Kingdom Bank has been serving churches and Christian charities in the UK for almost 70 years. It offers mortgage lending and savings accounts for customers who want their banking choices to reflect their Christian values.

From the start, the bank has had a clear mission: to support churches, charities, and communities across the UK through purpose-driven financial services.  

Over time, this strong sense of purpose has helped Kingdom Bank build trust with its customers. In recent years, the bank has also grown significantly, with ambitions for continued growth over the next five years. “To do this successfully, it became clear that we needed to modernize how our bank operates and adopt a platform capable of supporting our future mission and long-term growth.” said Philip Taylor, Chief Information Officer at Kingdom Bank 

Realizing Change Was Needed

While Kingdom Bank had a long and trusted history, its technology was built over many decades. What had once served the bank effectively had gradually evolved into siloed and disconnected systems that relied heavily on manual processes. This made it harder for teams to work efficiently and for the bank to scale as it grew.  

Growth was not simply about business expansion. It was essential for Kingdom Bank to continue supporting its mission and its customers.  The bank recognized that maintaining legacy ways of working would make it increasingly difficult to scale efficiently while continuing to deliver the high-quality, relationship-driven service customers expected. 

At the same time, the wider banking landscape keeps changing rapidly. Operational resilience, evolving customer expectations, digital banking standards, and the rise of technologies such as AI were reshaping the industry.  Kingdom Bank wanted to ensure it is structured to deliver modern banking experiences over time, without compromising the values and personal service that define the organization.

Defining What Success Should Look Like

Kingdom Bank did not want to change technology just for the sake of it. The bank’s goals were simple and practical: 

• Improve the experience for customers 
• Reduce manual work for employees 
• Enable IT to focus on customer-driven innovation
• Build a more resilient and reliable bank 

If these areas were addressed, the bank believed growth would naturally follow.  

A SaaS core banking platform was essential. Availability, security, and scalability were all critical requirements. Just as important was finding a partner the bank could trust, one with proven resilience, deep banking expertise, and the flexibility to support Kingdom Bank’s long‑term ambitions.  

Finding the Right Partners

After careful evaluation, Kingdom Bank selected Temenos Core as its core banking platform, along with Temenos Payments and Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation on Temenos SaaS and Microsoft Azure, with Tech Mahindra as its implementation and services partner. 

Temenos was selected for its strong functionality, built‑in security, and proven reliability. The platform’s out-of-the-box capabilities, security-by-design approach, and technical flexibility made it a strong fit for the bank’s transformation goals.  

For a smaller and highly focused organization like Kingdom Bank, working with Tech Mahindra also helped create a cost-effective model, while ensuring strong delivery and ongoing support. “Combining a market leading core platform with clear banking experience coupled with Tech Mahindra delivery capabilities was a good fit.” said Philip.

The partnership allowed Kingdom Bank’s internal teams to remain focused on banking services and customer relationships rather than managing technology platforms. The scale, experience, and track record of both organizations reinforced confidence not only in the technology itself, but also in the long-term partnership supporting the transformation. 

Preparing for the Future

Kingdom Bank is currently in UAT and working towards a planned go‑live later in 2026. The new core banking platform is designed to improve operational efficiency, strengthen resilience, and reduce the burden of manual processes, allowing teams to spend more time focusing on customers and communities.

The introduction of the payments hub will also enable near real-time payment clearing through API integration with the bank’s new clearing partner, helping Kingdom Bank deliver faster and more seamless payment experiences for customers.

Overall, the transformation will position the bank to adapt more easily to evolving banking expectations, regulatory requirements, and future innovation, while supporting sustainable long-term growth.

For Kingdom Bank, modernizing core banking is not simply a technology upgrade, it is an investment in the future of its mission. With a modern, cloud-based banking foundation in place, the bank is well positioned to continue supporting churches, charities, and communities across the UK for generations to come.

