Keeping up with innovation through payments modernization
Bucharest, Romania
Romania-based Libra Internet Bank has a reputation for innovation, having launched the country’s first 100% online accounts and loans. It is one of the market leaders for partnerships with financial institutions and fintechs in the European Union. Libra will leverage Temenos’ composable, scalable platform to add other payment rails in future, bringing them together in a single, efficient platform. This will support the bank’s growth plans to double payments volumes over the next five years.
“Using the latest technology to improve the products and services that we offer to our customers is one of our core values at Libra Internet Bank. Temenos has enabled us to modernize our operations and remain at the cutting edge of innovation in the Romanian banking sector. Temenos Payments will build on this success by allowing us to improve more quickly in the payments space, bringing faster, more reliable cross-border payments services to our customers and fintech partners.”
Cristina Mahika-Voiconi, General Manager at Libra Internet Bank
Libra Internet Bank is already using Temenos for core banking. The decision to upgrade Temenos core banking is the culmination of the changes that Libra Internet Bank made to all its electronic and online applications throughout 2013. In less than one year, Libra reconfigured its Internet Banking platform and added tens of new functions, launched the Libra Mobile Banking service and extended the cut-off time for most operations, during evenings and non-working days.
“We’re always feeling that our necessities are the number one priority for Temenos, and every time we had an emergency, Temenos was instantly beside us, with the perfect solution and the right people to implement it. “
Spokesperson at Libra Internet Bank
Adding Temenos Payments will allow the bank to simplify and standardize its payments operations on a flexible, efficient platform, increasing Straight Through Processing (STP) rates and enhancing customer servicing. The platform will support the new ISO 20022 based cross-border payment and reporting standards, expanding data transparency and payment tracking services. Libra Internet Bank will also be able to improve its sanctions screening processes, for which it uses Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation solution, by standardizing on robust, scalable integration points with Temenos Payments. Temenos offers a single platform across all banking verticals and business segments, including payments and core banking, and as a result Libra will benefit from higher investment in R&D. With Temenos, the bank will be able to progressively replace its payments legacy systems and accelerate time to value.
Keeping up with innovation through payments modernization
Bucharest, Romania
Finland’s wealth manager bank Aktia, serves more than 250,000 individual and over 20,000 corporate and institutional customers. Aktia offers comprehensive banking and wealth management services through close collaboration between Aktia’s three business areas: Asset Management, Banking, and Life Insurance. In 2013, the bank chose Temenos core banking to increase flexibility and productivity, resulting in improved customer service, including shorter time to market for new products and substantial cost savings.
In 2023, Aktia selected Temenos Payments Hub to support the introduction of pan-European instant payments and consolidate all payment rail processing onto a single platform. Adding Temenos Payments Hub will allow the bank to scale, simplify, and standardize its payments operations for all customers.
Our close partnership with Temenos is yet another step for Aktia towards our vision of becoming a leading wealth manager bank by delivering an excellent customer experience. Aktia provides private individuals, corporate customers and institutions with customer-oriented banking and financing solutions. With Temenos we can deliver the best experience for our customers with faster, more convenient, and user-friendly payment options securely and efficiently.”
Anssi Huhta, Executive Vice President, Banking Business & Deputy CEO at Aktia
The move is part of a strategic platform modernization to deliver a better customer experience for domestic and cross-border payments with improved efficiencies and to meet continually changing regulatory and compliance requirements. By running core banking and payments on a robust, API-first, flexible and highly configurable platform, the bank benefits from integrated accounts and payments processing and low latency execution which is required to deliver high levels of Straight Through Processing (STP) and efficient customer experiences. Choosing Temenos’ cloud-native and cloud-agnostic platform also future-proofs Aktia’s technology strategy, enabling an initial on-premise installation with flexibility for seamless migration of its core banking and payments to the cloud or to SaaS.
