New York, Dec 16 (IANS): Tech giant IBM has acquired Montreal-based fintech company Expertus Technologies for an undisclosed sum - a move that is aimed at strengthening IBM's portfolio as an end-to-end digital payments solution provider and further advancing IBM's hybrid cloud and AI strategy.

Founded in 2001, Expertus offers payment-as-a-service cloud solutions to banks, credit unions and enterprise players. Over $50 billion is processed through the Expertus platform daily.

The financial terms were not disclosed.

"Expertus' payment-as-a-service solution expands our hybrid cloud-based payments offerings, transforming payments and treasury management with AI to give financial institutions the flexibility to rapidly innovate and stay competitive as consumer demands evolve," explained Mark Foster, Senior Vice President, IBM Services.

With this acquisition, IBM said it will gain decades of consulting experience to address the most pressing payment modernisation challenges of financial institutions, which are part of the more than $100 billion consulting and business process services opportunity in banking and financial markets over the next few years.

"Expertus built an efficient and trusted financial services enterprise, that in many ways, was ahead of its time," said Jacques Leblanc, CEO and founder of Expertus.

"Together with IBM, we now can offer businesses worldwide the benefits and security of seamless end-to-end financial transactions."