Al Hilal Bank selects TEMENOS T24 Model Bank for Sharia-compliant banking
02 April 2008
GENEVA, Switzerland, 2 April 2008 - Temenos Group (SWX: TEMN), the provider of integrated core banking systems, today announced that Al Hilal Bank, a greenfield Islamic bank set up by the Abu Dhabi government, has selected TEMENOS T24 (T24) to support its retail, commercial and investment banking business. Al Hilal Bank will initially operate its branches network across the United Arab Emirates, supporting up to 100,000 customer accounts.
The bank has chosen the T24 Islamic Model Bank, which includes pre-configured products and processes based on banking best practice to reduce implementation time and costs, minimise customisation and lower the project risk. The solution will also include TEMENOS ARC Internet Banking (ARC IB), which will allow the Bank to maximise the return on its investment in the core platform by minimising staffing skill requirements and in-house T24 knowledge. It also minimises the cost of integration, thereby reducing the total cost of ownership of the internet channel.
Mohamed Berro, CEO of Al Hilal Bank, says: “For us, speed of implementation was extremely important. We were looking for a core banking system that was Sharia compliant, highly flexible and scalable and would allow us to easily roll out new and innovative channels and products to our market. We wanted a proven, best-practice low risk approach that will take us live in time for our launch in June 2008. After a two month selection period, T24 emerged as the system that could meet all of these requirements.”
Al Hilal considered a number of vendors before signing the deal with Temenos in February 2008. A Temenos professional services team is set to roll out the Model Bank in just five months. T24 will be deployed over IBM servers with an Oracle Database and Cisco call centre solution. Prasad Abraham, COO of Al Hilal Bank, adds: “We have great plans for our bank and T24 is central to them. We expect our partnership with Temenos will support our aggressive growth strategy locally and internationally.”
Andreas Andreades, CEO of Temenos, adds: "Al Hilal Bank is a significant win for Temenos as it confirms that we are fast in our implementations, and also becoming the vendor of choice for Islamic banks around the world. The bank’s selection of our Model Bank is further proof that we can provide Islamic banking functionality out of the box and without modification across a number of different countries and in record time.”
TEMENOS T24 is a functionally rich, scalable, and proven integrated banking system. It is delivered as a pre-configured Model Bank solution that incorporates industry best-practice, enabling fast and predictable implementations and immediate, measurable benefits. Temenos’ Model Bank approach allows a fast ROI and a highly flexible and responsive approach to banking ensuring maximum business agility based on T24’s flexible features. T24 offers integrated and comprehensive information on the institution at all times including a single customer view, and a single view of the enterprise including risk and profitability.
T24 incorporates modern technology including a comprehensive Service Orientated Architecture (SOA), fully enabled for standard, SOAP web services, BPEL process execution and compliant with industry leading ESBs (Enterprise Service Buses). T24 can be deployed on a fully scalable, multi-server n-tier architecture. It provides a full front-to-back solution from electronic delivery channels such as mobile devices and internet banking right through to settlement, general ledger and other back office functions all in a fully integrated, reliable and cost effective environment. Temenos’ total commitment to open standards enables its customers to benefit from the latest advances in technology ensuring business agility, continuity, data integrity and reduced downtime delivering a significant, immediate and ongoing return on investment.
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About Al Hilal Bank
Al Hilal Bank is wholly owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, which is an investment body of the Government of Abu Dhabi. The bank has an authorized capital of Dirhams four billion, and is licensed to operate as an Islamic commercial bank. Al Hilal aims to deliver a fresh, innovative and modern approach to Sharia compliant banking to customers in the UAE, MENA and the Islamic regions.
About Temenos
Founded in 1993 and listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SWX: TEMN), Temenos Group AG is a global provider of banking software systems in the Retail, Corporate & Correspondent, Universal, Private, Islamic and Microfinance & Community banking markets. Headquartered in Geneva with 44 offices worldwide, Temenos serves over 600 customers in more than 120 countries.
Temenos’ software products provide advanced technology and rich functionality, incorporating best practice processes that leverage Temenos’ experience in over 600 implementations around the globe.
Temenos’ advanced and automated implementation approach, provided by its strong Client Services organisation, ensures efficient and low-risk core banking platform migrations. Temenos annually invests around 20% in R&D, significantly more than its peers, into a single fully packaged upgradeable software release, which ensures all Temenos customers benefit from modern technology and support indefinitely. For more information please visit www.temenos.com
For more information, contact:
Max Chuard
Temenos Director
Corporate Finance & IR
Member of the Executive Board
Tel: +41 (0) 22 708 1157
Email: mchuard@temenos.com
Ben Robinson
Temenos Investor Relations Manager
Tel: +44 (0) 207 290 3012
Email: brobinson@temenos.com
Peter McKenna
Temenos Marketing Director
Tel: +44 (0) 207 423 3842
Email: pmckenna@temenos.com
Evelina Amanatidou
Team 660
Metia for TEMENOS
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3100 3592
Email: evelina@metia.com