Keeping up with innovation through payments modernization
Bucharest, Romania
One of the progressive banks in Sudan, Africa and Gulf Bank (AGB), has ambitious growth plans as it seeks to bring innovative Sharia-compliant products for its customers within Sudan and internationally to the Sudanese diaspora. AGB has a collaborative vision to develop a payment ecosystem in the country that will drive financial inclusion objectives, foster a culture of digital payments, and channel formal inward remittances. The bank selected Temenos to modernize its digital and core banking capabilities. The Temenos solution, hosted on the cloud, will enable AGB to provide innovative products faster to retail and corporate customers in Sudan and around the world.
“Africa and Gulf Bank has developed an ambitious roadmap based on innovative retail, digital and wholesale banking products and services which include critical capability enhancements like instant onboarding, automated AI-based approvals, straight-through-processing and digitized workflows. Building upon our ‘Digital and Agency First’ strategy, the introduction of Temenos core banking and digital banking will allow AGB to develop robust banking services for Sudanese people both at home and in the diaspora.”
Qamber Al Mulla, Chairman of Africa and Gulf Bank
Sudan has a digitally savvy population and a growing fintech industry offering a variety of banking services. Backed with Temenos core banking, AGB will utilize Temenos digital banking as a true omnichannel, multi-experience platform helping the bank to serve its customers on multiple channels and devices using native features. AGB has a customer-centric, digital-first business strategy focused on providing innovative financial products and services and a branch-lite network of outreach to individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises, and corporate customers. Temenos digital and core banking will enable the bank to leap forward in the evolving digital economy of the country by providing modern-day products and financial services in Sudan.
“The investment in Temenos core banking and digital banking underscores our commitment to be not only the best bank but also the most innovative. Replacing the core banking system with a cloud-native platform will improve our bank’s operational efficiency and allow us to introduce new products and services, faster to market.”
Nadeem Lodhi, Chief Executive Officer, Africa and Gulf Bank
Keeping up with innovation through payments modernization
Bucharest, Romania
Lien Viet Post Joint Stock Commercial Bank (LPBank) is one of the top 10 private commercial banks in Vietnam in terms of assets and equity. LPBank is replacing its existing system with Temenos’ modern technology platform that will enable the bank to manage customer accounts and transactions across its retail and corporate activities with improved performance and efficiency, and offer personalized products, faster and at a lower cost.
“Leveraging Temenos’ market-leading platform, used by major banks around the world, will help LPBank develop rapidly and realize our goal of becoming the leading retail bank in Vietnam – everyone’s bank. The new system also creates a more integrated, seamless customer experience journey, fully digitized from the beginning to the end of transaction channels, while also aiding employees to deliver a world-class service.”
Ho Nam Tien, Vice Chair and General Director, LPBank
By adopting Temenos’ Vietnam Country Model Bank, LPBank will leverage pre-configured banking capabilities tailored to the local market that will enable faster and more cost-effective implementation. The solution will support process automation, thereby minimizing operational errors, improving risk management efficiency, and enabling fast, effective digital transformation. The bank will also benefit from Temenos’ continued investment in its single code base and experience working with 3000 banks across 150 countries.
Keeping up with innovation through payments modernization
Bucharest, Romania
At a Glance
● 4 months to implement Temenos core banking platform
● 50-70% faster timeframes for new product launches
● 6 months to launch new online mortgage products
Next Bank is a native digital challenger bank headquartered in Taipei, serving retail customers. It launched in January 2022 and is one of only three banks in recent years to have obtained a digital banking license in Taiwan. It is committed to creating banking services that customers may never have imagined with innovative thinking, design aesthetics, and friendly experiences. Its main shareholder is not from a traditional banking background, but instead is Taiwan’s largest telecommunications company – Chunghwa Telecom. That goes some way to explain its challenger mentality.
