投資者關係」標籤下找到，並將在電話會議結束後繼續提供。

Today's call is subject to safe harbor and forward-looking statements like all of our events. You can find the full text of both statements in our presentation deck and earnings release, both of which are available on our website and with the SEC.

與我們所有的活動一樣，今天的電話會議也受到安全港和前瞻性陳述的約束。您可以在我們的簡報和收益報告中找到這兩份聲明的全文，它們均可在我們的網站和美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 上找到。

On this morning's call is Tom Warsop, our President and CEO; and Bobby Leibrock, our new CFO. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tom. Tom?

今天早上參加電話會議的有我們的總裁兼執行長湯姆沃索普 (Tom Warsop) 和我們的新任財務長 Bobby Leibrock)。說完這些，我就把電話轉給湯姆。湯姆？

Thanks, John. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining our Q2 2025 earnings conference call. I'm going to start by highlighting some key takeaways of our second-quarter results, and then Bobby, in his first earnings call as our CFO, will provide a financial and segment-level review. They'll conclude with our updated 2025 guidance. We'll then open the call for questions.

謝謝，約翰。大家早安。感謝您參加我們的 2025 年第二季財報電話會議。我將首先強調我們第二季業績的一些關鍵要點，然後 Bobby 將在其作為我們財務長的第一次財報電話會議上提供財務和分部層面的審查。他們將以我們更新的 2025 年指導作為結束。然後我們將開始提問。

Q2 was another solid quarter for ACI. Revenue was up 7% year-over-year versus Q2 2024, and it was up 15% versus the first half of 2024. The momentum we're achieving gives us the confidence to raise our full year guidance for revenue and adjusted EBITDA for fiscal 2025, and Bobby will discuss that in more detail shortly. Our strong business momentum is reflected in strength across both our segments.

第二季對 ACI 來說又是穩健的季度。與 2024 年第二季相比，營收年增 7%，與 2024 年上半年相比成長 15%。我們所取得的動能使我們有信心提高 2025 財年的全年收入和調整後 EBITDA 預期，Bobby 很快就會對此進行更詳細的討論。我們強勁的業務動能體現在我們兩個部門的實力上。

And turning to the segments. The Biller segment was up 16% in Q2 and up 13% for the first half of 2025. Our Payment Software segment was roughly flat in Q2, and that was driven by the timing of our renewal and new business signings between Q1 and Q2, but it's up 18% in the first half of 2025. As a company, we signed notable new contracts and our ARR bookings in the quarter were up 86%. That brings our first half 2025 new ARR bookings growth to 71%.

並轉向各個部分。Biller 部門在第二季度成長了 16%，2025 年上半年成長了 13%。我們的支付軟體部門在第二季基本持平，這是由於我們在第一季和第二季之間續約和簽署新業務的時間所致，但在 2025 年上半年成長了 18%。作為一家公司，我們簽署了值得注意的新合同，本季我們的 ARR 預訂量增加了 86%。這使得我們 2025 年上半年的新 ARR 預訂量成長率達到 71%。

In May, we officially launched Connetic, our next-generation payments hub platform. As a reminder, Connetic is cloud native, and it provides enhanced capabilities such as automated decisioning, straight-through processing, decline transaction reduction and AI-powered insights that support fast decisions and superior value for our customers' customers. We have several live opportunities right now with particular interest related to real-time payments and wire transfers and the feedback about Connetic from potential customers continues to be overwhelmingly positive. Our pipeline is strong, and I'll keep you updated on our progress.

五月，我們正式推出了下一代支付中心平台 Connetic。提醒一下，Connetic 是雲端原生的，它提供增強的功能，例如自動決策、直通式處理、拒絕交易減少和人工智慧驅動的洞察，支援快速決策並為我們的客戶提供卓越的價值。我們目前有幾個實際機會，特別關注即時支付和電匯，潛在客戶對 Connetic 的回饋仍然非常積極。我們的管道很強大，我會隨時向您通報我們的進度。

In addition to our continued investment in technology leadership and innovation, we remain committed to returning capital to shareholders. In the second quarter of 2025, we repurchased 2.4 million shares, representing approximately 2.4% of ACI's common shares outstanding at the beginning of the quarter. Our ability to take these important steps to enhance shareholder returns is built on the foundation of work we've done over the last few years to strengthen our company's balance sheet. We finished the quarter with a strong cash balance of $190 million and a net leverage ratio of 1.4 times adjusted EBITDA, which is significantly below the recently lowered target of 2 times that we have previously discussed.

除了繼續投資於技術領導和創新之外，我們還致力於向股東返還資本。2025 年第二季度，我們回購了 240 萬股，約佔本季初 ACI 流通普通股的 2.4%。我們之所以能夠採取這些重要措施來提高股東回報，是建立在過去幾年來我們為加強公司資產負債表所做工作的基礎之上的。本季結束時，我們的現金餘額為 1.9 億美元，淨槓桿率為調整後 EBITDA 的 1.4 倍，遠低於我們之前討論過的最近下調的 2 倍目標。

I'd now like to revisit the revenue growth I just mentioned. As you know, our quarterly growth rates can fluctuate due to the timing of our term license-based business with both new contracts and renewals having significant revenue recognition upfront. Because of this, it's important to analyze longer-term trends to get an accurate sense of the trajectory of the business. And those trends are improving. While Q2 revenue was up 7% for the first half of 2025, revenue grew 15%, and that's on top of the 10% revenue growth we achieved for the full year 2024.

現在我想重新討論我剛才提到的收入成長。如您所知，我們的季度成長率可能會因我們基於定期許可的業務的時間而波動，新合約和續約都需要預先確認大量收入。因此，分析長期趨勢以準確了解業務發展軌跡非常重要。而且這些趨勢正在改善。雖然 2025 年上半年第二季的營收成長了 7%，但實際收入成長了 15%，而這還是在我們 2024 年全年實現的 10% 營收成長的基礎上實現的。

These first half results position us well for achieving our upper single-digit revenue growth target in 2025, and they let our team focus on new business, closing opportunities more quickly, and expanding our pipeline. And that supports meeting or exceeding our long-term growth target of sustainable high single-digit revenue growth.

這些上半年的業績使我們預計在 2025 年實現較高的個位數收入成長目標，並且讓我們的團隊能夠專注於新業務、更快地抓住機會並擴大我們的管道。這有助於實現或超越我們可持續高個位數收入成長的長期成長目標。

I want to highlight the changes we've made to improve our growth performance. This hasn't been an accident or a fluke. There are several factors that contribute to the growth acceleration we've seen over the last few years, and just a few of those include improving solution mix, active portfolio management, including a strategic divestiture and more aggressive pricing. But one that really stands out to me is our conscious effort to complete the signing of new contracts and renewals earlier in the year. While the revenue from a renewal contract cannot be recognized earlier than the renewal date, that's just how the accounting rules work.