Hamilton Reserve Bank Becoming the largest global bank headquartered in the Caribbean through end-to-end digital transformation Nevis, Saint Kitts and Nevis At a Glance US$2 billion+ in total assets, after deploying Temenos solutions in only 9 months Record time in launching Temenos LEAP and Temenos Digital Banking in 7 months 800% growth in total deposit, custodian assets, a pristine BSA/AML compliance history 140% growth in client base in the first six months since deploying the Temenos solutions 620% growth in revenues and net income, robust AI-powered compliance programs Cuts fully compliant new client onboarding 100% online via STP from 5 days to 20 minutes for individuals and 1 day for businesses Real time bank SWIFT wires, including 3rd party wires executed in 5 seconds in 126 currencies 250% lift in operational efficiency and staff productivity Hamilton Reserve Bank combines the investment and commercial banking expertise of Wall Street financial strength and execution efficiency with a strong British heritage. Since 1994, the bank or its affiliates have offered a wide range of integrated services to a worldwide clientele from more than 150 countries, including private and business banking, asset protection, custodian banking, wealth management, trust and escrow services, family offices, investment banking, and new business formation. Accepting deposits in multiple global currencies and digital assets, Hamilton Reserve Bank is a truly global bank with offices and representatives located around the world. Akinnia Glasgow, Senior Manager, Business and Private Banking of Hamilton Reserve Bank, explains: “With a global workforce, we are headquartered on a sprawling 12-acre bank campus in Saint Kitts and Nevis, the birthplace of America’s founding father Alexander Hamilton. Our staff comes from 13 countries, speaking 15 different languages, and 80% of our colleagues are female. We serve clients from more than 150 countries, communicate in 13 languages and accept deposits and payments in 126 different currencies. Our client mix is 65% businesses and 35% individuals. We are always looking to expand through advanced financial technology. For example, we have presence in Asia, Panama, Dubai, other MENA regions, EU, North and South America, and Africa. Across our 24/7 operations around the globe, we pursue a client-first philosophy, working tirelessly to improve the prosperity of the individual and business customers that rely on us daily for their banking needs.” https://vimeo.com/1094014151/8b8361059c PLACEHOLDER https://vimeo.com/973878586/575c8f631f?share=copy Hamilton Reserve Bank Reference Case study – Video Pioneering Composable Digital Banking in Saudi Arabia Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Watch video HRB-logo Hamilton Reserve Bank strives to create products tailored to meet the unique requirements of its global clients that value speed, safety, and privacy. Similarly, the bank aims to make every client interaction an easy, fast, secure, and frictionless experience — from new account onboarding 100% online to fast payments executed in seconds and 24/7 digital access allowing multiple signers and controls in omnibus accounts; all backed up with robust security, privacy, and top compliance measures. The bank chose Temenos for its highly reputable and dependable core banking system with exceptional transaction and real-time monitoring capabilities demanded by large global correspondent banks. “Our previous core banking tools had limited integration capabilities,” adds Akinnia Glasgow. “Key processes such as manual client onboarding could take 5 days for staff to approve account applications. As customer onboarding exploded with many new account applications waiting to be processed, we had to scale our global operations through a fresh approach. The flexible Temenos modules became our solution after we had rejected many others. We signed an 11-year agreement with Temenos as a key partner and devoted a US$30 million IT budget to build a large bank well positioned to serve a worldwide client base. We are very pleased and have not looked back since.” Implemented full-scale systems modernization through facial recognition technology Hamilton Reserve Bank planned a comprehensive overhaul of its core and client-facing solutions. From an internal perspective, the bank decided to implement Straight-Through Processing (STP) to improve the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of back-office workflows. Through Temenos STP, the bank has seen growth up to 800% in total deposit and custodian assets. Similarly, the bank knew that sophisticated authentication tools would ensure accurate KYC and real time transaction monitoring, meeting stringent compliance targets while mitigating operational risk. “For new clients, we target a streamlined and fully compliant application journey that has enabled seamless onboarding within minutes,” continues Prabhakar Kaza, the London-based CEO of Hamilton Reserve Bank who has 40 years of banking experience. “And we wanted to enrich our service portfolio, adding advanced functionality such as processing 126 different customer deposit currencies and digital assets in real time, as well as 24/7 digital account access verified through government-grade facial recognition solutions.” “Since adopting Temenos, Hamilton Reserve Bank has not had a single incident of wire payment loss of any sort due to mistaken identities. Our customers initiate wire transfers online via facial recognition that automatically matches their valid passports already on file. All wire details must be entered directly by our customers. The bank only processes wires submitted in the highly secure and identity verified Temenos environment.” – Sebastian Ambrose, Senior Regulatory and AML Counsel at Hamilton Reserve Bank Deployed fully integrated Temenos solutions in record time of 9 months To support a rapidly expanding global clientele, Hamilton Reserve Bank looked for a technology partner with the latest market-leading core and digital banking solutions. After evaluating many vendors, the bank selected Temenos to concurrently deploy Temenos Core, Temenos Digital, Temenos Payments, and Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation, and has since also installed the latest Temenos Digital and Temenos LEAP modules (2024 version) to automate business customer onboarding, reducing 24/7 client onboarding time from one day to one hour — providing end-to-end capabilities covering product development, client acquisition, compliance, risk management, and more. This has positioned Hamilton Reserve Bank as one of the first in the world to offer a full range of the latest Temenos solutions to its clientele. Adrian Joseph, an IT manager at Hamilton Reserve Bank comments: “Temenos offers an outstanding breadth of functionality that has helped improve our operations and grow our client base. It allows Hamilton Reserve Bank to integrate with many other solution partners such as Mastercard Cross-Border Services, our direct correspondent banks including Banco Santander, The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), among others, giving our bank flexibility and agility to drive both financial and compliance KPIs. We also love that Temenos is continuously updating its solutions which has enabled Hamilton Reserve Bank’s core banking software and other modules to operate on the latest Temenos solutions.” Launching Temenos, Hamilton Reserve Bank dedicated a large IT budget and went live in just nine months. The bank’s operational level has considerably increased the asset base and employee productivity that has also translated into greater margins while achieving stellar regulatory compliance. These efforts have significantly enhanced the bank’s revenue growth. The bank harnessed resources from the Temenos Learning Community (TLC) to concurrently train employees, as Adrian Joseph explains: “The TLC provided excellent learning tools that enabled us to build a thorough knowledge of the solutions quickly and has facilitated adoption among our worldwide staff.” Delivered ultra-secure, tailored banking services in record speed of 9 months Powered by Temenos, Hamilton Reserve Bank has achieved new milestones including its recent entry into new markets, expanded many correspondent banking relationships, and winning several prestigious awards recognizing the bank’s advanced fintech advantage.   “Temenos has made it possible for us to process multicurrency wires in real time via SWIFT gpi while we fully comply with regulations from around the world.” – Merkisha Desir, Senior private banking manager at Hamilton Reserve Bank. Using Temenos Core and Temenos Digital, Hamilton Reserve Bank has consolidated its back-office operations and digital banking services into a highly efficient ticketing system shared among its colleagues located on several continents. The solutions enable the bank to automate many processes and offer clients instant, round-the-clock anytime banking access, as well as a wider range of customized products. For example, the bank is developing new wealth management solutions using Temenos Enterprise Wealth in collaboration with The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), the world’s largest bank by custodian assets and Rosenblatt Securities, the largest floor trading firm on the New York Stock Exchange. With Temenos Payments, Hamilton Reserve Bank now has the capabilities to offer lightning speed cross-border payments to its global clientele. “We can process millions in client transactions every year. Temenos Payments gives us the scalability and sophisticated functionality that we need to provide real-time multicurrency payment options and handle large volumes of transactions quickly, efficiently, and securely,” adds Ghassan Nasr, CEO of International Markets at Hamilton Reserve Bank. Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation (“FCM”) enables Hamilton Reserve Bank to scan all account applications and transactions in real time, assigning risk scores to all customer accounts to detect suspicious activities, and timely filing regulatory reports as needed. The risk-based FCM solution has allowed the bank to pinpoint specific compliance risks while significantly reducing costs and human errors. Thanks to the Temenos FCM, Hamilton Reserve Bank successfully passes annual BSA/AML/KYC independent compliance audits. Albert Rodriguez, the Chief Operating Officer of Hamilton Reserve Bank notes: “With the fully installed FCM product family operating at great speed, the bank has automated all client screening processes, helping us to detect potential compliance issues in real time. As we continue to innovate through artificial intelligence, the new Temenos FCM AI agent will come in handy. As we frequently fine-tune our BSA/AML/KYC/KYCC rules within FCM, Hamilton Reserve Bank has maintained a solid compliance record since inception.” Fast, secure, and privacy – enhancing customer experience throughout Thanks to Temenos Digital, Hamilton Reserve Bank has accelerated new customer onboarding 24/7 which is now 100% online and self-directed by an account applicant. Back-office automation has improved onboarding speed by 400 percent. Business account applications that previously took five days are now completed in one day. Personal account applications are processed even faster: applicants can finish the entire self-directed onboarding journey 100% online in as short as 20 minutes, fast, safe, and compliant. “Our enhanced services and online experience have led to excellent client feedback. We have seen a 100% increase in our customer satisfaction ratings since Temenos was installed, with clients valuing the service speed, deposit safety, and asset protection features that we offer. While banking online in a secure and private environment, self-directed customer transactions including internal account balance transfers among related accounts can be completed in seconds, including third party payments.” – Sir Tony Baldry, Chairman of Hamilton Reserve Bank The partnership with Temenos has also enabled Hamilton Reserve Bank to accomplish its growth objectives, with a 140 percent increase in client growth within six months after the initial implementation in 2020. The move to a modern, scalable suite of core and digital banking tools provides a robust foundation for rapid international market expansion as the bank is currently experiencing. “Working with Temenos makes us a highly competitive bank in the global financial markets, with a strong value proposition and high quality of service for our personal and business banking clients,” confirms Howard Anthony Lewis, an enterprise risk specialist and a board member of Hamilton Reserve Bank. “Harnessing the Temenos solutions has positioned Hamilton Reserve Bank as a leading innovator bank, helping us to become the largest global bank headquartered in the Caribbean powered by advanced fintech maintaining a spotless regulatory compliance history.” Streamlined back-office workflows achieved record financial results The adoption of Temenos solutions has unlocked major efficiency and productivity gains for Hamilton Reserve Bank. Product teams now build and launch tailored services faster, while automating screening and compliance tasks has freed employees from repetitive manual work—saving time while eliminating human errors. Overall, the bank believes the Temenos system has improved internal efficiency by more than 250%, helping to reduce operational costs significantly. Strategic expansion now centers on Temenos Wealth and Temenos AI, as Hamilton Reserve Bank deepens its collaboration with its correspondent banking partners, The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), Banco Santander and others to expand global asset custody and deliver sophisticated banking solutions.   The outcome of that exercise was the selection of Facilities Lending and Club Loan modules of Arrangement Architecture (AA), that are offered within Temenos Core. Temenos went on to lead the business requirements design phase, with Systems Arabia (formerly NDC) providing implementation support and integration expertise. Go-live was achieved in November 2024, with immediate results Capable of more complexity The new solution gave Arab Energy Fund the power to structure and service bilateral, club, and syndicated deals with far greater efficiency. Manual processes were replaced with automations. The Fund can now handle multi-party disbursements, track covenants in real time, and reconcile fee and principal payments with accuracy and speed. “We delivered everything we set out to achieve. It’s simpler, more flexible, and more accurate; and all this relieves pressure from our teams.” – Mohammad Khatib, Director, Information Technology at The Arab Energy Bank With greater operational efficiency, the Fund has increased its capacity to serve as agent on more complex deals. And because each facility can be configured individually, the platform supports the Fund’s ambitions to lead higher-value, structured transactions in the region. Additionally, the AA architecture has enabled product-level configuration and categorization, streamlining how data is captured and improving what’s possible in reporting and analysis “When your products are designed the way your business operates, reporting becomes a by-product,” Mohammad said. “Now we get the data we need, in the format we need it. And we feed these back into the business, so we have a continually loop of insights and improvements.” Going greener Technology is also helping the Fund deliver on its ESG commitments. Since 2020, it has launched green bonds and invested in sustainable energy projects. Its new Temenos modules allow for these ESG-linked products to be structured with the specific parameters needed for compliance and performance tracking. “These tools have further enabled our ESG strategy. We can now create and manage green loans with the precision and transparency required.” – Mohammad Khatib, Director, Information Technology at The Arab Energy Bank More automation With lending modernized, the Fund is now expanding its transformation. It is currently implementing Temenos Payments Hub (TPH) and exploring Temenos SaaS and AI-based analytics. Internally, it has also launched an automation project called Intelliflo, combining Microsoft Power Automate, RPA, and Co-pilot AI to streamline operational tasks outside the core platform. These solutions give the potential for further automation, in turn allowing the Fund to focus resources on higher-value tasks, such as serving more complex customers, and delivering higher-impact deals, all while staying aligned to its ESG vision. “Every year, we aim to do something new in the system, so we keep evolving. With Temenos, we have the platform and the partnership to do exactly that.” – Mohammad Khatib, Director, Information Technology at The Arab Energy Bank solutions Banking solutions for all segments Empowering banks across segments with scalable, innovative, and efficient solutions. Explore our solutions Explore our solutions Hamilton Reserve Bank strives to create products tailored to meet the unique requirements of its global clients that value speed, safety, and privacy. Similarly, the bank aims to make every client interaction an easy, fast, secure, and frictionless experience — from new account onboarding 100% online to fast payments executed in seconds and 24/7 digital access allowing multiple signers and controls in omnibus accounts; all backed up with robust security, privacy, and top compliance measures. The bank chose Temenos for its highly reputable and dependable core banking system with exceptional transaction and real-time monitoring capabilities demanded by large global correspondent banks. “Our previous core banking tools had limited integration capabilities,” adds Akinnia Glasgow. “Key processes such as manual client onboarding could take 5 days for staff to approve account applications. As customer onboarding exploded with many new account applications waiting to be processed, we had to scale our global operations through a fresh approach. The flexible Temenos modules became our solution after we had rejected many others. We signed an 11-year agreement with Temenos as a key partner and devoted a US$30 million IT budget to build a large bank well positioned to serve a worldwide client base. We are very pleased and have not looked back since.” “Temenos is an excellent core banking product. The solutions provide a fully integrated digital ecosystem that enables us to accurately deliver client-centric services to our rapidly expanding global customer base, enabling the bank to deliver record financial results year after year. Temenos is now integrated into our marketing programs for client origination and customer satisfaction. As we undertake additional Temenos module enhancements, we are looking forward to working with Temenos for many years to come. Successful banking is all about competent technology. Hamilton Reserve Bank is very pleased to have Temenos on our side.” – Antonio Kenyatta, the Chief Financial Officer at Hamilton Reserve Bank Plane flying above clouds at sunset Elevated Banking Experiences Attract new customers, grow your revenue, and ensure customer loyalty with Temenos’ innovative banking solutions. Get started

As the banking landscape across West Africa continues to evolve, Bridge Bank Group is investing in the technology needed to support its long-term growth ambitions. With operations in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, and plans to expand into two additional countries, the bank is focused on building an integrated platform capable of supporting its regional strategy.

According to Amos Konlambigue, Group Chief Transformation and Technology Officer, selecting the right technology partner was an important step in preparing the bank for the future.

Responding to a changing banking landscape

For Bridge Bank, transformation is being driven by significant changes across the financial services industry.

“The West African banking sector is driven by three forces,” says Amos. “The first one is the customer expectation. They don’t want a branch-centric product. They want a real-time product and they want accessibility 24/7.”