The speed with which Next Bank has captured market attention will encourage Taiwan’s older banks to innovate, predicts Eric Lee, its Chief Information Officer. “Many banks in Taiwan have been established for a long time and are relatively rigid. For them, transformation is a heavy burden.” He offers mortgages as an example of the lack of innovation in the sector. “In the traditional housing loan experience, customers need to go into a bank branch to complete their application. With Next Bank, customers can do everything on their mobile. I think this is a pioneering work.”
Rapid launch
This new online mortgage offer was built and launched in just six months, using the Temenos core banking platform. “Our entire mortgage business, from project approval to overall launch, took only six months,” explains Eric. “That speed is a huge competitive advantage, and will become more so as we launch new products into market.” That short timeframe is largely down to the rapid deployment of the Temenos core banking platform, which took just four months. “We were so impressed by the quick and smooth implementation of the Temenos core banking platform. It meant we could get to work earlier on building our mortgage offer,” adds Eric.
Eric highlights that the speed with which Next Bank launched its new mortgage service has created a stir in the sector. Shortly after the launch, Taiwan Bank, the nation’s largest bank, sent one of their top designers to Next to exchange lessons on how to create a 100% online mortgage product.
This was a great endorsement of the approach and progress that Next Bank has made is such a short period of time, and illustrates how the Temenos core banking platforms is front of mind for any bank when it comes to creating new digital services.”
Eric Lee, Chief Information Officer at Next Bank
Configurability the key
Mortgages are just one service in Next Bank’s new product portfolio, alongside accounts, loans, and insurance. It has all been built and runs on the Temenos core banking platform. Key to the choice of Temenos was the configurability of the platform, explains Eric. “Like every country, Taiwan has specific regulations that differ from other countries. Off-the-shelf solutions would have been very painful for us to customize and integrate. With Temenos this capability is built-in, so launching a new product is much faster.” As an example, the six months it took to launch its online mortgage product represents a 50-70% reduction in the typical timeframes for these projects.
Next Bank will be making the most of this capability. Its next product offers—corporate management and wealth management—are expected to launch very soon, with foreign exchange planned for Q1 2024.
More capabilities under one roof
The breadth of integrated capabilities included on the Temenos core banking platform has made it easier and faster for Next Bank to quickly secure a market presence.
Not yet two years old, Next Bank already offers the most complete product line of any digital bank in Taiwan, thanks to the extensive choice of modules and the ease of integrating them with our existing products. So unlike other banks, our IT team is never a block to the business.”
Eric Lee, Chief Information Officer at Next Bank
The assurance of experience
Reputation was another key reason why Next Bank selected Temenos. Eric notes that Temenos was able to demonstrate deep knowledge of the Taiwanese market and a successful track record of deployments with other banks in the region. For example, in 2022, Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank appointed Temenos to replace its legacy core systems. The success of that deployment gave Eric and his team the proof they were looking for. And plans for Temenos to open a dedicated support hub in Taiwan have provided further reassurance.
What really stands out about Temenos is how it balances the advantages of global scale with the forensic knowledge of specific markets.”
Eric Lee, Chief Information Officer at Next Bank
Other institutions in Taiwan are looking at the Next Bank story with interest. “The balance of standardization and configuration of the Temenos composable banking platform delivers the agility, speed, and cost-effectiveness that can be a good option for legacy and neobanks alike,” says Eric. It also means that separate bank branches can use the same instance of the platform, rather than needing to deploy their own core system. And the extra competition will be a good thing, he adds. “In this way, we can have more industry exchanges, which is helpful for talent training and innovating the ecosystem.”
Keeping up with innovation through payments modernization
Bucharest, Romania
BanCoppel is one of the largest organizations in Mexico, which includes brands such as Afore Coppel and Tiendas Coppel. BanCoppel was the first to offer loans to Mexicans who had no possibility of proving their income, providing them with microloans for small purchases with store credit since 1941. To continue its technological transformation, driving modern banking services, the bank selected Temenos core banking platform. The implementation of this platform will not only provide the bank with greater efficiency and sustainability but will also support BanCoppel’s digital transformation project.