我想強調一下我們為提高成長績效所做的改變。這並不是意外或僥倖。過去幾年我們看到的成長加速是由多種因素促成的，其中包括改善解決方案組合、積極的投資組合管理、策略性資產剝離和更積極的定價。但真正讓我印象深刻的是我們有意識地努力在今年早些時候完成新合約的簽署和續約。雖然續約合約的收入不能早於續約日期確認，但這就是會計規則的運作方式。

Getting these time-consuming renewals out of the way continues to allow us to focus on new customer wins, which can often be recognized at the time of signing. That allows our sales team to be far more efficient, and it's shown a direct impact on our results. In fact, this quarter marks the first time our estimated 60-month backlog has exceeded $7 billion.

完成這些耗時的續約使我們能夠繼續專注於贏得新客戶，這通常可以在簽約時得到認可。這使得我們的銷售團隊效率更高，並且對我們的業績產生了直接的影響。事實上，本季是我們預計的 60 個月積壓訂單首次超過 70 億美元。

Before I turn the call over to Bobby, I thought I'd take a moment to address stablecoin, which has increasingly entered the discussions I've had over the last few weeks, particularly after the Circle IPO. You may have heard me say before that real-time payments use cases get more interesting as cross-border payments are allowed. Stablecoin is a potential driver of more adoption of cross-border real-time payments, and our solutions can already support those payments. If I broaden the lens beyond cross-border, from my perspective, the most important news to share with you today about stablecoin is that ACI is well positioned to benefit from stablecoin adoption in general. Our solutions have long accommodated many different digital currencies.

在我將電話轉給 Bobby 之前，我想花點時間談談穩定幣，在過去幾周里，特別是在 Circle IPO 之後，穩定幣越來越多地出現在我的討論中。您可能之前聽我說過，隨著跨國支付的允許，即時支付用例會變得更加有趣。穩定幣是推動更多採用跨境即時支付的潛在驅動力，我們的解決方案已經可以支援這些支付。如果我將視角擴大到跨國之外，從我的角度來看，今天要與大家分享的有關穩定幣的最重要的消息是，ACI 已做好準備，從穩定幣的普遍採用中受益。我們的解決方案早已適應多種不同的數位貨幣。

One of ACI's sales differentiators is that our software handles more alternative payment networks and methods than any other competitor. Quite simply, increasing payment complexity drives customers to our solutions. It's part of our core competencies.

ACI 的銷售差異化因素之一是我們的軟體比任何其他競爭對手處理更多的替代支付網路和方法。很簡單，日益增加的支付複雜性促使客戶選擇我們的解決方案。這是我們核心競爭力的一部分。

We're actively working with players in the stablecoin space as partners enabling additional payment types for our solutions and even as customers. Our software is a great way to switch stablecoin transactions, for example. With increasing regulatory clarity such as the signing into law of the GENIUS Act in the US recently, we see new use cases, and we're excited about the opportunities this trend represents for us.

我們正在積極與穩定幣領域的參與者合作，作為合作夥伴為我們的解決方案提供更多支付類型，甚至作為客戶。例如，我們的軟體是切換穩定幣交易的絕佳方式。隨著監管日益明確，例如最近美國簽署的《GENIUS 法案》，我們看到了新的用例，我們對這一趨勢為我們帶來的機會感到興奮。

To sum up, we see potential here with stablecoin, and we feel very well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities it presents and it will present in the future. I'd also like to point you to the newsroom page on our website where we published some articles about stablecoin and how it may impact the global payments ecosystem over time. Have a look for some interesting stuff.

總而言之，我們看到了穩定幣的潛力，我們認為自己已經做好了充分的準備來利用它現在和未來將會出現的機會。我還想向您指出我們網站上的新聞編輯室頁面，我們在那裡發布了一些有關穩定幣的文章以及它如何隨著時間的推移影響全球支付生態系統。看看一些有趣的東西。

Lastly, I'm proud to say that our leadership in the Payment Software industry and our ability to stay on top of emerging trends around the world has helped ACI to earn recognition as one of CNBC's world's top fintech companies for 2025 and one of Time's America's best midsized companies in 2025. These two honors are a recognition of our continued efforts to power the global payments ecosystem with people and technology that push the envelope, that move our industry forward and that solve money movement needs for banks, merchants and billers alike. ACI Worldwide is continually committed to excellence. I want to provide a huge thank you to the entire ACI Worldwide team for helping the company earn both awards.

最後，我很自豪地說，我們在支付軟體產業的領導地位以及我們緊跟全球新興趨勢的能力，幫助 ACI 贏得了 CNBC 2025 年全球頂級金融科技公司之一和《時代》雜誌 2025 年美國最佳中型公司之一的認可。這兩項榮譽是對我們持續努力的認可，我們致力於透過人才和技術推動全球支付生態系統的發展，不斷突破極限，推動行業進步，並解決銀行、商家和收款人的資金流動需求。ACI Worldwide 始終致力於追求卓越。我要向整個 ACI Worldwide 團隊表達衷心的感謝，感謝他們幫助公司獲得這兩個獎項。

I'm going to turn it over to Bobby to discuss our financials and our guidance. Bobby?

我將把這個任務交給 Bobby 來討論我們的財務狀況和指導。鮑比？

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Before I dive into our financial results and guidance, as Tom mentioned, I want to express how energized and honored I am to be part of ACI as Chief Financial Officer and to be speaking with you on my first earnings call since assuming the role on July 1.

謝謝大家，早安。正如湯姆所提到的，在深入介紹我們的財務表現和指導之前，我想表達一下我作為 ACI 首席財務官的激動和榮幸，以及自 7 月 1 日擔任該職位以來的第一次財報電話會議中與大家交談的激動和榮幸。

Let me start by sharing why I joined ACI. The decision was driven by the clear potential to create meaningful long-term value for customers, employees and importantly, shareholders. That alignment is fundamental to how I lead as CFO. I was also drawn to how well positioned ACI is in a fast-moving payments industry with rising demand for secure, intelligent real-time solutions. ACI has a durable competitive advantage and is a trusted leader powering the world's payments ecosystem.

首先讓我分享一下我加入 ACI 的原因。這項決定的驅動力在於為客戶、員工以及更重要的股東創造有意義的長期價值的明顯潛力。這種協調對於我作為財務長的領導至關重要。我還對 ACI 在快速發展的支付行業中佔據的有利地位以及對安全、智慧即時解決方案的需求不斷增長感到著迷。ACI 擁有持久的競爭優勢，是推動全球支付生態系統發展的值得信賴的領導者。

Over the past month, I've been diving into the business and engaging deeply with Tom, the ACI leadership team and the financial leadership team as well as the Board. I've come away confident in the company's direction and motivated by the path ahead.

在過去的一個月裡，我一直在深入研究業務，並與湯姆、ACI 領導團隊、財務領導團隊以及董事會進行深入交流。我對公司的發展方向充滿信心，對未來的道路充滿動力。

I've also spent a lot of time with Scott Barron, my predecessor, and I want to extend my appreciation for his nearly two decades of dedicated leadership. His commitment to financial discipline and operational rigor has helped position ACI for continued success, and I'm grateful for his support during the transition.