Alongside changing customer expectations, Bridge Bank is also responding to increased competition from new fintech entrants and an evolving regulatory landscape that is creating new opportunities across the region.

These shifts are helping shape the bank’s strategy as it looks to expand its footprint and reach new customer segments.

Choosing a platform built for the future

Having worked with Temenos for more than a decade, Amos has seen the Temenos Core platform evolve alongside the banking industry.

Beyond the platform itself, the bank valued Temenos’ commitment to continuous innovation.

“One important thing to mention is the product roadmap that Temenos gives to all clients to migrate to new releases and get the most from each new version”, says Amos. He also highlights the scalability of the solution and the strength of the Temenos partner ecosystem as important factors in the bank’s decision.

Enabling regional growth

As Bridge Bank looks to expand its footprint across Africa, technology will play a central role in supporting that vision.

“The Temenos capabilities that we expect are currently aligned with our group strategic vision to build a strong and integrated banking platform across the African region,” says Amos.

In particular, the platform’s multi-entity, multi-jurisdiction, and multi-time-zone capabilities align closely with the bank’s regional expansion strategy.

Amos notes, “There is a strong API integration that allows the platform to communicate with other satellite platforms that the bank has launched, opening multiple channels to our clients.”

As Bridge Bank continues its growth journey, it is building on a technology foundation designed to help the bank adapt to changing market dynamics while supporting its ambition to create an integrated banking platform across Africa.

alrajhi bank’s journey began in 1957 as a currency conversion company in Riyadh. Today, alrajhi is the largest Islamic bank in the world, serving more than 20 million customers through +500 branches and with assets exceeding SAR 1 trillion (US $267B).

But maintaining leadership in one of the world’s fastest-evolving banking markets requires constant reinvention.

A market demanding more, and faster

The bank has had to respond to a significant demographic shift in Saudi Arabia. A younger, digitally native generation now makes up a growing share of the customer base, and their expectations are uncompromising. They expect banking to be instant, intuitive, personalized and fully digital. At the same time, Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia’s national transformation program, is accelerating financial inclusion and the digitalization of services across the Kingdom.

New entrants, including digital-native banks and fintechs, are raising expectations even further with faster innovation cycles and highly personalized experiences.  For an institution of alrajhi ’s scale and heritage, the challenge was not only to keep pace, but to continue leading, while maintaining the governance, trust, and Islamic principles that define the bank.

For customers, that meant faster access to products, seamless digital journeys, and experiences that could evolve as quickly as their expectations.

In practice, this required the bank to launch new products more rapidly, support richer digital experiences, expand open banking integrations, and innovate at a pace legacy systems could no longer support.

A new chapter for an established partnership

The bank’s partnership with Temenos is not a new one. alrajhi bank was an early collaborator in shaping Temenos’ Islamic banking capabilities, helping inform some of the platform’s foundational Islamic banking functionality.  This latest transformation builds on that foundation, taking the bank’s core banking capabilities into a new era.

When alrajhi initiated a formal selection process to modernize its core banking platform, the criteria extended far beyond technical capability. The bank needed a partner with a proven track record supporting tier-one global institutions, a strong local and regional presence, and a genuinely Sharia-compliant solution.

Temenos met all three. Having used Temenos for Islamic Banking solutions for several years, alrajhi bank expanded an established relationship built on shared experience and deep banking knowledge.

Equally important was the prospect of platform ownership. From the outset, the goal was clear: alrajhi would build the internal capability to fully own, configure, and evolve its platform independently.

A phased transformation built for seamless scaling

Implementation began with a deliberate departure from convention. With more than 20 million customers relying on the bank’s services every day, a big-bang go-live was never considered viable. Instead, alrajhi adopted a phased, iterative approach, segment by segment.

The bank is now fully live on Temenos Core across its entire lending portfolio, covering retail, micro, small business, and corporate products. Crucially, the transition happened without disruption to customers or employees. Services continued seamlessly while the transformation progressed in the background. For customers, the modernization was largely invisible, except in the form of faster services, quicker product availability, and improved digital experiences.

Early in the program, implementation partners supported the bank in building its delivery model, transferring knowledge and developing internal capability. The transition was intentionally structured, resulting in alrajhi independently maintaining and operating the platform with no reliance on external parties for day-to-day operations or product configuration.

“We had a very smooth handover and knowledge transfer. Currently we are maintaining the platform 100% from our side.” Moataz Gad, Core Banking Head at alrajhi bank

Enabling first-mover advantage

The move to Temenos Core has fundamentally changed how alrajhi  brings products and services to market. What once required extensive development effort and weeks or months of lead time can now be configured and launched in days.

The platform’s flexibility allows internal teams to operate as an innovative engine, responding directly to evolving customer expectations and business opportunities without dependency on external vendors or lengthy implementation cycles. In a market where customer expectations evolve rapidly, this speed has become a critical competitive advantage.

While the immediate transformation focused on lending, the bank is extending Temenos Core into additional areas of the business. The platform also provides the foundation for alrajhi ’s customer-facing super-app, widely recognized as one of the most comprehensive digital banking experiences globally.

“We have become a solutions factory, we are able to build in-house what customers and businesses need.”  Moataz Gad, Core Banking Head at alrajhi bank

A partnership that continues to evolve

The relationship between alrajhi and Temenos has never been purely transactional. From contributing to the evolution of Islamic banking capabilities over the years to navigating a complex, multi-year transformation program, the relationship has been defined by continuity, transparency and shared ambition.

Looking ahead, alrajhi is planning an upgrade to the latest Temenos release and assessing the next evolution of its technology architecture for the decade ahead. The bank is also closely monitoring developments in AI and exploring how emerging technologies can further enhance customer experience, operational agility and innovation. 

Moataz notes, “Temenos has been a trusted partner in our evolution as a leading Islamic bank. Its Islamic banking capabilities have enabled us to modernize while preserving the principles that define our business, helping us innovate faster and deliver better experiences for our customers.”

For alrajhi bank, this transformation represents far more than a technology modernization program. It is the foundation for serving the next generation of customers, with the speed, convenience, personalization and digital experiences they increasingly expect, while maintaining its position as the world’s leading Islamic bank.

Tamweel Aloula operates under the regulatory framework of the Saudi Central Bank to deliver critical auto leasing, personal finance, and small business credit solutions.

Maintaining agility in a rapidly evolving market uncovered significant technical boundaries. The institution was operating on a fragmented technology landscape, forced to build complex workarounds on top of a legacy core environment. This outdated infrastructure made it difficult to develop new products, directly hindering the company’s business mission and its ability to meet strict Saudi regulatory requirements.

To overcome these challenges, Tamweel Aloula required a structural overhaul, moving away from legacy constraints toward a modern orchestrated architecture. To secure a platform engineered for high-volume finance, Tamweel Aloula initiated a rigorous six-month evaluation process. The selection criteria assessed functional coverage, a five-year total cost of ownership (TCO) projection, partner ecosystem maturity, and proven experience supporting Saudi regulations and Sharia-compliant financing structures. After the evaluation, Tamweel Aloula determined that Temenos satisfied all of the selection criteria through Temenos Core Banking, Temenos Digital, and Temenos Advanced Collection solutions.

Managing transition risks through dual-system agility

Tamweel Aloula worked to design by their internal team an orchestrated platform layer supported by middleware to integrate their digital platform with current legacy system and they worked with System Limited to implement new Temenos Digital, Temenos Core Banking and Advanced Collection. This architecture was specifically designed to allow the team to move flexibly between two systems – the legacy environment and the new Temenos Core. This dual-system approach provided the necessary buffer to avoid business disruption while maintaining operational resilience throughout the transition.

Tamweel Aloula approached the 18-month implementation project with a clear mandate to prioritize out-of-the-box configuration, speed, and automated straight-through processing (STP). The technical delivery culminated in a successful live launch of the personal loan MVP in March 2026.

This achievement relied on close collaboration between Temenos, Systems Limited, and Tamweel Aloula’s internal IT department who independently managed the underlying infrastructure, developing Digital Onboarding Platform, quality assurance, end-to-end testing, and business analysis.

Frictionless customer experiences

The live deployment of Temenos solutions has transformed Tamweel Aloula’s application journey. Eligible digital customers can now apply for personal finance, complete credit verification, accept the lending offer, and sign their contract and promissory note in four minutes, enabled by a fully integrated ecosystem built on Temenos Core Banking and Tamweel Aloula’s digital platform, and connected to third-party services including Credit Decisioning, AML screening, Commodity Broker, Digital Signature, Promissory Note and Others systems.

This rapid turnaround has fundamentally reshaped the customer experience, turning a traditionally time-consuming financial screening process into a smooth digital interaction. The platform’s integrated collections capabilities also provide a single source of truth for risk management and payment processing, eliminating many of the fragmented workflows that existed previously.

Scaling the roadmap across retail and SME segments

With its personal loan first release live and stable, Tamweel Aloula is preparing for its next major phase of transformation. The next milestone will bring the institution’s retail auto leasing portfolio onto the core platform, alongside the automation of broader customer service capabilities.

While the institution’s long-term objective is an end-to-end digital lifecycle, the roadmap acknowledges operational realities, with certain after-sales processes continuing to incorporate human intervention where appropriate. At the same time, the IT department is leveraging the platform’s scalability to build its next-generation small and medium business (SMB) financing application.

Looking ahead, the institution is exploring the use of AI and advanced machine learning models directly into its credit risk assessment processes. The goal is to leverage customer intelligence to analyze financing behavior patterns to proactively surface tailored, Sharia-compliant financing offers at the moment customers engage through digital channels.

This ongoing modernization ensures that the institution continues to deliver on its vision of providing innovative, customer-centric financing solutions while remaining well-positioned for the future of the Saudi financial market.