BanCoppel will benefit from Temenos’ proven technology leadership, extensive experience in Mexico, and strong reputation with existing customers. The Temenos core banking platform will enable the bank to continue to scale efficiently as well as offer an integrated ecosystem of easy and accessible banking services.
“Historically, the mass market in Mexico has been underserved by conventional banking, with much less access to credit and financial services. Our objective with this partnership with Temenos is to continue being the favorite bank of the popular class in Mexico, providing solutions that improve their quality of life. This transformation project will increase efficiency by creating an open ecosystem with easy integration through APIs, which will allow us to create easy, simple and more accessible banking services. Temenos has a proven reputation in Latin America and supports banks with a mission of financial inclusion – we look forward to collaborating together and creating a new era of banking.”
Juan Manuel Fernández Islas, Director of IT, Digital Transformation & Operations at BanCoppel
Keeping up with innovation through payments modernization
Bucharest, Romania
At a Glance
● Reduce onboarding to loan application completion to 5 minutes from days
● 40% lower operational costs
● Time to launch new products to market cut by third
● 25% increase in customer base since launch
● 80% improvement in workflows and efficiencies
In just over a decade, Ijarah Finance has become an established part of the Saudi financial landscape. It provides Sharia-compliant integrated financial leasing services to 50,000 customers across the Kingdom, growth that has been built on a commitment to honesty, customer service and innovation. Now, these values have been applied to ‘Mora Finance’ a new digital lending platform built in partnership with Temenos. Mora’s easy, fast, and safe financing solution has attracted more than 10,000 registrations in four months, since launching in March 2023. It includes cash loans and product financing; with other business products to follow later in 2023.
At Ijarah Finance, we are committed to transforming the way people manage their personal finances. Our vision is to become a leading digital personal finance company, empowering individuals to take control of their financial well-being and achieve their dreams. We’re leveraging the latest technology to provide innovative solutions that simplify financial management and planning. Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. We’re dedicated to providing exceptional user experiences and personalized support.”
Fayez A. Al-Fayez, CEO at Ijarah Finance
Empowering citizens
Launched in 2016, Saudi Arabia is now well into its ambitious ‘Vision 2030’ transformation. Digitization is at the heart of its broad commitment to modernize every aspect of the Kingdom, and personal finance is fundamental to that plan. Citizens who are more able to access financial services and loans become more powerful consumers, and in turn support the shift to a consumer-driven and entrepreneurial economy.
Ijarah Finance identified this and has developed a new, fully automated personal lending platform. Named ‘Mora’, it is the amongst first wholly digital lending solution in KSA and offers customers the chance to apply for and secure personal loans in less than five minutes. That speed is partly enabled by the Kingdom’s move to democratize its data, meaning financial companies such as Ijarah can tap into national databases that record an individual’s income and credit history. But access to data is meaningless without the technology to fetch and process it. For this, Ijarah selected the Temenos Banking Platform to build Mora on top of.
The result is the Kingdom’s first fully digital loan application and approval service. So far, 5,000 Saudi citizens have secured loans via Mora, while registrations are forecast to more than double by the end of 2023, reaching 25,000.
Though a digital solution, Mora is also appearing on shop floors, as in-store product financing agents advise customers to download the app rather than join the hours-long queues to submit their paperwork in the traditional way.
Retail customers can now just head to the till with their Mora app, show their loan approval, and walk out with their product. It’s a better customer experience for them, and really efficient for the retailers too.”
Jamshed Afzal, Chief Technology Architect at IjarahFinance
A platform for now and the future
Mora is the first solution that Ijarah Finance has built on the Temenos Banking Platform. Indeed, the partnership, which began in 2021, was prompted by the shortcomings of the company’s previous technology stack. Unlike Temenos’ unified and composable platform, Ijarah Finance had relied on a complex integration of multiple vendors. That stilted innovation, and so Ijarah’s ability to launch new products efficiently.