我也花了很多時間與我的前任斯科特·巴倫相處，我想對他近二十年來的敬業領導表示感謝。他對財務紀律和營運嚴謹性的承諾幫助 ACI 取得了持續的成功，我感謝他在過渡期間的支持。

Looking ahead as CFO, I am committed to financial transparency, operational discipline and a proactive dialogue with the investment community. In the coming quarters, I'll be evaluating ways to enhance how we provide you even greater clarity into our progress. I believe the best outcomes originate from open data-driven discussions, and I look forward to having conversations with many of you in the months to come.

展望未來，身為財務官，我將致力於財務透明度、營運紀律以及與投資界的積極對話。在接下來的幾個季度裡，我將評估如何更好地讓您更清楚地了解我們的進展。我相信最好的結果源於開放的數據驅動的討論，我期待在未來的幾個月與你們中的許多人進行對話。

Now let's get into the financial results. I'll cover Q2 and then provide first half progress. Revenue was $401 million in Q2, growing 7% compared to last year, and recurring revenue of $322 million accelerated to 13% growth compared to last year. Total adjusted EBITDA in Q2 was $181 million, down 13% compared to last year, driven primarily by the quarterly timing of license-based contracts and Payment Software.

現在讓我們來看看財務結果。我將介紹第二季度，然後提供上半年的進展。第二季營收為 4.01 億美元，比去年成長 7%，經常性營收為 3.22 億美元，比去年成長 13%。第二季調整後 EBITDA 總額為 1.81 億美元，較去年同期下降 13%，主要受基於許可的合約和支付軟體的季度時間影響。

Turning to the segments for Q2. Growth was led by the Biller segment, where revenue grew 16% and segment adjusted EBITDA increased 6% compared to last year. We saw particularly strong growth driven by our solutions in the government, consumer finance, and utility markets. Payment Software segment revenue in Q2 declined 1% and segment adjusted EBITDA decreased 12% compared to last year.

轉向第二季的各個部分。成長主要由 Biller 部門帶動，該部門營收較去年同期成長 16%，部門調整後 EBITDA 成長 6%。我們的解決方案在政府、消費金融和公用事業市場中取得了尤為強勁的成長。第二季支付軟體部門營收與去年同期相比下降了 1%，部門調整後的 EBITDA 下降了 12%。

This decline year-over-year was expected and incorporated into the prior guidance given our renewal calendar and the strong new business signings we had in Q1 this year. We continue to manage the business towards our full year growth objectives and reduce the historically heavy Q4 seasonality while focusing on building sustainable revenue growth. This is shown in Payment Software's recurring revenue that accelerated to 8% growth in Q2.

考慮到我們的續約日程以及今年第一季強勁的新業務簽約，這一同比下降是預料之中的，並已納入先前的指導中。我們將繼續管理業務，以實現全年成長目標，減少歷史上第四季的季節性影響，同時專注於實現可持續的收入成長。這體現在支付軟體的經常性收入在第二季加速成長 8% 上。

Looking now at the first half of the year, revenue grew 15%, recurring revenue grew 11% and adjusted EBITDA grew 24% compared to the first six months of last year. Both segments contributed to growth in the first half. Payment Software segment revenue grew 18% and adjusted EBITDA grew 29% compared to the first half last year. Banking solutions saw strength across all three main product sets with issue and acquiring, fraud management and real-time payments all growing 20% or more for the first half of the year. Biller segment revenue in the first half grew 13% and adjusted EBITDA grew 4% compared to last year.

現在來看，今年上半年，與去年上半年相比，營收成長了 15%，經常性收入成長了 11%，調整後的 EBITDA 成長了 24%。這兩個部門都為上半年的成長做出了貢獻。與去年上半年相比，支付軟體部門營收成長 18%，調整後 EBITDA 成長 29%。銀行解決方案三大主要產品系列均表現強勁，其中發行和收單、詐欺管理和即時支付在今年上半年均成長了 20% 或更多。上半年帳單部門營收較去年同期成長 13%，調整後 EBITDA 成長 4%。

Cash flow from operating activities in the first six months of this year was $128 million compared to $178 million last year, lower largely due to the timing of receivables. We ended Q2 with strong liquidity, including $190 million in cash on hand and approximately $900 million of total debt outstanding, representing a net debt leverage ratio of 1.4 times. During the quarter, we also retired our $400 million senior unsecured notes maturing in August 2026 with an updated and expanded credit facility that matures in February 2029. Tom mentioned our $119 million Q2 share repurchase. And for the first half, this brings our total share repurchases to approximately 2.7 million shares for $134 million.

今年上半年經營活動現金流為 1.28 億美元，去年同期為 1.78 億美元，較低主要是由於應收帳款的時間安排。我們在第二季結束時流動性強勁，包括 1.9 億美元的現金和約 9 億美元的未償債務總額，淨債務槓桿率為 1.4 倍。在本季度，我們也贖回了將於 2026 年 8 月到期的 4 億美元優先無擔保票據，並更新並擴大了將於 2029 年 2 月到期的信貸額度。湯姆提到了我們第二季 1.19 億美元的股票回購。上半年，我們的股票回購總額達到約 270 萬股，回購金額為 1.34 億美元。

Exiting June this year, we have approximately $223 million remaining on our share repurchase authorization.

截至今年 6 月，我們的股票回購授權還剩下約 2.23 億美元。

Based on the momentum exiting first half, we are raising our guidance for 2025. We now expect total revenue for the full year to be in the range of $1.71 billion to $1.74 billion, higher than the previously issued guidance of $1.69 billion to $1.72 billion. We expect adjusted EBITDA for the full year to be in the range of $490 million to $505 million, higher than the previously issued guidance of $480 million to $495 million. For next quarter, Q3, we're providing guidance for total revenue to be in the range of $460 million to $470 million and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $155 million to $165 million.

基於上半年的勢頭，我們提高了 2025 年的預期。我們現在預計全年總收入將在 17.1 億美元至 17.4 億美元之間，高於先前發布的 16.9 億美元至 17.2 億美元的預期。我們預計全年調整後的 EBITDA 將在 4.9 億美元至 5.05 億美元之間，高於先前發布的 4.8 億美元至 4.95 億美元的預期。對於下一季度，即第三季度，我們預計總營收將在 4.6 億美元至 4.7 億美元之間，調整後的 EBITDA 將在 1.55 億美元至 1.65 億美元之間。

To recap, the first two quarters of 2025 are tracking ahead of our original expectations, and we're well positioned as we enter the second half of the year. As I hope you can tell, I'm excited to be part of the ACI team at such a pivotal time, and I look forward to helping deliver on our mission and our commitments to shareholders.

總而言之，2025 年前兩個季度的業績超出了我們最初的預期，進入下半年，我們已做好充分準備。我希望你們能看出來，我很高興能在如此關鍵的時刻成為 ACI 團隊的一員，我期待著幫助我們實現我們的使命和對股東的承諾。

With that, I'll pass it back to Tom for some closing remarks.