Integris Credit Union, with $1.5 billion in funds under administration, is located in northern British Columbia and has continually achieved results that rival much larger institutions. As a long-standing Temenos client Integris reaffirmed its digital-first vision in 2024 by executing one of its most ambitious initiatives to date: modernizing to the latest Temenos Core version, transitioning from TAFC (Temenos Application Framework C) to TAFJ (Temenos Application Framework Java), and integrating Temenos Payments Hub (TPH) into its operations.

Behind these moves was the risk of inaction. As new technologies and disruptors continue to reshape the Canadian financial landscape, Integris understood it needed to move with the times; a digital-first, mobile-first approach.

And they needed it fast. “Time was of the essence,” said Jeff Anderson, VP Information Technology at Integris. “We had one shot to get it right.”

On their own terms

Despite the project’s scale, Jeff assembled a lean, focused team—just himself, two developers, a project manager, and a small group of testers. The decision to self-deliver allowed for total control and discipline. “You have to guard the scope of the upgrade. Don’t let it change,” Jeff emphasized. Integris also chose to continue running its systems on-premises—a rarity in today’s market but a deliberate decision to maintain operational control.

Temenos’ flexibility played a key role in this success.

With close support from Temenos and a clear strategy: move fast, minimize customizations, and align with out-of-the-box functionality—the team stayed focused on delivering a clean, agile result. “We didn’t want to carry legacy complexity forward,” Jeff said. “We wanted to come out the other side with agility, not technical debt.” The upgrade has given Integris improved operational control, a more consolidated view of its business, and a foundation for next-generation digital capabilities.

Zero payments downtime

Integris has been using Temenos Payments Hub (TPH) for several years to support e-transfers and ISO 20022-compliant messaging. The system has proved highly reliable, requiring little maintenance once configured. That gave Jeff and his team less thing to focus on.

“Through the recent upgrade, it didn’t require any changes. We were able to take it offline briefly and bring it back online without issue. That made a complex project simpler and less risky.”

Immediate results

The upgrade was completed in April 2025, and the impact was clear from day one. ‘Close of Business’ (COB) processing times dropped from over 3.5 hours to under 2. Staff gained back 1.5 hours per day through automated member notifications, which reduced the need for manual calls or emails. And audit logs improved dramatically, helping the team identify and resolve issues faster.

Even more significant was the new ability to accelerate product launches. Pre-built configurations and parameterization has made it easier to roll out services faster, with fewer technical dependencies.

Set for future success

Beyond these immediate wins, the upgrade has set Integris up for the future. Jeff explained the most valuable of these would be the number of APIs they can now access. “We can increase the efficiency of integrating with third parties. It’s going to be super-valuable.” His team has wasted no time in leveraging that new capability. Just a week after the upgrade, Jeff and his team implemented an alerting system for accounts going into overdraft —soon to be a legislative requirement in Canada—putting Integris ahead of the regulators. “We implemented that by taking some events happening on a daily basis within Temenos Core Banking and could pipe it into some other systems to automatically send alerts, which is a real strength of Temenos Core Banking,” said Jeff. They are also already working on integrations for open banking, payment rails, and mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Temenos Payments Hub gives the institution a modern foundation to support this roadmap.

“The upgrade isn’t the finish line, it’s the starting point,” said Jeff. “We’ve now got the architecture to compete with fintechs and deliver services at speed.” Crucially, the transition also changed how the business and technology teams work together. With the product now driving processes (rather than the other way around), collaboration is tighter, and delivery is faster.

History of trust

As a relatively small player in the market, the scale and speed of Integris’ modernization is even more remarkable. But having worked with Temenos for years, Jeff was confident it could be achieved “The world is full of people who want to tell you that what you’re trying to do is impossible. But if you have the right people and the right technology, anything is possible.” Ultimately, it came down to trust.