“The best part of the Temenos platform is that it is one single, fully integrated, core banking solution. Everything is all in one box.” Jamshed Afzal Chief Technology Architect, Ijarah
Mora has been built using Temenos’ core banking and digital services, with Temenos XAI about to be deployed too. These solutions have not only aided the development of Mora, but also give Ijarah access to other capabilities and services that they can switch on anytime in the future. For example, Ijarah has also invested in Temenos Payments Hub, with a view to developing payment processing services in the future; and is also exploring Temenos Financial Crime and Mitigation (FCM) and native analytics tools.
The Temenos platform is so enriched. You never have to look for additional software to fulfill a requirement. Rather, the solution itself provides the answer.”
Jamshed Afzal, Chief Technology Architect at IjarahFinance
Imagination is the only limit for Ijarah. The API architecture of the Temenos Banking Platform has consigned intricate and costly integrations to the past, while the customizability and extendibility of modules allow Ijarah to build highly personalized customer experiences and flex to evolving regulations.
“Every country, even every bank in a country, has its own needs. A rigid platform creates overheads and compromises, whereas the Temenos platform can be easily configured. So you become fearless. You always know that you’re going to be able to adapt to local and organizational needs” Jamshed Afzal Chief Technology Architect, Ijarah
The result is a newfound agility and scalability that will become increasingly important as Ijarah looks to build out Mora with new features and create new products and services that they can bring to market at breakneck speed. These benefits will become amplified when Ijarah migrates Mora to the cloud version later this year. That had not been possible earlier because of the Kingdom’s strict data sovereignty laws and the absence of a public cloud hyperscaler. But with the Temenos platform agnostic to deployment environments, this did not delay progress. Mora was launched on-premises, and Ijarah was then able to make the decision to move to Oracle cloud as soon as an infrastructure option became available.
Trust in the tried and tested
When you’re building a product designed to transform a nation, you don’t want to leave anything to chance. This was one of the principles that brought Ijarah to the doors of Temenos.
Scale without order can be complex. Whereas other global technology companies are little more than a loose amalgamation of disconnected services, Temenos is a single entity—a unified platform of integrated and complementary solutions, all accessed via a single API connection. Put simply, this makes things work easily. Mundane and repetitive tasks are automated, reducing development and operational workloads. Data can be leveraged between applications, with these insights used to deliver superior customer experiences. All the while, costs and lead times come down, cutting the time to market for new products, and ensuring new revenues are realized faster.
The success is in the numbers
Ijarah has seen an immediate return on its partnership with Temenos. Average loan approvals are already running at a higher conversion rate per day, and are expected to ramp up by 4 -5 folds per day by autumn 2023. Speed has been a key driver. Previously, it took new customers days to register and apply for a loan, leaving many frustrated (some of whom will have abandoned their application). Today, new customers of Mora can go from initial onboarding to loan confirmation in less than five minutes, all from the convenience of their mobile device (Ijarah will be launching a web version of the Mora app later in the year). And more are doing just that—Ijarah has seen a 25% increase in its customer base since launching Mora.
More customers at less cost is another key takeaway. Operational spending is expected to be reduced by 40% in year one, a combination of automating processes, consolidating systems, and outsourcing maintenance. In turn, Ijarah has more budget and time to deploy to new ventures, and importantly, more inclination too. It now takes them around one month to develop and push new featuresand products to market, just a third of the time it took before.
“Previously, we had to write code for everything. That code had to be tested. With Temenos, integrations are low code, so everything is accelerated. This has given us a big advantage” Jamshed Afzal Chief Technology Architect, Ijarah
This improved proximity from the design to the revenue stage emboldens the appetite for innovation and enables action. Ijarah reports that workflows and efficiencies have improved by 80% since partnering with Temenos. A credit card and e-wallet are the next products that Ijarah is now developing and will deploy on the Temenos Banking Platform by the end of 2023.