說完這些，我將把它交還給湯姆，讓他做一些結束語。

Thanks, Bobby. We're pleased with our progress in 2025. We remain focused on our broader strategy on sales execution, on the development of our next-generation Connetic platform. The first half of 2025 was strong, and we're increasingly optimistic about the rest of the year as well. With our healthy pipeline and strong full year financial forecast, we're confident in our ability to continue delivering significant shareholder value.

謝謝，鮑比。我們對 2025 年的進展感到滿意。我們仍然專注於銷售執行的更廣泛策略以及下一代 Connetic 平台的開發。2025 年上半年表現強勁，我們對今年剩餘時間的表現也越來越樂觀。憑藉我們健康的管道和強勁的全年財務預測，我們有信心繼續為股東創造巨大的價值。

Finally, I want to mention an upcoming event we're planning for October 21 to 23 in New York City. We've named it Payments Unleashed, and it will be partly a celebration of 50 years of ACI payments innovation. This is our 50th year as a company. And partly, it's a thought leadership event for the payments industry, gathering some of the brightest minds in payments for two days of speakers, panels and topical sessions. While this is not a financial or investor-focused event per se, I think many of you will appreciate learning more about AI, stablecoin, ACI Connetic and many other hot topics in payments.

最後，我想提一下我們計劃於 10 月 21 日至 23 日在紐約市舉辦的一場活動。我們將其命名為 Payments Unleashed，這在一定程度上是對 ACI 支付創新 50 週年的慶祝。這是我們公司成立 50 週年。從某種程度上來說，這是支付行業的一次思想領導力盛會，聚集了支付領域的一些最聰明的人才，參加為期兩天的演講、小組討論和專題會議。雖然這本身並不是一個以金融或投資者為中心的活動，但我認為你們中的許多人會喜歡了解更多有關人工智慧、穩定幣、ACI Connetic 和許多其他支付熱門話題的知識。

If you're interested in attending, please reach out directly to John Kraft, and we'll do our best to make that happen.

如果您有興趣參加，請直接聯絡 John Kraft，我們將盡力實現您的願望。

Thank you for joining our call. Thank you for your interest in ACI, and thank you for your ongoing support. We really appreciate it. Operator, we can now take questions.

感謝您參加我們的電話會議。感謝您對ACI的關注，感謝您一直以來的支持。我們非常感激。接線員，我們現在可以回答問題。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Trevor Williams, Jefferies.

崔佛威廉斯 (Trevor Williams)，傑富瑞 (Jefferies)。

I wanted to go back to stablecoins, Tom. I think maybe you could just frame for us what the latest has been in the conversations that you've been having with the bank's customers. And then as a second part to that, we've seen the core processors introduce some of their own solutions to help facilitate stablecoin payments for banks. If you could remind us within the stack for a bank, just where ACI sits relative to the core and what the interplay would be if there are more interbank payments made using stablecoins.

我想回到穩定幣，湯姆。我想您或許可以向我們簡單介紹一下您與銀行客戶的最新對話內容。然後，作為第二部分，我們看到核心處理器引入了一些自己的解決方案來幫助促進銀行的穩定幣支付。如果您能提醒我們，在銀行堆疊中，ACI 相對於核心的位置是什麼，以及如果使用穩定幣進行更多的銀行間支付，相互作用會是怎樣的。

Sure. So thanks, Trevor. So stablecoin is, as I mentioned, getting a lot of press and discussion, and it's really interesting. I think the most important points from my perspective are, one, we've been ready for digital currencies for a long time. Stablecoins are digital currency.

當然。所以謝謝你，特雷弗。正如我所提到的，穩定幣得到了很多媒體的關注和討論，這真的很有趣。我認為從我的角度來看最重要的幾點是，第一，我們早就為數位貨幣做好了準備。穩定幣是數位貨幣。

They obviously have a little bit different backing, but the way that they are processed and let's call it, switched for a minute, just for simplicity's sake, is we're ready for that. And you asked specifically about where we sit in the stack, where we sit right, of course, right in the middle of the payments infrastructure for banks. You asked about banks. It's also a merchant issue, and we sit in the middle of that as well for the merchants.

他們顯然有一點不同的支持，但他們處理的方式，我們稱之為，暫時切換，只是為了簡單起見，我們已經為此做好了準備。您特別詢問了我們在堆疊中的位置，當然，我們位於銀行支付基礎設施的正中間。您詢問的是銀行的情況。這也是一個商家的問題，我們也為商家解決這個問題。

And I think we're ready as soon as there is significant demand for stablecoin payments we're ready to facilitate it. And I mentioned specifically the real-time payments because over the last few years, we've talked a lot about real-time payments. And I think I've been -- hopefully, I've been very consistent about it. I get really excited about real-time payments when we start to talk about cross-border. And I've always said that the challenge there isn't technology because we're totally ready for that.

我認為我們已經做好準備，一旦對穩定幣支付的需求大幅增加，我們就準備好提供便利。我特別提到了即時支付，因為在過去幾年裡，我們討論了很多關於即時支付的問題。我認為我一直——希望我一直堅持這一點。當我們開始談論跨境時，我對即時支付感到非常興奮。我一直說，那裡的挑戰不是技術，因為我們已經做好了充分的準備。

The challenge is the regulatory environment. And stablecoin -- a very exciting thing about stablecoin is it should allow those cross-border real-time payments to be more straightforward and to get support quicker. And I think that's proving to be true. So -- and it even eliminates the FX portion of the transaction to a large extent.

挑戰在於監管環境。穩定幣—穩定幣的一個非常令人興奮的地方是它應該讓跨境即時支付更加直接，並更快地獲得支援。我認為事實證明這是真的。所以——它甚至在很大程度上消除了交易中的外匯部分。

So we're excited about stablecoin. We're largely ready for stablecoin transactions. And as I mentioned, we're working with a number of other players that are facilitating stablecoin or want to facilitate stablecoin to make it even easier. So this is kind of playing into our long-term strategy, particularly around real-time payments.

所以我們對穩定幣感到很興奮。我們已經為穩定幣交易做好​​了充分的準備。正如我所提到的，我們正在與許多其他參與者合作，他們正在促進穩定幣的發展，或希望促進穩定幣的發展，以使其變得更加容易。因此，這在某種程度上符合我們的長期策略，特別是在即時支付方面。

Okay. I appreciate all that. And then on Biller, if you guys could just help unpack the acceleration this quarter. And I think coming into the year, the expectation had been for Biller to grow within that high single-digit range. For the first half, you're running quite a bit above that. So if anything has changed on the full year expectation? And just any help on how we should think about Biller in the back half would be great.

好的。我對此表示感謝。然後關於比勒，你們能否幫忙解決本季的加速問題。我認為，進入今年以來，人們一直期望比勒的成長率能達到較高的個位數。對於前半部來說，你的表現已經遠遠超越了這個水準。那麼全年預期是否有任何變化？只要能幫助我們思考比勒在後半段的表現，那就太好了。

Trevor, this is Bobby. Appreciate the question. Yes, we're very pleased with how the Biller teams come out of the year in Q2 with acceleration. Some of that you probably guess what we talked about. We saw the government area really come through with the IRS putting us in a more advantageous position there.