Integris Credit Union Modernizing with purpose and disciplineBritish Columbia, Canada Integris logo At a Glance https://vimeo.com/1094014151/8b8361059c?ts=0&share=copy Interview with IIG Bank Regulation – the catalyst for change Al Ziyani understood that proactive innovation alone would not be enough. The bank would also need to keep pace with a continually evolving regulatory climate, to ensure any new products and features were compliant. And in 2024 and 2025, he was proven right, as the bank faced a significant challenge in adopting the upcoming SWIFT CBPR+ and SEPA Instant Payments regulations. As the bank’s operations evolved, so did its technology needs. To support future growth and ensure compliance with evolving regulations, the bank recognized the importance of a modern payment’s infrastructure, one that offers greater automation, interoperability, and scalability. “We needed a platform that would adapt to changing regulation, able to scale with us, and connect seamlessly with the outside world,” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank “We needed a platform that would adapt to changing regulation, able to scale with us, and connect seamlessly with the outside world.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank IIG Bank (Malta) Ltd., established in 2010, is a fully licensed credit institution regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). The bank specializes in structured, supply chain trade finance promoting international trade and commodity finance in emerging markets. Despite having a team of fewer than 50 employees and a small IT department, it ranks as the 13th largest bank in Malta. But the bank’s ambitions extend beyond Malta. “We have a global outlook,” said Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank. “We aim to support customers and provide financial services wherever they are. “Digital is core to this vision”; but an outdated core banking system proved an obstacle to progress. “We see lots of opportunities to improve and to provide better services to our clients; but without the right technology in place, they can only be ideas.” The Bank took a bold step forward in 2017 when it adopted Temenos as its core banking system and partnered with Stoics IT for the first time for implementation. “Deep expertise and strong project discipline are always essential in these kinds of projects. With the right people in place and a clear plan, progress is achieved even better than in larger teams that are less structured. This was especially true at IIG Bank, where strong internal team alignment, together with a close partnership with Temenos and BCT, played a key role in the project’s success.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank Despite the project’s scale, Jeff assembled a lean, focused team—just himself, two developers, a project manager, and a small group of testers. The decision to self-deliver allowed for total control and discipline. “You have to guard the scope of the upgrade. Don’t let it change,” Jeff emphasized. Integris also chose to continue running its systems on-premises—a rarity in today’s market but a deliberate decision to maintain operational control. Temenos’ flexibility played a key role in this success. That flexibility in how we wanted to manage the upgrade is not something that you can do with other vendors. The people that you choose to either partner with—like Temenos, professional services or third-party partners—or your internal staff, they have to be excellent. You cannot do an upgrade on time, on budget without great people.” – Jeff Anderson, VP Information Technology at Integris With close support from Temenos and a clear strategy: move fast, minimize customizations, and align with out-of-the-box functionality—the team stayed focused on delivering a clean, agile result. “We didn’t want to carry legacy complexity forward,” Jeff said. “We wanted to come out the other side with agility, not technical debt.” The upgrade has given Integris improved operational control, a more consolidated view of its business, and a foundation for next-generation digital capabilities. “Deep expertise and strong project discipline are always essential in these kinds of projects. With the right people in place and a clear plan, progress is achieved even better than in larger teams that are less structured. This was especially true at IIG Bank, where strong internal team alignment, together with a close partnership with Temenos and BCT, played a key role in the project’s success.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank Integris has been using Temenos Payments Hub (TPH) for several years to support e-transfers and ISO 20022-compliant messaging. The system has proved highly reliable, requiring little maintenance once configured. That gave Jeff and his team less thing to focus on. “Through the recent upgrade, it didn’t require any changes. We were able to take it offline briefly and bring it back online without issue. That made a complex project simpler and less risky.” Bahwan CyberTek logo – words in black text with a blue square icon that contains a white B with ripples in it like water BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Bahwan CyberTek logo – words in black text with a blue square icon that contains a white B with ripples in it like water BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. “Deep expertise and strong project discipline are always essential in these kinds of projects. With the right people in place and a clear plan, progress is achieved even better than in larger teams that are less structured. This was especially true at IIG Bank, where strong internal team alignment, together with a close partnership with Temenos and BCT, played a key role in the project’s success.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank https://vimeo.com/1094014151/8b8361059c Interview with IIG Bank Regulation – the catalyst for change Al Ziyani understood that proactive innovation alone would not be enough. The bank would also need to keep pace with a continually evolving regulatory climate, to ensure any new products and features were compliant. And in 2024 and 2025, he was proven right, as IIG faced a significant challenge in adopting the upcoming SWIFT CBPR+ and SEPA Instant Payments regulations. As the bank’s operations evolved, so did its technology needs. To support future growth and ensure compliance with evolving regulations, the bank recognized the importance of a modern payment’s infrastructure, one that offers greater automation, interoperability, and scalability. https://vimeo.com/1094014151/8b8361059c Interview with IIG Bank At a Glance • One of the first banks in Malta to go live with SEPA Instant Payments. • Transaction times reduced to seconds, with 24/7 availability. • Compliance with SWIFT CBPR+ and TIPS, the European Central Bank’s instant payment settlement platform. IIG Bank (Malta) Ltd., established in 2010, is a fully licensed credit institution regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). ● Successful self-delivered modernization of Temenos Core to R24. ● Transition to Temenos Application Framework Java (TAFJ) in parallel. ● ‘Close of Business’ (COB) processing time reduced from over 3.5 hours to under 2. ● 1.5 staff hours saved daily through automated member alerts. ● Faster third-party integration via regional APIs. Integris Credit Union, with $1.5 billion in funds under administration, is located in northern British Columbia and has continually achieved results that rival much larger institutions. As a long-standing Temenos client Integris reaffirmed its digital-first vision in 2024 by executing one of its most ambitious initiatives to date: modernizing to the latest Temenos Core version, transitioning from TAFC (Temenos Application Framework C) to TAFJ (Temenos Application Framework Java), and integrating Temenos Payments Hub (TPH) into its operations. Behind these moves was the risk of inaction. As new technologies and disruptors continue to reshape the Canadian financial landscape, Integris understood it needed to move with the times; a digital-first, mobile-first approach. And they needed it fast. “Time was of the essence,” said Jeff Anderson, VP Information Technology at Integris. “We had one shot to get it right.” “We needed a platform that would adapt to changing regulation, able to scale with us, and connect seamlessly with the outside world.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank On their own terms “We needed a platform that would adapt to changing regulation, able to scale with us, and connect seamlessly with the outside world.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank Despite the project’s scale, Jeff assembled a lean, focused team—just himself, two developers, a project manager, and a small group of testers. The decision to self-deliver allowed for total control and discipline. “You have to guard the scope of the upgrade. Don’t let it change,” Jeff emphasized. Integris also chose to continue running its systems on-premises—a rarity in today’s market but a deliberate decision to maintain operational control. Temenos’ flexibility played a key role in this success. “That flexibility in how we wanted to manage the upgrade is not something that you can do with other vendors. The people that you choose to either partner with—like Temenos, professional services or third-party partners—or your internal staff, they have to be excellent. You cannot do an upgrade on time, on budget without great people.” – Jeff Anderson, VP Information Technology at Integris Zero payments downtime “Through the recent upgrade, it didn’t require any changes. We were able to take it offline briefly and bring it back online without issue. That made a complex project simpler and less risky.” Immediate results “Through the recent upgrade, it didn’t require any changes. We were able to take it offline briefly and bring it back online without issue. That made a complex project simpler and less risky.” We saw improvements immediately after go-live. The system’s responsiveness, the logging, the automation, it all worked.” – Jeff Anderson, VP Information Technology at Integris “Time was of the essence,” “We had one shot to get it right.” Jeff Anderson, VP Information Technology at Integris. The upgrade was completed in April 2025, and the impact was clear from day one. ‘Close of Business’ (COB) processing times dropped from over 3.5 hours to under 2. Staff gained back 1.5 hours per day through automated member notifications, which reduced the need for manual calls or emails. And audit logs improved dramatically, helping the team identify and resolve issues faster. “In modern banking, you need to be able to connect to a network of solutions. The strength of Temenos is its adaptability. We can integrate with any platform, comply with new regulations, and roll out new services quickly.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank The upgrade was completed in April 2025, and the impact was clear from day one. ‘Close of Business’ (COB) processing times dropped from over 3.5 hours to under 2. Staff gained back 1.5 hours per day through automated member notifications, which reduced the need for manual calls or emails. And audit logs improved dramatically, helping the team identify and resolve issues faster. “We saw improvements immediately after go-live. The system’s responsiveness, the logging, the automation, it all worked.” – Jeff Anderson, VP Information Technology at Integris Even more significant was the new ability to accelerate product launches. Pre-built configurations and parameterization has made it easier to roll out services faster, with fewer technical dependencies. Set for future success Beyond these immediate wins, the upgrade has set Integris up for the future. Jeff explained the most valuable of these would be the number of APIs they can now access. “We can increase the efficiency of integrating with third parties. It’s going to be super-valuable.” His team has wasted no time in leveraging that new capability. Just a week after the upgrade, Jeff and his team implemented an alerting system for accounts going into overdraft —soon to be a legislative requirement in Canada—putting Integris ahead of the regulators. “We implemented that by taking some events happening on a daily basis within Temenos Core Banking and could pipe it into some other systems to automatically send alerts, which is a real strength of Temenos Core Banking,” said Jeff. They are also already working on integrations for open banking, payment rails, and mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Temenos Payments Hub gives the institution a modern foundation to support this roadmap. “The upgrade isn’t the finish line, it’s the starting point,” said Jeff. “We’ve now got the architecture to compete with fintechs and deliver services at speed.” Crucially, the transition also changed how the business and technology teams work together. With the product now driving processes (rather than the other way around), collaboration is tighter, and delivery is faster. History of trust “We knew the platform. We trusted it. And we knew we had the right people on both sides to make it work. By staying true to the core product and avoiding unnecessary complexity, Integris has laid the foundation for future innovation, scalability, and member-centric service. We’ve got a solution that can move at the pace we want, and scale as we grow, to wherever our members need us to be next.” – Jeff Anderson, VP Information Technology at Integris logo bahwan cybertech We partnered successfully with: BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT With the upgrading of the core and the payments layers, IIG is exploring automation in areas such as customer onboarding and fraud detection. Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation (FCM) already plays a central role in AML and transaction screening, and AI is firmly on the roadmap for future capabilities. logo bahwan cybertech BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT https://vimeo.com/1094014151/8b8361059c Interview with IIG Bank • One of the first banks in Malta to go live with SEPA Instant Payments. • Transaction times reduced to seconds, with 24/7 availability. • Compliance with SWIFT CBPR+ and TIPS, the European Central Bank’s instant payment settlement platform. Even more significant was the new ability to accelerate product launches. Pre-built configurations and parameterization has made it easier to roll out services faster, with fewer technical dependencies. “In modern banking, you need to be able to connect to a network of solutions. The strength of Temenos is its adaptability. We can integrate with any platform, comply with new regulations, and roll out new services quickly.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank As a relatively small player in the market, the scale and speed of Integris’ modernization is even more remarkable. But having worked with Temenos for years, Jeff was confident it could be achieved “The world is full of people who want to tell you that what you’re trying to do is impossible. But if you have the right people and the right technology, anything is possible.” Ultimately, it came down to trust. We knew the platform. We trusted it. And we knew we had the right people on both sides to make it work. By staying true to the core product and avoiding unnecessary complexity, Integris has laid the foundation for future innovation, scalability, and member-centric service. We’ve got a solution that can move at the pace we want, and scale as we grow, to wherever our members need us to be next.” – Jeff Anderson, VP Information Technology at Integris We partnered successfully with: BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT https://vimeo.com/1094238609/1a53ba5c95 Interview with Integris But the bank’s ambitions extend beyond Malta. “We have a global outlook,” said Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank. “We aim to support customers and provide financial services wherever they are. “Digital is core to this vision”; but an outdated core banking system proved an obstacle to progress. “We see lots of opportunities to improve and to provide better services to our clients; but without the right technology in place, they can only be ideas.” The Bank took a bold step forward in 2017 when it adopted Temenos as its core banking system and partnered with Stoics IT for the first time for implementation. “In modern banking, you need to be able to connect to a network of solutions. The strength of Temenos is its adaptability. We can integrate with any platform, comply with new regulations, and roll out new services quickly.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank “Our future is digital. And with Temenos, we have the platform and the partner to keep evolving, while maintaining the focused, lean operating model that we value.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank logo bahwan cybertech We partnered successfully with: BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT Learn more about BCT We partnered successfully with: logo bahwan cybertech BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT logo bahwan cybertech BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT Watch video

IIG Bank (Malta) Ltd., established in 2010, is a fully licensed credit institution regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). The bank specializes in structured, supply chain trade finance promoting international trade and commodity finance in emerging markets. Despite having a team of fewer than 50 employees and a small IT department, it ranks as the 13th largest bank in Malta.

But the bank’s ambitions extend beyond Malta. “We have a global outlook,” said Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank. “We aim to support customers and provide financial services wherever they are. “Digital is core to this vision”; but an outdated core banking system proved an obstacle to progress. “We see lots of opportunities to improve and to provide better services to our clients; but without the right technology in place, they can only be ideas.” The Bank took a bold step forward in 2017 when it adopted Temenos as its core banking system and partnered with Stoics IT for the first time for implementation.

Regulation – the catalyst for change

Al Ziyani understood that proactive innovation alone would not be enough. The bank would also need to keep pace with a continually evolving regulatory climate, to ensure any new products and features were compliant. And in 2024 and 2025, he was proven right, as IIG faced a significant challenge in adopting the upcoming SWIFT CBPR+ and SEPA Instant Payments regulations. As the bank’s operations evolved, so did its technology needs. To support future growth and ensure compliance with evolving regulations, the bank recognized the importance of a modern payment’s infrastructure, one that offers greater automation, interoperability, and scalability.

A six-month sprint to instant payments

IIG Bank turned to Temenos a trusted partner since 2017, and implementation specialists Stoics IT, recently acquired by Bahwan CyberTek (BCT), to design and execute a fast-track implementation plan. “As a small team, we work closely and collaboratively with our partners,” said Al Ziyani.  “So, getting the right fit – not just the technology, but crucially the right team too – is always a big decision for us. We ask questions: Do we fully understand the scope of these new regulations? How will they impact our systems and the services we deliver to our customers? And what actions do we need to take?”

These were the key topics to focus on and to address by the bank, Temenos and BCT. By bringing all parties together from the outset, the bank ensured alignment and collaboration throughout every phase of the project. This comprehensive coordination is essential in any modernization effort, enabling the team to move swiftly and effectively. “Precision and efficiency are key, we focus on getting every step right the first time,” said Al Ziyani.

And they were. In just six months, the bank upgraded its Temenos core banking system to R24 AMR release and implemented the instant payment module TIPS (the European Central Bank’s instant payment settlement platform) within its existing Temenos Payments Hub (TPH) environment. This was followed by the successful finalisation of SWIFT CBPR+.

Go-lives were achieved in quick succession: the Temenos core banking system upgrade in December 2024, instant payments in January 2025, and SWIFT CBPR+ in June 2025. “We delivered major go-lives within months. For a financial institution with a lean but well-rounded team across all departments, this was a significant achievement.”

Real-time payments, real business impact

The implementation of TPH and the system upgrade to R24 AMR release has brought full SEPA compliance, enabling seamless cross-border transactions across Europe. The bank can now process SEPA transactions in less than 10 seconds, with 24/7 availability. All transactions are automatically screened and reconciled, with no manual intervention required. Additionally, the move to the Temenos core banking system means the bank can integrate with other European digital platforms, and EU customers can now open accounts and manage transactions entirely online from anywhere in the EU.

