STC Bank
Pioneering Composable Digital Banking in Saudi Arabia
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
At a Glance
● Live with Temenos Core since February 2022.
● One of the first banks to run Temenos Core on PostgreSQL.
● Scaled from 3 million to 5 million transactions per day.
STC Bank is a pioneering digital bank in Saudi Arabia. It was born from the transformation of STC Pay, a wallet service launched by Saudi Telecom Company (STC). Today, it stands as one of the region’s most prominent fintech success stories, with a growing portfolio of digital financial services. Backed by STC Group and fully licensed by the Saudi Central Bank, STC Bank operates on a mission to deliver simple, accessible, and secure banking to both individuals and businesses across the Kingdom.
Scaling to meet success
STC Bank’s journey began with a simple wallet offering. Success brought scale, and scale brought complexity. As customer expectations rose, STC Pay needed to evolve into a full-fledged digital bank without losing the ease of use and rapid service that had made it successful. The team faced a critical question: how to maintain seamless, user-centric services while meeting growing regulatory demands and building the infrastructure for future growth?
“The main challenge was continuing to offer simple, user-friendly services—without compromising on compliance,” said Mansour Al-Zharani, Chief Technology Officer, STC Bank.
Their existing in-house system needed to support a high-volume digital banking operation. A new core platform was essential—one that could support composable services, automation, and regulatory compliance at scale.
A deployment first
Following a rigorous evaluation process, STC Bank selected Temenos Core as its new core banking system, implemented with support from Temenos Services and regional partner Seedz (formerly BankerWay). The solution included modules for accounts, lending, deposits, and Temenos Advanced Collection.
It became one of the first companies in the world to deploy Temenos Core on PostgreSQL, an advanced open-source database.
We were impressed by Temenos’ long-term roadmap and clear strategy for composable banking. They showed us a path from monolithic systems to modular services.
– Mansour Al-Zharani, Chief Technology Officer at STC Bank
The decision to go with PostgreSQL, combined with a microservice-driven architecture, reinforced the bank’s commitment to agility and composability. This modern tech stack has allowed STC Bank to introduce new digital services rapidly, and support anticipated increases in transaction volumes, while minimizing customizations and maximizing out-of-the-box capabilities.
Engine of growth
STC Bank went live with Temenos Core on 14 February 2022. The platform has proven its ability to scale. And now handles 5 million daily transactions with ease.
Driving these numbers are operational improvements. New products can now be brought to market faster, supported by automated deployment and CI/CD pipelines. The bank’s use of out-of-the-box capabilities and minimal customization has supported agility and reduced complexity. The launch of microservice-based lending services has laid the groundwork for a modular, data-driven banking model. Above all, the bank has achieved high service reliability, with very few issues arising after go-live.
Every product we’ve launched since go-live has moved from development to testing to production smoothly and on time.
– Mansour Al-Zharani, Chief Technology Officer at STC Bank
Mansour explains that the balance of out-of-the-box capabilities with customizations has been crucial to this. “Builds and releases are now fully automated throughout all the environments, while the ease with which we can add customizations keeps us agile.”
Deep partnership
STC Bank chose Temenos for its vision, track record, and composable architecture. The decision was rooted in a long-term view: avoiding legacy limitations and investing in a platform that evolves with innovation.
Temenos stood out for its experience in the Saudi market, strong regional partnerships, and the ability to support open technologies such as PostgreSQL.
Equally important was the partnership ethos. Temenos’ engagement was deep and broad, with product owners, technical specialists, and support all involved. STC Bank also benefits from Temenos First Level Support, including an onsite engineer for immediate issue resolution, helping preserve development speed and service continuity.
Looking ahead
STC Bank continues to expand its product set using Temenos Core, with new lending and deposit offerings in development. It is also exploring how AI capabilities from Temenos can further improve operational efficiency, development workflows, and delivery timelines.
We’re on a journey to reach more customers by offering more services—and Temenos is helping us get there. This partnership isn’t just for a year or two. It’s about long-term growth.
– Mansour Al-Zharani, Chief Technology Officer at STC Bank
With a modern, scalable core in place, STC Bank is well positioned to lead the future of digital banking in Saudi Arabia—setting the standard for what a composable, cloud-native bank can achieve.