特雷弗，這是鮑比。感謝你的提問。是的，我們對比勒團隊在第二季的加速進展感到非常高興。您可能已經猜到我們談論了其中的一些內容。我們看到政府部門確實透過國稅局讓我們處於更有利的地位。

We have seen other new logos kick in as well. For the rest of the year, we continue to see progress in there. It probably won't be at the Q2 levels, but it's still going to be strong performance that we're seeing out of that segment the rest of the year. And you'll see some of that reflected in the guidance increase for the year of $20 million that we took that up. That's in Biller, but as well as the strength in the pipeline we see in Payment Software as well.

我們也看到了其他新標誌的出現。在今年餘下的時間裡，我們將繼續看到那裡的進展。它可能不會達到第二季的水平，但在今年剩餘時間內，我們仍會看到該領域表現強勁。您將會看到，我們提出的 2000 萬美元年度指導增幅反映了這一點。這是 Biller 的優勢，也是我們在支付軟體中看到的管道優勢。

Peter Heckmann, D.A. Davidson.

彼得‧赫克曼，D.A.戴維森。

Very nice bookings on the ARR side. Good to see. Can you talk about some of the areas of strength you had there and whether that was dominated by, let's say, one large deal or several large deals? Or was it pretty diversified in a number of smaller deals?

ARR 方面的預訂非常好。很高興看到。您能否談談貴公司的優勢領域，以及這些優勢是由一筆大交易還是幾筆大交易主導？或者它在許多較小的交易中已經相當多元化了？

Yes. Pete, thanks for joining us. Yes, it's -- we're really pleased with the sales momentum that we're seeing really across the board. And it's not dominated by a single deal. We had a couple of nice size deals, but we also had a tail of a little bit smaller deals, so really nice mix.

是的。皮特，謝謝你加入我們。是的，我們對全面看到的銷售動能感到非常滿意。而且它並不是由單一交易主導的。我們達成了幾筆規模不錯的交易，但也有一些規模較小的交易，所以組合非常好。

So nothing dominated the performance there. But as you can see, we're up over 70% year-over-year. And obviously, that will translate into benefits late this year and into next year. So it's always great when you see the sales momentum kick in and especially on the recurring revenue and ARR.

因此，沒有什麼能夠主導那裡的表現。但如您所見，我們的銷售額比去年同期成長了 70% 以上。顯然，這將在今年年底和明年轉化為效益。因此，當您看到銷售勢頭強勁，尤其是經常性收入和 ARR 成長時，總是很高興。

The only thing I'd add, Tom, I mean, the diversity that you mentioned, I'm staring at the top 15 of those that we did. They span all geos, merchants, banks, biller. So I was pleased with how pervasive the traction we're seeing there is.

湯姆，我唯一要補充的是，你提到的多樣性，我正在關注我們所做的前 15 個。它們遍佈所有地區、商家、銀行和收款人。因此，我很高興看到我們在那裡看到的吸引力如此之大。

That's great. That's great. And then can you maybe give us an update on the project within merchant to kind of further develop the software to better serve the US market, if I'm correct in that assumption, can you give us an update on that?

那太棒了。那太棒了。然後，您能否向我們提供有關商家內部專案的最新進展，以進一步開發軟體以更好地服務美國市場，如果我的假設正確，您能否向我們提供有關該專案的最新進展？

Yes. Sure, Pete. So we've got a number of initiatives. Some of that sales momentum is coming from our merchant business. The work we're doing with merchant is tracking well as usual with these big projects.

是的。當然，皮特。因此我們採取了多項措施。部分銷售動能來自於我們的商家業務。我們與商家合作的這些大專案進展順利。

You make changes as you go along, but we're able to compete very effectively. I think I was talking about stablecoin a minute ago. You didn't ask about stablecoin, but that's -- it gets really interesting as well. I talked about real-time payments, but it's also about merchant. And great news from my perspective on that is that our merchant solutions can handle digital payments and many, many other types of payments.

我們會隨著前進而做出改變，但我們能夠非常有效地競爭。我想我剛才正在談論穩定幣。你沒有問到穩定幣，但它也變得非常有趣。我談到了即時支付，但也涉及商家。從我的角度來看，好消息是我們的商家解決方案可以處理數位支付和許多其他類型的支付。

So as merchants -- I'm going to tie this back to your question in a second. But as merchants want to explore accepting more types of payments, more types of digital currency and particularly stablecoin, we are absolutely ready to support them, and it's kind of an exciting time.

因此，作為商家——我馬上就會將這個問題與您的問題聯繫起來。但隨著商家想要探索接受更多類型的付款、更多類型的數位貨幣，特別是穩定幣，我們已經做好了支持他們的準備，這是一個令人興奮的時刻。

And that isn't the reason that we -- what you're talking about wasn't specifically tied to that point about digital currency. But I think the point I'm trying to make is that we are well positioned to support customers around the world, and that's critical to be able to play a role as these types of payments become more important to the global payments ecosystem. So the short answer, which I could have just given you probably is that, that project is going just fine, and we're getting good traction with US merchants as well as merchants around the world.

這並不是我們所談論的與數位貨幣沒有特別聯繫的原因。但我想說的是，我們有能力為世界各地的客戶提供支持，而且隨著這些類型的支付對全球支付生態系統變得越來越重要，這一點對於我們能夠發揮作用至關重要。因此，我可能可以直接給你的簡短回答是，該專案進展順利，我們與美國商家以及世界各地的商家都取得了良好的合作。

George Sutton, Craig-Hallum.

喬治·薩頓、克雷格·哈勒姆。

Welcome to Bobby. Bobby, I wondered if you could just take us real quickly through what you see here relative to what you saw at Red Hat, where you saw them go from a similar high single-digit stance for growth into the teens. Do you see the same kind of dynamics here?

歡迎來到 Bobby。Bobby，我想知道您是否可以快速地向我們介紹一下您在這裡看到的情況以及您在 Red Hat 看到的情況，您看到他們的增長率也從類似的高個位數上升到了十幾個百分點。你在這裡看到同樣的動態嗎？

Yes. I think -- I appreciate the welcome. And I mean you heard in my opening comments a bit, George, on kind of how excited I am on what I've seen so far in my first month. I'll start with some of the similarities that maybe are more qualitative, and then I'll get to your quantitative part of the question. Super impressed with the passion and expertise and 50 years of history, like Tom talked about, there's a ton of expertise on why our customers are coming to us across ACI's, very similar to the passion I saw at Red Hat as well on that why and that purpose of what we're trying to do in the payment industry.

是的。我想——我很感謝你們的歡迎。喬治，我的意思是，你從我的開場白中已經聽出來了，我對第一個月以來所看到的情況感到多麼興奮。我將從一些可能更定性的相似之處開始，然後再討論問題的定量部分。我對這種熱情、專業知識和 50 年的歷史印象深刻，就像湯姆所說的那樣，我們有大量關於為什麼我們的客戶透過 ACI 來找我們的專業知識，這與我在 Red Hat 看到的熱情非常相似，也解釋了我們在支付行業努力的原因和目的。

The second thing on a similarity basis is going to be the trust those customers have in us. Similar to the other parts of software I've been in, we're running mission-critical systems for banks around the world.