“Imagine a German depositor opening a term deposit at a Maltese bank, with no branch presence in Germany, acting completely online, no manual intervention and no delays. That’s the power of this transformation,” Al Ziyani added. “The number of requests we now receive online to open accounts versus the traditional method of visiting our Malta branch… it’s incredible.”

Platform stability and performance have also improved, supporting the bank’s growing digital network and reducing reliance on manual intervention.

Flexibility – the competitive edge

IIG Bank chose to expand with Temenos because of the platform’s ability to scale through automation and integrations, ensuring consistency with their lean operating structure.

The relationship goes beyond the product. Market expertise and a proactive approach during exchanges, especially when seeking solutions to the evolving requirement to remain compliant and meet regulatory expectations, are key ingredients of how Temenos continues to support its clients. “2024 and 2025 brought major changes in our sector. Temenos was with us for every step, helping us plan, adapt, and deploy effectively and on time,” Al Ziyani explained.

A smarter future

With the upgrading of the core and the payments layers, IIG is exploring automation in areas such as customer onboarding and fraud detection. Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation (FCM) already plays a central role in AML and transaction screening, and AI is firmly on the roadmap for future capabilities.

IIG Bank (Malta) Ltd Scaling Instant Payments with a lean, well-rounded, and efficient team. St. Julian’s, Malta IIG Bank (Malta) LTD. Red logo with I G and large circle with world super imposed At a Glance https://vimeo.com/1094014151/8b8361059c?ts=0&share=copy Interview with IIG Bank Regulation – the catalyst for change Al Ziyani understood that proactive innovation alone would not be enough. The bank would also need to keep pace with a continually evolving regulatory climate, to ensure any new products and features were compliant. And in 2024 and 2025, he was proven right, as the bank faced a significant challenge in adopting the upcoming SWIFT CBPR+ and SEPA Instant Payments regulations. As the bank’s operations evolved, so did its technology needs. To support future growth and ensure compliance with evolving regulations, the bank recognized the importance of a modern payment’s infrastructure, one that offers greater automation, interoperability, and scalability. “We needed a platform that would adapt to changing regulation, able to scale with us, and connect seamlessly with the outside world,” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank “We needed a platform that would adapt to changing regulation, able to scale with us, and connect seamlessly with the outside world.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank IIG Bank (Malta) Ltd., established in 2010, is a fully licensed credit institution regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). The bank specializes in structured, supply chain trade finance promoting international trade and commodity finance in emerging markets. Despite having a team of fewer than 50 employees and a small IT department, it ranks as the 13th largest bank in Malta. But the bank’s ambitions extend beyond Malta. “We have a global outlook,” said Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank. “We aim to support customers and provide financial services wherever they are. “Digital is core to this vision”; but an outdated core banking system proved an obstacle to progress. “We see lots of opportunities to improve and to provide better services to our clients; but without the right technology in place, they can only be ideas.” The Bank took a bold step forward in 2017 when it adopted Temenos as its core banking system and partnered with Stoics IT for the first time for implementation. “Deep expertise and strong project discipline are always essential in these kinds of projects. With the right people in place and a clear plan, progress is achieved even better than in larger teams that are less structured. This was especially true at IIG Bank, where strong internal team alignment, together with a close partnership with Temenos and BCT, played a key role in the project’s success.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank Regulation – the catalyst for change “We needed a platform that would adapt to changing regulation, able to scale with us, and connect seamlessly with the outside world.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank A six-month sprint to instant payments “Deep expertise and strong project discipline are always essential in these kinds of projects. With the right people in place and a clear plan, progress is achieved even better than in larger teams that are less structured. This was especially true at IIG Bank, where strong internal team alignment, together with a close partnership with Temenos and BCT, played a key role in the project’s success.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank IIG Bank turned to Temenos a trusted partner since 2017, and implementation specialists Stoics IT, recently acquired by Bahwan CyberTek (BCT), to design and execute a fast-track implementation plan. “As a small team, we work closely and collaboratively with our partners,” said Al Ziyani.  “So, getting the right fit – not just the technology, but crucially the right team too – is always a big decision for us. We ask questions: Do we fully understand the scope of these new regulations? How will they impact our systems and the services we deliver to our customers? And what actions do we need to take?” These were the key topics to focus on and to address by the bank, Temenos and BCT. By bringing all parties together from the outset, the bank ensured alignment and collaboration throughout every phase of the project. This comprehensive coordination is essential in any modernization effort, enabling the team to move swiftly and effectively. “Precision and efficiency are key, we focus on getting every step right the first time,” said Al Ziyani. And they were. In just six months, the bank upgraded its Temenos core banking system to R24 AMR release and implemented the instant payment module TIPS (the European Central Bank’s instant payment settlement platform) within its existing Temenos Payments Hub (TPH) environment. This was followed by the successful finalisation of SWIFT CBPR+. Go-lives were achieved in quick succession: the Temenos core banking system upgrade in December 2024, instant payments in January 2025, and SWIFT CBPR+ in June 2025. “We delivered major go-lives within months. For a financial institution with a lean but well-rounded team across all departments, this was a significant achievement.” Bahwan CyberTek logo – words in black text with a blue square icon that contains a white B with ripples in it like water BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Bahwan CyberTek logo – words in black text with a blue square icon that contains a white B with ripples in it like water BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. “Deep expertise and strong project discipline are always essential in these kinds of projects. With the right people in place and a clear plan, progress is achieved even better than in larger teams that are less structured. This was especially true at IIG Bank, where strong internal team alignment, together with a close partnership with Temenos and BCT, played a key role in the project’s success.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank https://vimeo.com/1094014151/8b8361059c Interview with IIG Bank Regulation – the catalyst for change Al Ziyani understood that proactive innovation alone would not be enough. The bank would also need to keep pace with a continually evolving regulatory climate, to ensure any new products and features were compliant. And in 2024 and 2025, he was proven right, as IIG faced a significant challenge in adopting the upcoming SWIFT CBPR+ and SEPA Instant Payments regulations. As the bank’s operations evolved, so did its technology needs. To support future growth and ensure compliance with evolving regulations, the bank recognized the importance of a modern payment’s infrastructure, one that offers greater automation, interoperability, and scalability. https://vimeo.com/1094014151/8b8361059c Interview with IIG Bank At a Glance • One of the first banks in Malta to go live with SEPA Instant Payments. • Transaction times reduced to seconds, with 24/7 availability. • Compliance with SWIFT CBPR+ and TIPS, the European Central Bank’s instant payment settlement platform. IIG Bank (Malta) Ltd., established in 2010, is a fully licensed credit institution regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). • One of the first banks in Malta to go live with SEPA Instant Payments. • Transaction times reduced to seconds, with 24/7 availability. • Compliance with SWIFT CBPR+ and TIPS, the European Central Bank’s instant payment settlement platform. IIG Bank (Malta) Ltd., established in 2010, is a fully licensed credit institution regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). The bank specializes in structured, supply chain trade finance promoting international trade and commodity finance in emerging markets. Despite having a team of fewer than 50 employees and a small IT department, it ranks as the 13th largest bank in Malta. “We needed a platform that would adapt to changing regulation, able to scale with us, and connect seamlessly with the outside world.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank “We needed a platform that would adapt to changing regulation, able to scale with us, and connect seamlessly with the outside world.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank Al Ziyani understood that proactive innovation alone would not be enough. The bank would also need to keep pace with a continually evolving regulatory climate, to ensure any new products and features were compliant. And in 2024 and 2025, he was proven right, as IIG faced a significant challenge in adopting the upcoming SWIFT CBPR+ and SEPA Instant Payments regulations. As the bank’s operations evolved, so did its technology needs. To support future growth and ensure compliance with evolving regulations, the bank recognized the importance of a modern payment’s infrastructure, one that offers greater automation, interoperability, and scalability. But the bank’s ambitions extend beyond Malta. “We have a global outlook,” said Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank. “We aim to support customers and provide financial services wherever they are. “Digital is core to this vision”; but an outdated core banking system proved an obstacle to progress. “We see lots of opportunities to improve and to provide better services to our clients; but without the right technology in place, they can only be ideas.” The Bank took a bold step forward in 2017 when it adopted Temenos as its core banking system and partnered with Stoics IT for the first time for implementation. “We needed a platform that would adapt to changing regulation, able to scale with us, and connect seamlessly with the outside world.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank A six-month sprint to instant payments “Deep expertise and strong project discipline are always essential in these kinds of projects. With the right people in place and a clear plan, progress is achieved even better than in larger teams that are less structured. This was especially true at IIG Bank, where strong internal team alignment, together with a close partnership with Temenos and BCT, played a key role in the project’s success.” – Madhan Visvanathan – Head of Temenos Practice at BCT Real-time payments, real business impact “Our future is digital. And with Temenos, we have the platform and the partner to keep evolving, while maintaining the focused, lean operating model that we value.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank “Our future is digital. And with Temenos, we have the platform and the partner to keep evolving, while maintaining the focused, lean operating model that we value.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank Real-time payments, real business impact “In modern banking, you need to be able to connect to a network of solutions. The strength of Temenos is its adaptability. We can integrate with any platform, comply with new regulations, and roll out new services quickly.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank The implementation of TPH and the system upgrade to R24 AMR release has brought full SEPA compliance, enabling seamless cross-border transactions across Europe. The bank can now process SEPA transactions in less than 10 seconds, with 24/7 availability. All transactions are automatically screened and reconciled, with no manual intervention required. Additionally, the move to the Temenos core banking system means the bank can integrate with other European digital platforms, and EU customers can now open accounts and manage transactions entirely online from anywhere in the EU. “Imagine a German depositor opening a term deposit at a Maltese bank, with no branch presence in Germany, acting completely online, no manual intervention and no delays. That’s the power of this transformation,” Al Ziyani added. “The number of requests we now receive online to open accounts versus the traditional method of visiting our Malta branch… it’s incredible.” Platform stability and performance have also improved, supporting the bank’s growing digital network and reducing reliance on manual intervention. IIG Bank chose to expand with Temenos because of the platform’s ability to scale through automation and integrations, ensuring consistency with their lean operating structure. The relationship goes beyond the product. Market expertise and a proactive approach during exchanges, especially when seeking solutions to the evolving requirement to remain compliant and meet regulatory expectations, are key ingredients of how Temenos continues to support its clients. “2024 and 2025 brought major changes in our sector. Temenos was with us for every step, helping us plan, adapt, and deploy effectively and on time,” Al Ziyani explained. The relationship goes beyond the product. Market expertise and a proactive approach during exchanges, especially when seeking solutions to the evolving requirement to remain compliant and meet regulatory expectations, are key ingredients of how Temenos continues to support its clients. “2024 and 2025 brought major changes in our sector. Temenos was with us for every step, helping us plan, adapt, and deploy effectively and on time,” Al Ziyani explained. “Our future is digital. And with Temenos, we have the platform and the partner to keep evolving, while maintaining the focused, lean operating model that we value.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank logo bahwan cybertech We partnered successfully with: BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT With the upgrading of the core and the payments layers, IIG is exploring automation in areas such as customer onboarding and fraud detection. Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation (FCM) already plays a central role in AML and transaction screening, and AI is firmly on the roadmap for future capabilities. logo bahwan cybertech BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT https://vimeo.com/1094014151/8b8361059c Interview with IIG Bank • One of the first banks in Malta to go live with SEPA Instant Payments. • Transaction times reduced to seconds, with 24/7 availability. • Compliance with SWIFT CBPR+ and TIPS, the European Central Bank’s instant payment settlement platform. Flexibility – the competitive edge “In modern banking, you need to be able to connect to a network of solutions. The strength of Temenos is its adaptability. We can integrate with any platform, comply with new regulations, and roll out new services quickly.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank A smarter future “Our future is digital. And with Temenos, we have the platform and the partner to keep evolving, while maintaining the focused, lean operating model that we value.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank We partnered successfully with: BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT https://vimeo.com/1094014151/8b8361059c Interview with IIG Bank But the bank’s ambitions extend beyond Malta. “We have a global outlook,” said Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank. “We aim to support customers and provide financial services wherever they are. “Digital is core to this vision”; but an outdated core banking system proved an obstacle to progress. “We see lots of opportunities to improve and to provide better services to our clients; but without the right technology in place, they can only be ideas.” The Bank took a bold step forward in 2017 when it adopted Temenos as its core banking system and partnered with Stoics IT for the first time for implementation. “In modern banking, you need to be able to connect to a network of solutions. The strength of Temenos is its adaptability. We can integrate with any platform, comply with new regulations, and roll out new services quickly.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank “Our future is digital. And with Temenos, we have the platform and the partner to keep evolving, while maintaining the focused, lean operating model that we value.” – Heytem Al Ziyani, Head of IT at IIG Bank logo bahwan cybertech We partnered successfully with: BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT Learn more about BCT We partnered successfully with: logo bahwan cybertech BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT logo bahwan cybertech BCT is an exclusive sales and delivery partner for all Temenos products and solutions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Learn more about BCT Watch video

