Capturing new customers with innovative, personalized banking services
Peshawar, Pakistan
To increase its market share, Bank of Khyber aims to offer differentiated, personalized Islamic, retail, small business, and corporate banking services. But with existing legacy systems limiting innovation, the bank launched a digital transformation program, deploying Temenos core banking, Temenos digital banking, Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation, and Temenos Analytics solutions. Working with Temenos business partner Systems, Bank of Khyber employed a hybrid implementation model. By combining on-site and remote engagements, the bank achieved a seamless move despite the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Temenos solutions will provide enhanced core, digital, fraud detection, and analytics capabilities, helping the bank launch new products rapidly, offer frictionless online experiences, and attain its long-term growth objectives.
Temenos has a global reputation for providing robust, innovative financial software solutions and has an extensive presence all over the world. This implementation will provide the leap forward we need to enhance our market share and deliver better services and products for our customers in the 21st century.”
Mr. Ihsan Ullah Ihsan, Managing Director at Bank of Khyber
We partnered successfully with
Systems Limited is a global technology public limited company founded in 1977 with the mission to offer holistic transformations to its clients.
Capturing new customers with innovative, personalized banking services
Peshawar, Pakistan
One of the largest financial service providers in Morocco, Crédit du Maroc places innovation and digital transformation at the center of its growth strategy. To strengthen customer experiences and diversify its services, the bank will modernize its core and payments systems with Temenos core banking and Temenos Payments. Once implemented, the Temenos solutions will enable Crédit du Maroc to increase internal efficiency, launch new products faster, and offer customers frictionless, omnichannel access to accounts and cards. On the payments side, the solutions will allow Crédit du Maroc to manage rising transaction volumes, and adapt to new regulations and real-time payments schemes—helping it to win new clients and increase market share.
Temenos’ modern technology platform will not only help to drive incredible operational efficiency, but also enable the bank to accelerate time to market for new products. In a highly competitive market for financial services, Temenos gives us the edge and ensures we deliver the highest levels of customer satisfaction and attract new customers to drive growth.”
Capturing new customers with innovative, personalized banking services
Peshawar, Pakistan
With more than 40 million unbanked citizens, Egypt is an ideal market for digital banking services, which lower barriers to access. Suez Canal Bank, one of the country’s top 10 financial institutions, is embracing the opportunity. Using Temenos digital banking, the bank is transforming the end-to-end digital experience for customers from onboarding, through opening an account, to ongoing account servicing. Suez Canal Bank is also building on Temenos technology to develop smart banking solutions such as tailored insights and suggestions, generated by combining advanced analytics with AI capabilities. Working with Temenos, the bank is reducing time-to-market for new products, boosting front-office efficiency, and bring banking within reach of millions more Egyptians.
We are delighted to partner with Temenos to take our digital banking to the next level. Temenos is the market-leader in digital banking technology and has a strong local presence and record of success with banks in Egypt and the MEA region. Enabling and building engagement with our customers via digital channels is a key growth driver that will help Suez Canal Bank to attract a new generation of customers. This is a priority to support our growth plans but also as a boost to financial inclusion in Egypt.”
Hussein Refaie, Chairman and Managing Director at Suez Canal Bank
Capturing new customers with innovative, personalized banking services
Peshawar, Pakistan
At a Glance
● 1st Finance company in MEA to run front-to back banking solutions on the Temenos banking cloud.
● Built a new digital bank from scratch in2 months.
● 1st time in MEA direct interface from the core banking to the central bank without a middle system.
● A leading innovator in the SME market thanks to the new digital capabilities and channels.
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) represent 94 percent of all companies operating in the United Arab Emirates, and play a pivotal role in the country’s prosperity. For these thousands of companies, success often depends on fast access to liquidity—but in many cases, raising loans through traditional banking channels means navigating complex, paperwork-heavy processes..
This is where Al Ain Finance PJSC wants to makebanking better. Founded in Abu Dhabi in 2016 and regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE, the company looks to provide simple, transparent, and practical alternative finance solutions—without the usual hassle and hidden costs. With this client-oriented and innovative approach, Al Ain Finance PJSC aims to help SMEs across the Emirates to gain the working capital they need to thrive.
Selecting digital solutions on the Temenos banking cloud
Since it began operating in 2017, Al Ain Finance built a positive reputation among clients, particularly for its trade finance services. For the next stage of its growth journey, the finance company targeted a broader portfolio, adding enhanced lending, deposits, payments, and digital services. This strategy, Al Ain Finance believed, would help to sharpen its competitive edge, appeal to more potential clients, and win greater market share.
After assessing offerings from several vendors, Al Ain Finance chose Temenos digital and core banking on the Temenos banking cloud to replace its legacy in-house system and achieve end-to-end digital transformation. The front-to-back digital banking offering on Temenos banking cloud will provide the broadest out-of-the-box functionality for Al Ain Finance to deliver differentiated digital experiences to SMEs. The Temenos banking cloud will be hosted on Microsoft Azure and meant that it could be remotely implemented, simplify its digital business model, and drive operational efficiencies.