All these markers of success combine to improve profitability, with a 40% increase in the return on equity.
The Temenos platform is resilient, robust, scalable and adaptable to change. These are all ‘must-have’ features you need in a world-class banking technology. It will continue to facilitate our market growth.”
Jamshed Afzal, Chief Technology Architect at IjarahFinance
Keeping up with innovation through payments modernization
Bucharest, Romania
Launched in 2002, Rawbank aims to drive economic growth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by providing financial services to retail, business, and corporate clients. In just over 20 years, Rawbank has expanded to become the largest commercial bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As the bank expanded its share of the market, it needed to scaleup in its lending division. Previously, Rawbank assessed loan applications manually—a time-consuming and labor-intensive method that offered limited insight into the probability of clients defaulting on repayments. Moving forward, the bank wanted to improve its decision making and minimize exposure to risk by gaining a deeper understanding of applicants. In addition, the bank looked to accelerate the approvals process to deliver a higher standard of service.
The use of Temenos XAI enabled us to gain the full benefits of AI in managing risk and increasing profits while using models which we can easily understand, analyze and augment with our expertise. I have been really impressed with the level of service we get from Temenos.”
Nadeem Akhtar, Director Performance Branch Network at Rawbank
Realizing that automation offered the smartest approach, Rawbank decided to use the Temenos Explainable AI (XAI) platform to streamline and improve its risk assessment for retail, SME and Corporate lending. The solution will enable the bank to rapidly develop, deploy,andintegrate predictive risk models into its credit scoring workflows to determine the likelihood of applicants meeting repayment schedules. XAI will also provide transparency into how it calculates credit scores, enabling Rawbank to explain lending decisions to clients and regulatory authorities.
With XAI providing deeper insight into loan applications, Rawbank expects to reduce its loss given default rate and increase net profits on lending considerably. As well as protecting against default risk, increased levels of automation will improve the speed and efficiency of loan approvals, ensuring higher quality of service. And the bank will be able to continuously optimize the predictive models to ensure accuracy.
Keeping up with innovation through payments modernization
Bucharest, Romania
The first B Corp bank in Australia, Beyond Bank, is 100% owned by its customers. The bank is dedicated to the well-being of both its clients and the communities while offering its customers a better rate, fairer fees, responsible lending, superior customer service, and a multi-award-winning internet banking and mobile app.
As a B Corp. bank, Beyond Bank is certified as a business that meets high standards of social and environmental impact, ensuring its practices and outputs benefit all people, communities, and the planet. The bank is committed to supporting and helping the community thrive.
Temenos Journey Manager was key to help us to integrate in the back end, with the CRM, the core banking, and the tech partners.”
Loïc tassinari, Digital Experience Manager at Beyond Bank
Beyond Bank wanted to ensure customers trying to open accounts via their mobile phones enjoyed a straightforward, friction-free experience. It is important to provide clients with more cognitively light digital experiences. To develop a new omnichannel acquisition journey for its products and services, Beyond Bank implemented Temenos digital banking. After integrating the Temenos platform with its core banking and identity verification systems, Beyond Bank launched a single, mobile-friendly onboarding process for nine separate products.
Beyond Bank offers multiple ways for client interaction, whether via local branches, call centers, or through the award-winning internet banking and mobile app. User feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and the bank uses the highly scalable Temenos solution to support a further 80 account servicing processes. Thanks to the Temenos Journey Manager online form at Beyond Bank is simpleandquick to use, enabling customers to open a membership in under 10 minutes.