LOLC Cambodia is one of the country’s largest and most mission-driven microfinance deposit-taking institutions (MDIs). With a strong focus on rural communities, the institution provides a range of financial services aimed at empowering underserved populations. Alongside loans, it also offers deposits, a mobile banking application, ATM cards, and local fund transfer services. Since its founding in 1994, LOLC Cambodia has grown to serve over 330,000 customers, with loan assets exceeding $1.5 billion and customer deposits surpassing $1 billion. LOLC is nationally ranked first for number of borrowers and second for loan portfolio and deposit balance. It employs 3,700 people.

Despite this scale, LOLC’s mission remains elegantly simple.

To this end, it has maintained a focus on the low end of the market, with 79% of its clients based in rural areas, and 60% of its loan book made up of group loans and micro loans.

The case for change

Prior to 2017, LOLC was hampered in a number of ways. The legacy core banking system had to be deployed as separate environments in each branch, resulting in significant technical support to maintain them and enable new branch openings. For example, database backups were carried out in individual branches and sent to HO for consolidation, while data was manually written from CD/DVD to tape drive for retention. Product updates required hard coding or SQL server scripting. There was an over-reliance on third-party applications to support some core processes, such as updating loan repayment schedules with EIR (Effective Interest Rate) and generating key reports such as the Customer Poverty Index. Also, individual databases were needed for each currency.

These inefficiencies filtered through to the customer experience. Manual onboarding processes made it difficult for new customers—especially in rural areas—to access financial services quickly. The outdated core banking system lacked flexibility and automation, limiting LOLC’s ability to scale. Regulatory requirements, including IFRS compliance, demanded a more robust reporting and risk management framework. At the same time, a rapidly evolving digital landscape was opening up new opportunities to integrate with mobile banking and real-time payments—such as Cambodia’s Bakong platform—which LOLC was not equipped to take advantage of.

Aligning strategy with solution

In 2017, LOLC implemented Temenos Financial Inclusion as the foundation for its modernization strategy. The decision to select Temenos initially rested on three essential attributes, recalls Sophal

First, cost efficiency. Temenos was shown to offer significant savings over time due to lower maintenance costs and the reduced need for expensive customizations. The standardized configurations and open architecture also contribute to a lower TCO. Moreover, ease of scalability has ensured that costs remain predictable and manageable as the bank expands.

Industry leadership was a second factor.

Finally, LOLC was impressed by the pool of leading technology and consulting firms, certified professionals, and partners in the Temenos ecosystem. These alliances bring additional domain expertise, product innovation, and know-how of successful implementations, giving LOLC peace of mind that modernization could be sustained.

Alongside these strategic pillars were specific capabilities of Temenos Financial Inclusion that marked it out. These included automation and STP to increase operational efficiency; integration with digital banking, CRM, and regulatory platforms; real-time and cross-border transaction processing; multi-branch and multi-country flexibility; the availability of the Product Builder (Wizard) and the ability to originate loans from all channels.

Summarizing its decision, Sophal says, “We selected Temenos Financial Inclusion for long-term scalability, automation, digital transformation, and inclusivity.”

Building on success

In 2024, LOLC completed the upgrade to R22. The update included, among others, migration from TAFC to TAFJ; new hardware, databases, and OS; integration with multiple third-party systems and devices; and the implementation of 12 new modules.

The technical complexity of the upgrade was coupled with stakeholder challenges, explains Duleep Liyanage, CIO. “Colleagues had become very familiar with the R14 version and were resistant to change. We were very conscious about bringing all users with us, so training and communication were a priority.”

The move to R22 was managed by Temenos Upgrade Services (TUS). “They brought a very holistic and systematic approach to the project,” recalls Duleep

Duleep adds that TUS was also highly aware of the importance of stakeholder engagement, with user feedback sessions, incentives and rewards, and milestone celebrations forming a key part of the upgrade project.

Modernization in action

The solution has delivered on its promises. From 2017 to 2024, LOLC expanded its General Loan Portfolio (GLP) by 308%, saw customer numbers grow by 57%, and almost halved its cost to GLP ratio to 4.31%.

Behind these numbers is a modern customer experience. Users are able to open accounts and access services in a fraction of the time and select from a range of highly personalized products. New offers are continually developed and deployed, increasing choice. Digital transactions include integration with Cambodia’s Bakong real-time payment platform to allow instant fund transfers across mobile. Advanced fraud detection, encryption, and real-time monitoring have improved security and trust. And the adoption of IFRS 9 accounting standards has enhanced LOLC’s ability to monitor non-performing loans and manage credit risks effectively.

Tangible impact

Growth numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. “Temenos Financial Inclusion has had a tangible impact on the lives of its customers,” says Sophal. Faster access to loans has helped small businesses and farmers secure funding without long delays. New loan products for women entrepreneurs and small businesses are increasing inclusion and boosting entrepreneurship in the country. Mobile banking adoption has surged, enabling customers in remote areas to manage accounts, send payments, and receive funds without visiting a branch. And simplified deposit services now allow families to save for their future more effectively.

Leading from the front

With Temenos Financial Inclusion firmly in place, LOLC is looking ahead. Plans are underway to expand digital lending services, enabling even more customers to access credit with minimal paperwork. LOLC is also working to enhance real-time analytics, using AI-powered insights to better understand customer needs, and explore new financial products such as insurance and investment solutions tailored for Cambodia’s microfinance market.

“With Temenos, we are not just keeping up with change—we are driving it. We are building the future of financial inclusion in Cambodia,” says Duleep.

By adopting Temenos Financial Inclusion, LOLC has positioned itself as a leader in inclusive banking, ensuring that more Cambodians—especially those in rural areas—have access to modern financial services. With improved customer experiences, faster onboarding, and a scalable platform for future growth, LOLC is setting new benchmarks in the microfinance industry.

That elevates its relationship with Temenos well beyond a client/vendor, explains Duleep. “Temenos is more than a technology provider; it is a partner in our mission to bring financial services to those who need them most and an indispensable part of our success story.”

ABN AMRO is one of the leading banks in the Netherlands with a significant international presence. With its roots going back 200 years, the Dutch financial services institution today provides banking services to millions of individuals and businesses, with a primary focus on the Netherlands and Northwest Europe. The bank is also a global leader in clearing.

The institution offers a range of products and services – including business loans, mortgages, savings, investment products, and payment services – across three divisions: personal and business banking, wealth management, and corporate banking.

Its strategy for growth is centered around three key pillars; customer experience, sustainability, and future-proof banking. These provide the foundation for bank’s mission to provide “Banking for better, for generations to come”, based on a fundamental vision of “becoming a personal bank in the digital age for the resourceful and ambitious”.