相似性基礎上的第二件事是客戶對我們的信任。與我從事過的其他軟體部門類似，我們正在為世界各地的銀行運行關鍵任務系統。

The part of it that I think I get excited about and when I talk about the opportunities I see here in ACI, there's an operational and I think an execution opportunity ahead of us. Tom has been on this since he got here. He talks a lot about spreading out our capacity from a sales effort standpoint throughout the year of getting deals done earlier. And the byproduct of that is the net new ARRs we're seeing. So getting that engine going, getting the demand out there for our market-leading portfolio, very similar to the Red Hat side.

當我談到我在 ACI 看到的機會時，我認為我對此感到興奮，我認為我們面前有一個營運機會，而且我認為還有一個執行機會。自從湯姆來到這裡，他就一直致力於這件事。他從銷售工作的角度詳細討論瞭如何全年分散我們的銷售能力，以便儘早完成交易。而其副產品就是我們看到的淨新 ARR。因此，啟動這個引擎，讓市場對我們領先的產品組合產生需求，這與 Red Hat 方面非常相似。

The other part of it, I think I spent a decent amount of time at Red Hat on this, too, really helping our external constituencies and very squarely our investor base understand the progress we're making there. So I see the opportunity on the operational side as well as being very transparent on the progress we're making for you all as we go on that journey. But excited about the acceleration opportunities that could exist.

另一方面，我認為我在 Red Hat 也花了相當多的時間來做這件事，真正幫助我們的外部選民和投資者群體了解我們在那裡取得的進展。因此，我看到了營運方面的機會，我們對這段旅程中所取得的進展非常透明。但對可能的加速機會感到興奮。

Awesome. And then, Tom, we had to go into this quarter watching FIS and Fiserv put up pretty lousy outlooks and yours is quite separated from that. I wondered if you can give us a bigger picture kind of how you feel strategically positioned up against some of the other large payment players.

驚人的。然後，湯姆，我們不得不進入本季度，觀察 FIS 和 Fiserv 提出的相當糟糕的前景，而你的前景與此截然不同。我想知道您是否可以向我們更詳細地介紹您在與其他一些大型支付公司競爭時的策略定位。

Yes. Thanks, George. So we're not -- it's not a perfect compare. Obviously, it's not even a great compare between us and those companies. We certainly watch them closely.

是的。謝謝，喬治。所以我們不是——這不是一個完美的比較。顯然，我們和那些公司相比並不算太好。我們當然會密切關注他們。

There -- we work with them. But -- and yes, they're customers of ours, important customers of ours. But the drivers of our business are quite different, and we're not seeing -- I think the big drivers, certainly, if I think about Fiserv, there was a little weakness in the growth around Clover, and that's a completely different business from ours. So we're not seeing, obviously, that -- the weakness that they're seeing. And I mean weakness is probably not the right word. Their growth rate a little bit slower than they originally thought.

在那裡——我們與他們合作。但是—是的，他們是我們的客戶，我們的重要客戶。但我們業務的驅動因素非常不同，我們沒有看到——我認為最大的驅動因素當然是，如果我考慮一下 Fiserv，Clover 的成長有些疲軟，這是與我們完全不同的業務。因此，顯然我們沒有看到他們所看到的弱點。我的意思是，「軟弱」可能不是一個恰當的字眼。他們的成長速度比他們原先想像的要慢一些。

But I think we feel great about our business. We continue to solidify relationships with customers. The sales efforts are working better every quarter. Obviously, we're generating very nice cash flows and margins. We just feel really good about where our business is. It's a different business than those two. Obviously, sometimes we get lumped in with them, and I understand that. But we have a different business, different business model and ours is working very well. That's all we can say.

但我認為我們對我們的業務感覺很好。我們繼續鞏固與客戶的關係。每季的銷售工作都取得更好的效果。顯然，我們正在產生非常好的現金流和利潤率。我們對我們的業務現狀感到非常滿意。這是與那兩項不同的業務。顯然，有時我們會被歸入他們之列，我理解這一點。但我們有不同的業務、不同的商業模式，而且我們的模式運作良好。我們只能說這些。

Charles Nabhan, Stephens.

查爾斯·納布漢，史蒂芬斯。

I wanted to talk -- I wanted to ask about some of the trends underlying the strength in the backlog. Specifically, are you seeing any increase in investment on the part of governments -- or anything you could say on investment trends, competitive factors in terms of like banks investing in payment technology relative to prior years. So I'm just trying to get a sense for what's underlying that strength in the backlog this quarter.

我想談談——我想詢問積壓訂單強勁背後的一些趨勢。具體來說，您是否看到政府方面的投資增加 - 或者您可以談談投資趨勢、競爭因素，例如銀行在支付技術方面的投資相對於前幾年有所增加。所以我只是想了解本季積壓訂單強勁的根本原因。

Yes. I don't think there's a -- we haven't seen a fundamental change in the way our customers are thinking about investments. They've -- I mean, this is a really important area for all of our customers, merchants, billers and banks alike and intermediaries, processors as well. So that really hasn't changed. I don't think there's anything to point to there.

是的。我認為，我們還沒有看到客戶對投資的看法有根本性的改變。他們——我的意思是，這對我們所有的客戶、商家、帳單員和銀行以及中介機構、處理商來說都是一個非常重要的領域。所以這確實沒有改變。我認為那裡沒有什麼可指出的。

I think the -- we're getting a lot of attention, not just ACI, but payments in general, getting a lot of attention, which is great. And I think I've talked for -- ever since I became the CEO, I've talked about the discussions that we have constantly with our customers about modernization, about making sure that they can bring new products to market faster, they can meet the needs of their customers. And we're able to demonstrate clearly that we can support them in doing that. And that's the story just fit. And that's -- and I think we're getting better at executing it and particularly on the sales side, on the more consultative account management side, we're getting better at it.

我認為——我們得到了很多關注，不僅僅是 ACI，而且總體而言，支付也得到了很多關注，這很好。我想我已經談過了——自從我成為執行長以來，我一直在談論我們與客戶就現代化進行的不斷討論，以確保他們能夠更快地將新產品推向市場，能夠滿足客戶的需求。我們能夠清楚地表明，我們可以支持他們這樣做。這就是恰如其分的故事。這就是——我認為我們在執行方面做得越來越好，特別是在銷售方面，在更具諮詢性的客戶管理方面，我們做得越來越好。

And so I think those are the drivers. I don't think it's a fundamental shift in investment and willingness to invest. I think that's been there. We're just -- I think we're just getting a little bit better at taking advantage of it. And the position we have in, as we say, powering the world's payments ecosystem makes us one of the usual suspects.

所以我認為這些就是驅動因素。我認為這不是投資和投資意願的根本轉變。我認為它一直存在。我們只是——我認為我們在利用這一點方面做得更好了。正如我們所說，我們在推動世界支付生態系統方面所佔據的地位使我們成為常見的嫌疑犯之一。

We always pretty much always get a chance when somebody is looking to make a change.