Keeping up with innovation through payments modernization
Bucharest, Romania
At a Glance
● Supports 40% growth in customer volumes and 40% boost in assets under management
● Enables the launch of first-of-a-kind funds transfer services via mobile and online
● 50% faster to launch new products to the market
● Went live in just 10 months despite significant disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
● Breaks new ground as the 1st Libyan bank to deploy the Temenos digital platform
Already one of the top banks in Libya, Assaray Trade and Investment Bank (ATIB) has ambitious plans to become the leading digital bank not only in its home market but across the whole North African region. To achieve this, ATIB focuses on delivering first-class services that win growing numbers of customers, while building streamlined internal operations to attract the very best banking talents.
Farouk K. Laabidi, General Manager, ATIB, explains: “10 years ago, ATIB primarily focused its efforts on the corporate market. However, with the ever-increasing demand for retail online and mobile banking services among consumers, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank has strategically expanded its services into the retail banking space. Targeting these digitally-savvy customers is a key strategic goal for us.”
Setting the standard for innovation
Operating in Libya presents significant challenges for banks, as the country’s national infrastructure is currently in the process of development and its political situation has experienced some periods of unpredictability, which can present slowness to growth. Many banks have been unrushed to embrace digital technologies, with some not fully integrated to the national payment system and unable to accept all types of electronic transfers. But where other service providers see limitations, ATIB recognizes huge opportunities for building long-term success. ATIB believes that innovation is a matter of culture, it starts from the top, and all employees are encouraged to embrace it.
Farouk K. Laabidi continues: “We have focused on digital transformation since 2014, bringing many innovative services to market. For example, during the difficult times of cash shortages in the period of 2016–2019, we were one of the leading banks to launch reliable prepaid payment cards and offer an electronic wallet application that allows users to purchase goods via their mobile devices. As well as enhancing and developing new digital services, we are now excited by the possibilities of open banking.”
However, ATIB realized that its existing core and digital banking solutions were starting to restrict its ability to innovate. Building tailored services for different customer segments was a difficult, time-consuming process, and the bank did not have the modern API functionality to interface with third-party services. To sharpen its competitive edge, ATIB started to look for a more advanced, customer-centric solution.
Choosing a solution with extensive capabilities
Keen to overhaul and modernize many components of its banking infrastructure, ATIB looked for a partner with extensive knowledge and experience of large-scale transformation projects. The bank decided to deploy an integrated suite of core and digital banking solutions from Temenos including Temenos Analytics, and Temenos Payments.
“We knew that Temenos is a global leader for core banking solutions, and they demonstrated deep understanding of our challenges and the future of the banking sector. Temenos technology is very impressive, especially the product development and API integration capabilities, which would allow us to connect to many different third-party services.”
Farouk Laadibi, General Manager at ATIB
Adopting a remote deployment model
Working with Temenos and Temenos business partner Prema Consulting, ATIB kicked off the implementation of the solutions, starting with Temenos core banking in a two-phase project that was completed in just ten months. To optimize performance and efficiency, the bank runs the core platform on the Microsoft Azure public cloud.
Dunia M. Ajaj, Head of PMO at ATIB, comments: “The implementation was complex, and we experienced huge disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After one month we faced severe travel restrictions, but Temenos showed great flexibility by switching to a remote deployment strategy. Going live in ten months was a great result, with Temenos delivering excellent support to keep the project moving forward.”
Muawiya Abu Jubain, CEO, Prema-C, added “We believe that ATIB’s project is a strategic project for us, knowing the ambitions the bank management and employees have in deploying the world renowned Temenos core banking system. And we wanted to be part of this exciting journey that brings growth and innovation to ATIB. Despite the pandemic, we managed to reach the bank’s goal of going live in a record time of ten months. This could have never been achieved without the dedication of ATIB’s team, Prema consultants, and the Temenos project management team and consultants.”
Transforming the customer experience
Using Temenos core banking, ATIB enhanced many of its customer services. For example, the bank used the rich integration functionality of the Temenos solution to deliver greater flexibility to customers using its prepaid payment cards. Whenever users need to top up their card with funds from their electronic wallet or account, they can now manage the process quickly and easily via their mobile device.