Strength in collaboration

ABN AMRO’s partnership with Temenos has been important to delivering on this vision. The journey with Temenos began almost two decades ago, when ABN AMRO started leveraging Temenos Wealth Front Office (previously ‘Triple A’) to update its legacy private banking environment. This collaboration has since expanded with Temenos core banking for its corporate and private banking business and continued further with the co-development of Temenos Payments Hub. The introduction of Temenos Continuous Deployment (TCD) running on the Temenos SaaS is the partnership’s most recent milestone.

Bas van As, ABN AMRO’s Head of International Core Banking, highlights that the benefit of this long-term partnership has been “to bring consistency and standardization to our technology stack and so make it easier to innovate and modernize.”

World class wealth management

Temenos Wealth Front Office, which is deployed in the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Belgium, has resulted in efficiency improvements to portfolio management, client reporting, and digital front-end tooling. The bank has also leveraged the sustainability insights made available from the solution to improve the guidance given by its relationship managers and advisors to clients.

Moreover, by using the same code base across its operations, the bank has been able to create multiple executions from a single development environment. It has been putting this capability to good use. Just recently, in Germany, the bank rolled out the Discretionary Portfolio Management (DPM) and advisory services.

Marnix Tummers, the bank’s IT Director of Wealth Management, explains that this single code base has also achieved efficiencies in other areas, such as lifecycle management, information security, and regulatory compliance. On the latter, he says: “Regulations and standards are forever evolving, within a jurisdiction and also between them. Temenos embeds these changes to its software, which empowers us to remain adaptable in fulfilling our compliance obligations in all our markets.” And on top of increased efficiency, scalability improves as well.

Composability at the core

Temenos Core provides a stable platform that runs across multiple business lines in multiple countries and markets, all from a single instance, which has become integral to the bank’s efficiency and performance goals. Initially, it was deployed in international corporate business and later in European corporate and private banking operations.

These advancements reflect ABN AMRO’s ongoing commitment to simplicity, or what Bas calls ‘hygiene’. “Our solutions need to be available, safe, and compliant. So, it remains incredibly important that we have a stable and reliable core banking system, because it also allows us to focus on managing our legacy technology effectively,” says Bas.

Marnix echoes those sentiments, pointing out that:

Adoption and integration of new capabilities is far easier, including access to third-party providers via the Temenos Exchange. In turn, it allows the bank to decouple outdated systems.

Cutting edge payments

Building on the success of the core modernization, ABN AMRO also looked to enhance its payments processing capabilities. The bank co-developed Temenos Payments together with Temenos as a centralized, global payments hub. Fully integrated with Temenos core banking, the solution enables real-time cross-border and domestic payments, supports various payment types, and processes complex transactions.

TPH continues to keep ABN AMRO at the forefront of the payments industry; it is a high-performing payment engine and contributing to a significant increase in volume capability. As Bas explains, “Especially in the payment area, among others, we have tried to leverage the product as much as we possibly can, and that has been truly beneficial.”

Engine for innovation

In its latest collaboration with Temenos, ABN AMRO has introduced Temenos Continuous Deployment (TCD) running on Temenos SaaS. Its DevOps teams use TCD to provision test environments, automate test cycles, and accelerate the delivery of innovative new client services.

They are now able to run overnight regression for all the functional areas, hitting a 100% pass rate with a single touch. “It’s an incredible achievement,” notes Bas.

Pioneering AI-Driven Banking Transformation

ABN AMRO views AI as a powerful force for transformation, unlocking new opportunities across its banking operations. According to Marnix “AI not just as a trend, but a foundational technology that can enhance efficiency, drive innovation, and open up new possibilities for customer engagement and operational excellence.” In partnership with Temenos, which is actively embedding AI capabilities into both its Core and Wealth platforms, ABN AMRO will be leveraging these advancements to future-proof its systems and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving financial landscape. This strategic alignment ensures that AI is not only integrated into their technology stack but also plays a key role in shaping the bank’s long-term vision for smarter, more adaptive banking.

People-led partnership

The story of ABN AMRO’s nearly two decades of partnership with Temenos has been one of transformation and growth. It has also been characterized by both technology and people. “We talk about technology being innovative, but that’s only achieved by innovative thinkers. People who think ahead and predict what we’re going to need. That ability to stay on top of things—be it technical innovations or regulations—is a really valuable aspect of our partnership with Temenos,” says Bas.

President’s Choice Financial® (PC Financial®), part of Loblaw Companies Limited – Canada’s leading food and pharmacy retailer, aims to make everyday banking more rewarding for its customers. With the introduction of a savings feature to its PC Money™, Account holders already save on banking fees and earn points linked to PC Optimum™, a popular loyalty reward program with more than 16 million active members. PC Financial recently deployed Temenos core banking on SaaS in just 6 months to achieve fast time to market for its first interest-bearing offering.

Idaho Central Credit Union (ICCU) is the largest state chartered credit union in Idaho. In the last 5-7 years it has expanded its footprint beyond Idaho, to encompass people living and working in Washington state, and also parts of Oregon. It currently has $10bn in assets, making it in the top 20 credit unions in the country.

Launched in 1940, its mission has been to help members achieve financial success. Alongside traditional consumer services, such as deposits, savings and loans, it offers wealth management, financial planning and insurance products, and also has a business division.

An appetite for innovation

As a member-led organization, ICCU is continually having to adapt to changing consumer sentiment shaped by macro-economic trends. For example, in recent years, high interest-rates have encouraged savers, but put lenders at risk while also increasing living costs, which can negatively impact membership. Innovation has been key to this adaptability, explains Wade Saunders, ICCU’s SVP of Consumer Lending.

“The purpose of our innovation has a lot to do with how our members engage with us. Increasingly that is via digital channels, but we also want to enhance the branch experience, so that whatever channel our members prefer, we are their first choice.”

Futureproofing better lending

A recent focus for ICCU has been on improving the loan application experience for members. Its incumbent Loan Origination System (LOS) had been sunsetted by the vendor, which forced ICCU to look for alternatives. A key criteria was automation.

“We wanted to identify points of friction in our processes that can be eliminated with automation, and create the ability to process loan applications without employee-intervention.”

Wade explains that Temenos was one of the first options out of the gate, because of the ability to customize its solution. ICCU also had an eye on the future, and a partner that could support deposits and accounts as well as loans. More generally, this scalability was a key reason why ICCU selected Temenos. Having experienced growth of up to 20% in the last decade, and forecasting a similar trajectory, ICCU wanted a provider that could manage this expansion.

“We wanted a technology partner that is willing to grow with us, and invest in its entire suite of solutions as we continue to scale.”

Immediate impact

ICCU deployed three products from the Temenos digital platform: Account Origination (through Journey Manager) which went live in 2020; as well as Collections and Loan Origination (both live from 2021). The impact was immediate.

Wade puts this success down to the expertise that Temenos has in managing large deployment projects.

“We didn’t have any red flags with the launch, and that’s down to all the testing we did with Temenos, and the transparency of our conversations. Being able to be really honest with each other, and take points professionally not personally, has been a key feature of our partnership so far.”

One area where the new solutions have had a big impact is the ICCU’s credit card division.

ICCU has also applied the Temenos solution to its HELOC (home equity line of credit) product, with similar impact. HELOC applications had been taking up to a month to process; this has been reduced to around 18 days, 41% faster.

“We’re now able to order property title documents and integrate that within the system, so we avoid the delays from errors in manually inputting this information.”

Act like an underwriter

A major benefit of Temenos has been the ability to leverage historical underwriting data in the system, explains Wade.

“Because we have the data about how an underwriter is likely to score an application, we can go straight to approving or declining them, and so decrease the amount of ‘undecideds’ that need to be manually checked.”

Today, 70% of all ICCU’s loan and credit applications are processed completely automatically.

Today, a customer can complete a loan application and receive funding in as little as 12-18 minutes, around 50% faster than before. And by using the data to continually retrain the system, Wade and his team will see that percentage improve further.

Accuracy, first time

Temenos IMM (‘Image Management Module’), an integrated feature of Originations, has also had profound benefits.

“We’ve seen an increase in the accuracy of the loan documents, so we don’t have to chase up members for the correct information.”

This has not only made the process more efficient. “These are key compliance documents. So the fact we can trust Temenos’ IMM more than our previous solution means we can go faster with the confidence that we are maintaining regulatory standards.”

The new system also makes it easier for members to submit the documents needed to support their application, by allowing them to upload them to a central portal instead of emailing, faxing or sending by post.

Happier customers = more customers

The result of all this has been to increase digital engagement and satisfaction; on the latter, the company has seen an increase of 5-10% in recent years. This growing reputation has attracted new customers. In the last few years, ICCU has grown its membership by 10-15%.

Just the start…

ICCU is making good on its strategy to achieve growth through a deepening partnership with Temenos. Wade is looking to apply auto-decision making to its HELOCs business.

Looking to the future, Temenos’ API architecture offers huge potential, says Wade. “It gives us access to Temenos’ partner ecosystem, plus other vendors with solutions we may want to integrate. That’s almost limitless capabilities to allow us to move in any direction we want to.”

One example that Wade and his team are now exploring is the connector with ‘Dealertrack’. That integration will allow ICCU to automatically populate information from car dealers into Temenos, and so significantly reduce manual processes and paperwork when making car loans.

He is also keen to expand Temenos to reshape the company’s network loan business. “Our contractors use one of eight different loan systems and processes. So there’s a huge scope to bring efficiencies here too.”

Whichever direction ICCU will choose, Wade is confident that the relatively new partnership with Temenos has durability. That was recently evidenced when Wade was invited to share his story at the Temenos Credit Union Fall Forum. “We have hundreds of vendors, but our relationship with Temenos means a lot.”