當有人想要做出改變時，我們總是會得到機會。

Yes, if I could add just one comment, Chuck, on the backlog, I'm glad you brought it up. I mean, Tom mentioned it's the first time we published a backlog that starts with a $7 billion. I'm excited for that. When you get the queue, just to give you a preview of -- you're going to see equal strength across both Payment Software and Biller. And Tom covered the interplay of your question between banks and maybe governments.

是的，查克，如果我可以就積壓問題補充一條評論，我很高興你提出這個問題。我的意思是，湯姆提到這是我們第一次發布以 70 億美元開始的積壓訂單。我對此感到很興奮。當您進入隊列時，只是為了讓您預覽一下 - 您將看到支付軟體和 Biller 的同等實力。湯姆也談到了你的問題中銀行和政府之間的相互作用。

But really, it's around that focus on new logos and equally in a lot of cases, more important with new scope and new applications as our existing customers expand and trust us even more. So we're super excited about the health of the backlog, and it gives us confidence on the revenue increase that we provided.

但實際上，重點是新標識，同樣在許多情況下，隨著現有客戶的擴大和對我們的信任不斷增加，新的範圍和新的應用也變得更加重要。因此，我們對積壓訂單的健康狀況感到非常興奮，這讓我們對我們所提供的收入成長充滿信心。

Yes. Got it. And as a follow-up, I think capital flexibility is one of the aspects of the story that sometimes might fall by the wayside, but you've been pretty active on buybacks through the first half of the year. I wanted to get your -- get a little more color around your philosophy towards capital allocation entering the back half of the year, if the performance of the stock has changed your attitude towards buybacks and how you think about M&A going forward as well if that becomes a bigger part of the consideration at some point?

是的。知道了。另外，我認為資本彈性是故事中有時可能被忽視的方面之一，但在今年上半年，你們在回購方面一直非常活躍。我想進一步了解您對下半年資本配置的理念，股票的表現是否改變了您對回購的態度，以及如果併購在某個時候成為考慮的更重要的部分，您對未來的併購有何看法？

Yes, Chuck, so we -- as you said, flexibility is king on this. And we've -- I think we've positioned ourselves really well. We have a ton of flexibility to do what's right for the company and right for our shareholders. And obviously, we were more aggressive than we've ever been on buybacks in the second quarter, probably for some obvious reasons. We think it was attractively priced stock that we bought, and we leaned in heavily.

是的，查克，所以我們——正如你所說，靈活性是最重要的。而且我們——我認為我們已經把自己定位得很好了。我們擁有極大的彈性來做對公司和股東有利的事情。顯然，我們在第二季的回購力道比以往任何時候都要大，這可能是出於一些顯而易見的原因。我們認為我們購買的股票價格具有吸引力，我們大力投資。

Our capital allocation strategy hasn't changed. We want to apply investment where we can help the company grow -- profitably grow faster, and we're going to continue to do that. We have plenty of capacity to do that. And then when we find attractive M&A, that will make a lot of sense.

我們的資本配置策略沒有改變。我們希望將投資用於能夠幫助公司成長的地方——實現更快的獲利成長，我們將繼續這樣做。我們有足夠的能力做到這一點。然後，當我們找到有吸引力的併購機會時，這將非常有意義。

I think I've said many times on these calls that there are two primary reasons we would make an acquisition. One would be to accelerate our progress on Connetic. If we find the right company with software we like that's cloud native and multi-tenant, that would be amazing, and we look actively for those. And then the other is for geographic expansion. So there are a few areas in the world where we have a small presence, and we're interested in finding those.

我想我在這些電話會議上已經說過很多次了，我們進行收購主要有兩個原因。一是加快我們在 Connetic 上的進展。如果我們找到合適的公司，並且擁有我們喜歡的雲端原生和多租戶軟體，那就太好了，我們會積極尋找這樣的公司。另一個是地理擴張。因此，世界上有一些地區我們的業務規模較小，我們有興趣找到這些地區。

We look actively, but if we don't find them, then we go to the third one, which is return capital to shareholders. And the way that we've obviously chosen to do that historically is through share buybacks, and you can see that in the quarter. But we have plenty of capacity to do all of those things, and we're actively looking for the best ways to deploy the capital that we generate.

我們會積極尋找，但如果找不到，我們就會採取第三種方式，即向股東返還資本。顯然，我們過去選擇的方式是透過股票回購來實現這一目標，你可以在本季看到這一點。但我們有足夠的能力去做所有這些事情，我們正在積極尋找最佳的方式來部署我們所創造的資本。

(Operator Instructions) Jeff Cantwell, Seaport Research.

（操作員指示）傑夫坎特韋爾，海港研究。

Tom, interesting comments on stablecoins, particularly where you see the potential adoption in certain areas like cross-border. The question I want to ask is, can you talk at all about how the unit economics stack up for you when it's a stablecoin transaction versus maybe some of the other form factors of payments you were to switch for? Are they better or are they same on average? It seems to me like maybe there's potentially some difference on a per transaction basis if you're involved with the stablecoin transaction versus maybe something like debit. So I wanted to ask, can you maybe talk through how you see that?

湯姆，關於穩定幣的評論很有趣，特別是你看到了在跨國等某些領域的潛在應用。我想問的問題是，您能否談談，當它是穩定幣交易時，相對於您要轉換的其他一些支付形式，單位經濟效益如何？它們是否更好或平均而言相同？在我看來，如果你參與穩定幣交易而不是藉記卡交易，那麼每筆交易可能都會有一些差異。所以我想問一下，您能否談談您對此的看法？

Sure. Yes. Thanks, Jeff. And so I'll tell you how it works today, and then I'm going to explain a little bit about how -- why that is. And why it probably will change over time.

當然。是的。謝謝，傑夫。今天我將告訴你們它是如何運作的，然後我將稍微解釋為什麼會這樣。以及為什麼它可能會隨著時間而改變。

So if I think about -- if I go to my cross-border real-time payment that I was describing, that's a very interesting use case for stablecoin. And by the way, it could be the same, whether it's -- even if it's Bitcoin or a different transaction or actually any currency really. But if I look at the unit economics for ACI, a real-time payment generates significantly more revenue than a debit transaction. That was the example that you used right now. And the reason that is true is because we price our transactions, our customers buy buckets of capacity, so buckets of transactions.

所以如果我考慮一下——如果我去考慮我所描述的跨境即時支付，那就是穩定幣的一個非常有趣的用例。順便說一句，無論是比特幣還是其他交易，或者實際上任何貨幣，都可能是一樣的。但如果我看一下 ACI 的單位經濟學，即時支付產生的收入比借記交易要多得多。這就是您現在使用的例子。之所以如此，是因為我們為交易定價，我們的客戶購買大量的容量，因此也購買大量的交易。

And when you buy -- we price on a curve. So when you buy a lot of transactions, the per transaction price will naturally be lower than if you buy a small number of transactions. So it all kind of depends on the volumes that are expected.

