Innovate, Transform, Succeed

At Temenos Connect 2025 Australia, industry veterans gathered for a candid discussion about the realities of core banking transformation. Moderated by Ganesan Sriraman, EVP and Global Head of Product Engineering at Temenos, the fireside chat brought together David Morgan, General Manager of Technology – Core Ledger at Bank of New Zealand, and Alex Twigg, Director of Alex Bank and a pioneering figure in Australia’s neobanking landscape, to discuss the realities of modernization, the challenges that keep executives awake at night, and where artificial intelligence fits into the equation.  

The First Month Determines Everything  

For Twigg, who has witnessed numerous core banking implementations across his career, the message is clear: most projects succeed or fail within the first 30 days.  

“It’s all about not just your current legacy—think about your current legacy in a few different ways. It’s legacy thinking, it’s legacy data, it’s a legacy approach,” Twigg told attendees. “And those are your real issues.”  

The solution lies in front-loading the critical work. Detailed scope definition, security models, integration frameworks, and customer journeys must be locked down early. Automated testing, migration testing, and security protocols need to begin on day one, not weeks before launch.  

Sriraman highlighted the key takeaways from Twigg’s perspective: “Keywords—the first month is very important, automation testing is very important, and the fact that you are able to front load is a very key term.”  

Morgan echoed this sentiment from Bank of New Zealand’s experience. While the Temenos Transact platform itself performs well, the real challenge lies in integrating it with decades-old infrastructure—systems that may have lost their documentation and institutional knowledge along the way.  

Exploiting Your Investment  

Bank of New Zealand’s relationship with Temenos spans seven or eight years, evolving from initial exploration to deep implementation. Morgan emphasized that the partnership has been marked by responsiveness, with Temenos bringing the right people, intellectual property, and experience to address issues as they arise.  

The partnership has included critical support from implementation partners like Deloitte, demonstrating that successful transformation requires a collaborative ecosystem. As Morgan acknowledged, finding good partners to navigate the inevitable lumps and bumps proves essential.  

“It’s not perfect, it’s never going to be. If you’re looking at doing core implementations, it’s never going to go to plan. You need to find yourself a good product and you need to find yourself some good partners to help you through that as well.” 
David Morgan, General Manager, Technology – Core Ledger, Bank of New Zealand  

The most impactful decision in BNZ’s transformation journey was using modernization as a catalyst to fundamentally rethink their offering. The project sparked conversations about which products and services truly serve customers, where standardization makes sense, and how to make frontline colleagues more effective.  

Sriraman captured the essence of this approach succinctly: “We use the word adapt—many terminologies—but basically looking at how to use the product based on what it offers seems to be the key decision every time.”  

Morgan agreed: “You do want to exploit what you’ve invested in, all of it. That’s exactly why you invest in it. Use it.”  

AI: Promise and Practicality  

When Sriraman turned the discussion to artificial intelligence—a must-have topic for any tech event—both speakers offered grounded perspectives on where the technology delivers genuine value.  

For Morgan, the integration layer represents the biggest opportunity. With banks facing thousands of integration points across multiple patterns and legacy systems, any AI tooling that accelerates standardization and engineering delivers immediate impact.  

“Any AI tooling there to help you integrate quicker, faster, smarter is a biggie,” said Morgan, noting that BNZ has experimented with mixed results as the technology matures.  

Twigg emphasized that AI’s historical limitation—garbage in, garbage out—remains relevant. The real power lies not in asking AI to make autonomous decisions, but in using it to monitor, analyze, and recommend actions to human decision-makers.  

“Where I think it becomes really powerful is in asking it to think about what’s going on in your environment, tell you the issues that are occurring there, and actually make recommendations for prompt humans rather than the other way around,” Twigg explained.  

“Core banking is not about agile development starting from a single point of truth. Core banking is about making sure that you understand how to take out processes from your organization and working back from there.” 
Alex Twigg, Director, Alex Bank  

Looking Forward  

As the session concluded, the key themes crystallized: successful core banking transformation demands meticulous planning from day one, a willingness to fundamentally rethink processes rather than simply replicate them, and strategic deployment of emerging technologies where they deliver measurable value.  

The journey is never perfect—as Morgan acknowledged, core implementations never go exactly to plan. Success requires finding the right product and the right partners, then committing to work through the inevitable challenges together.  

For banks embarking on their own modernization journeys, the message from these industry veterans at Temenos Connect 2025 Australia is clear: get the fundamentals right early, think differently about change, and exploit every capability you’ve invested in. The path may be complex, but with the right approach and partnerships, transformation delivers lasting value for customers, colleagues, and the business itself.