“Temenos core banking delivers so many great capabilities; from high levels of security to close control over financing arrangements. We have also halved our time to market for new products and services with the Temenos solution.”
Abdulmohaimen M. Matoug, Head of Digital Transformation (Revolv) at ATIB
Using Temenos Analytics, ATIB adopted a more customer-centric approach to development, as Farouk K. Laabidi explains: “With our old core platform, we could not gain a detailed picture of customer behavior. Using Temenos Analytics, we analyze their preferences and requirements in depth, and build more relevant, personalized offerings closely aligned with their financial needs and lifestyles.”
Breaking new ground in the Libyan market
Since then, ATIB has worked with Prema Consulting to implement Temenos digital banking platform – becoming the first bank in North Africa to harness the cutting-edge capabilities of the solution. The bank went live on an on-premises instance of the solution in a phased deployment process, with the business partner helping to integrate the platform with Temenos core banking and a series of third-party solutions.
ATIB has used Temenos to develop and launch a brand new feature-rich digital banking service for retail and corporate clients: ATIB Online. Accessible web and mobile app, that allows users to manage their accounts, monitor transactions, top up local and international payment cards in various currencies, and purchase mobile phone vouchers thanks to integrations with several network operators and internet service providers.
In another breakthrough move, ATIB recently added transferring funds between two bank accounts within Libya, as Farouk K Laabidi explains: “We added an integration with the national payment system to allow users to transfer money online or via their mobile. This represents a first-of-a-kind service for the Libyan market, so once again we are leading the way in terms of innovation.”
Offering customers the speed and convenience of transacting online without having to head to a bank branch has had a hugely positive impact on satisfaction levels. And ATIB Bank plans to add more products and services to the digital application, as Farouk K Laabidi notes: “We are around 60 percent of the way towards reaching our digitalization objectives. We are planning to use Temenos digital banking to create online loan origination and onboarding workflows in 2024, and we will also implement Temenos Payments Hub.”
Reaching new customers
The partnership with Temenos is helping ATIB to achieve its goal of increasing market share and becoming one of the banking leaders in Libya and beyond. The enhanced portfolio of products and services has contributed to a 40 percent boost in customer volumes, and the bank has grown its assets under management by 40 percent since partnering with Temenos. In particular, during the first three months of offering ATIB Online, the platform gained 5,000 new users—and is now aiming to onboard 20,000 by the end of 2023, and 100,000 by the end of 2026.
“Working with the Temenos solutions, we are reaching more clients than ever before. Not only are we consolidating our leadership in the corporate banking space, but we are extending our share of the retail banking market, too. As we launch more digital services with Temenos digital banking platform, we are confident that this upwards trend will continue well into the future.”
Dunia M. Ajaj, Head of PMO at ATIB
A Step Ahead of the Competition
Within ATIB, the Temenos solutions have had a significant impact on workflow efficiency. Higher levels of automation removed the need for manual interventions during many key processes, enabling employees to work more productively and reducing overall costs. Furthermore, this focus on efficiency has helped ATIB reduce its cost-to-income by up to 15 percent, and to achieve a strong return on equity of between 15 and 17 percent.
ATIB also believes that deploying a modern, world-leading suite of banking solutions will help to attract the brightest bankers in Libya.
As the Libyan banking market becomes more digitalized and embraces Open Banking, ATIB is in prime position to take full advantage, as Abdulmohaimen M. Matoug explains: “The Temenos solutions will enable us to integrate with many different partners, not only among financial services providers but also airlines and utilities companies to provide customers with more convenient payment methods.”
“With Temenos, we believe the sky is the limit on what we can achieve. Whatever innovative ideas we conceive, we know we can develop and bring them to market using the solutions. Thanks to our partnership with Temenos, we are moving towards our goal of becoming the leading digital bank in Libya and the wider region and staying well ahead of our competition.”
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