當您購買時—我們會根據曲線定價。因此，當您購買大量交易時，每筆交易的價格自然會比購買少量交易時低。所以這一切都取決於預期的數量。

And so if I look at it today, I'm just going to specifically answer your question. If I look at it today, and we saw a cross-border stablecoin transaction on a real-time platform, that would be multiples of what we would charge or what a customer would pay for a debit transaction. Today, as adoption happens, obviously, they would move up the pricing curve. And so if the volumes were the same between debit and a real-time cross-border transaction, then the prices would approach each other. They would be similar. But in the -- as that ramps up, the economics are better for us.

所以如果我今天看一下，我就會具體回答你的問題。如果我今天看一下，我們在即時平台上看到了一筆跨境穩定幣交易，那將是我們收取的費用或客戶為借記交易支付的費用的數倍。如今，隨著採用率的提高，顯然它們會提高定價曲線。因此，如果借記卡和即時跨境交易的交易量相同，那麼價格就會接近。它們會很相似。但隨著這個數字的上升，我們的經濟狀況會變得更好。

Interesting. Okay. Great. And Bobby, welcome. I wanted to ask you one on your Q3 EBITDA guidance.

有趣的。好的。偉大的。歡迎 Bobby。我想問您一個有關第三季 EBITDA 指引的問題。

Can you just walk us through the puts and takes that you see there? I wanted to better understand, you had some strong results in Q2 here. So clearly, there's some flow-through, some good momentum. But we also understand there's a lot of moving parts to this business. So curious if you can tell us more about what the major call-outs are for Q3 EBITDA and how you arrived at the guide of $155 million to $165 million.

能簡單介紹一下您在那裡看到的情況嗎？我想更了解，您在第二季度取得了一些強勁的成績。因此顯然存在一些流通和良好的勢頭。但我們也知道這個行業有很多活動的部分。我很好奇您是否可以告訴我們更多有關第三季 EBITDA 的主要預測，以及您是如何得出 1.55 億美元至 1.65 億美元的預期的。

And what in your own mind puts you at the high end of that range? And what would be the main factors that will put you at the lower end of the range?

在您看來，什麼使您處於該範圍的高端？那麼，哪些主要因素會使您處於該範圍的較低端？

Yes. I appreciate it, Jeff. So one, like you said, we were comfortable putting out a strong Q2 -- Q3 guide based on what we see at this point. One, I mean, I'll just highlight some of the dynamics we see over the typical seasonality. We're going up almost $70 million on a quarter-to-quarter basis in our EBITDA.

是的。我很感激，傑夫。所以，正如您所說，根據我們目前所看到的情況，我們很樂意推出強有力的 Q2 - Q3 指南。首先，我的意思是，我只想強調我們在典型季節性中看到的一些動態。我們的 EBITDA 環比成長了近 7000 萬美元。

A lot of that's going to carry with it a much higher Payment Software revenue stream we see in the third quarter. That goes up by about a certain amount every year as we see better seasonality there in some of our deals. So that's going to carry with it a lot more contribution to the EBITDA mix we get from that part of our business. I will say we're continuing to invest in our new platforms in these guides, things like Connetic within our sales capacity to continue to drive this. You asked specifically about what's going to be the differences within that $10 million range.

其中很大一部分將帶來我們在第三季看到的更高的支付軟體收入流。由於我們發現某些交易的季節性較好，因此該數字每年都會增加一定幅度。因此，這將為我們業務的該部分所獲得的 EBITDA 組合帶來更多貢獻。我想說的是，我們將繼續投資於這些指南中的新平台，例如 Connetic，以在我們的銷售能力範圍內繼續推動這一進程。您具體詢問了 1000 萬美元範圍內的差異是什麼。

It's usually going to be the uncertainty we have around when customers are going to sign those high-margin license deals. I've got a pipeline that's very strong. We're working through with the team. I feel comfortable on this where we've guided currently. And the way we're going to get towards the higher end of that is going to see a better mix of deals to flow through to the bottom line. And that's kind of what underpinned it and got me comfortable there.

當客戶簽署那些高利潤的授權協議時，我們通常會感到不確定。我有一個非常強大的管道。我們正在與團隊合作。我對我們目前的指導感到很滿意。而我們要達到更高目標的方法是看到更好的交易組合，以流向底線。這就是支撐它並讓我感到舒適的原因。

Yes. And Jeff, as you know, the increment that Bobby is talking about, what would move one way or another would be new deals or additional cross-sell because obviously, the renewals, as we've said, they book when they book, when the renewal happens. This would be new. And so there's always -- it's a little bit of an art to say how much of that new business pipeline do I expect to close in Q3 versus Q4 or Q1 of next year. And that's really the factor that could move us in that range.

是的。傑夫，正如你所知，鮑比談論的增量，無論如何都會是新交易或額外的交叉銷售，因為顯然，續約，正如我們所說的，他們在預訂時預訂，在續約發生時預訂。這將是新的。因此，總是存在——預測明年第三季、第四季或第一季預計完成多少新業務，這有點難。這確實是可以讓我們進入該範圍的因素。

We have no further questions. I would like to turn the call back over to the company for any closing remarks.

我們沒有其他問題了。我想將電話轉回給公司，以便發表任何結束語。

All right. Well, thank you. Thanks all for joining us, of course, and for the insightful questions, and I always enjoy the engagement. We're really pleased with the results we delivered in the quarter, in the first half, and we're certainly energized about the momentum that we see for the second half of 2025. I want to just reiterate something we actually just talked about, our strategy to drive earlier contract signings is working.

好的。好的，謝謝你。當然，感謝大家加入我們，並提出深刻的提問，我很享受這次互動。我們對本季、即上半年所取得的業績感到非常滿意，並且我們對 2025 年下半年的發展勢頭充滿信心。我想重申我們剛才談到的事情，我們推動提前簽訂合約的策略正在發揮作用。

And when I combine that with the strong pipeline, the growing pipeline that we have, the customer demand for our Connetic platform, that reinforces the confidence we have in our path ahead, and it makes us really excited about what's coming. We appreciate your continued support. We'll obviously keep you updated on our progress, and we appreciate you and what you do to help us.

當我將其與我們擁有的強大的管道、不斷增長的管道以及客戶對我們的 Connetic 平台的需求結合時，這增強了我們對未來道路的信心，並且讓我們對即將發生的事情感到非常興奮。感謝您一直以來的支持。我們當然會隨時向您通報我們的進展，我們感謝您以及您為我們提供的幫助。

So thank you very much.

非常感謝。

Thanks, Tom. Thanks, everyone, for attending here. We look forward to connecting with you all in the coming weeks, including at the Jefferies Conference in New York City. Tom, Bobby and I will be there on September 4. Thanks, everyone.

謝謝，湯姆。謝謝大家的出席。我們期待在未來幾週與大家聯繫，包括在紐約市舉行的 Jefferies 會議上。湯姆、鮑比和我將於 9 月 4 日到達那裡。謝謝大家。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。