Some of our business leaders had worked with Temenos at other institutions, and reported very positive experiences. They knew that Temenos provides exceptional capabilities, which very few of our competitors in this region possess. Also, the Temenos cloud delivery model offers huge advantages to us, as we could avoid the added complexity and costs of managing infrastructure, which would have been very difficult without a dedicated IT team working round-the-clock. The Temenos banking cloud will provide us with a pre-packaged, comprehensive corporate banking product to provide superior digital experiences to our SME customers.”
Spokesperson at the bank
Going live in a rapid timeframe
Al Ain Finance managed to implement the new core and digital banking platforms within two months— a proposition made more challenging by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Temenos’ cloud-native, technology was delivered remotely on the Temenos banking cloud to allow the business to respond to increasing demand for digital banking during COVID-19 in the quickest possible timeframe. Temenos and Stoics IT provided the expert resources to complete the go-live for loans, fixed deposits, accounts, payments, and liquidity management solutions within the target date. Soon after, the project team added Temenos digital banking internet and mobile banking functionality and is now working to launch check clearing and direct debits.
Going live so quickly was a great achievement, especially with the disruption caused by the pandemic. Temenos managed the entire process remotely and communicated exceptionally well throughout the implementation. Normally, we would expect a new solution to need some reworking and fine-tuning following the go-live, but with Temenos everything worked from day one”
Spokesperson at the bank
Setting the standard for digital transformation
With the successful implementation, Al Ain Finance PJSC became one of the first finance companies in the region to harness the latest version of Temenos core banking running in the cloud. In another ground-breaking move, the core platform interfaces directly with the systems of the Central Bank of the UAE to enable clients to make secure, compliant electronic wage transfers. Combined with making banking better by providing SME’s with much needed access to liquidity, fast, we see Al Ain Finance as a true “Changemaker”.
“Even employees with limited experience of modern core systems find the Temenos solutions easy to use,” adds a spokesperson at the bank. “They particularly enjoy being able to access consolidated customer information through a single interface rather than having to click between multiple applications. Although Temenos offers cutting-edge, sophisticated functionality, the learning curve for users was very quick and simple.”
Supported by Temenos, Al Ain Finance achieved its goal of broadening its service portfolio and winning more business among SME clients in the Emirates. The company now offers a comprehensive suite of lending, deposits, and payments products. These include enhanced Wage Protection System (WPS) offerings, which help SMEs to pay their workers in a timely manner, while registering transactions with the Central Bank.
Furthermore, Al Ain Finance now offers clients the flexibility and convenience of managing their accounts via internet or mobile channels. Rather than relying on traditional customer verification methods, the company integrated its digital services with third-party biometric security solutions—enabling clients to use fingerprint and facial recognition to confirm their identity and positioning Al Ain Finance as a leading innovator in the SME market.
Customer feedback for our new products has been excellent. Since the launch of our enhanced service portfolio, we have seen marginal increase in client numbers for our WPS offerings, and overall growth in business volumes. All of these were achieved at a lower operational cost.”
Spokesperson at the bank
Leveraging Technology to drive efficiency
The Temenos solutions also helped Al Ain Finance PJSC to develop faster, more efficient business processes. For example, users previously created reports manually using spreadsheets to collate data. With Temenos core banking, the company can generate reports at the click of a button, ensuring business leaders gain insights into market trends sooner, and enabling employees to focus more time and energy on value-add tasks.
A spokesperson at the bank concludes: “Working with Temenos has been a great experience. Whichever direction that we take, we know that Temenos will provide the solutions, expertise, and implementation support to ensure our success. It is a great partnership, and we look forward to the next stage of the journey.”
Microsoft’s Financial Services group helps financial firms leverage technology to amplify the impact their people can deliver to drive business success.
Stoics IT is a leading consultancy company with its primary focus in providing superior core banking consulting & implementation services across Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific for Temenos products.
Capturing new customers with innovative, personalized banking services
Peshawar, Pakistan
Digital-only Banco del Sol is targeting a top-three position in the Argentine retail banking market, followed by an expansion into the SME space that comprises 99 percent of the country’s businesses. To build a compelling service proposition, the bank worked with Temenos partner GlobalLogic to implement Temenos core banking, Temenos Financial Mitigation, and Temenos Data & Analytics — gaining integrated core banking, fraud detection, and reporting capabilities. The bank can now launch new services quickly, scale its operations seamlessly, and deliver a consistently high-quality client experience. With more consumers using online services than ever due to COVID-19, this innovative digital presence will help Banco del Sol to achieve its growth objectives.
We were impressed with Temenos’ proven experience and expertise with both established banks and digital start-ups. That expertise and the company’s relentless commitment to product innovation makes us confident that they will be able to provide the technology we need to meet the highest digital experience of consumers and small business owners across Argentina.”
Spokesperson at the bank
We partnered successfully with
GlobalLogic combines design, agility and extensive experience helping clients to innovate and transform their businesses through technology, creating unique software from ideation to implementation.
Capturing new customers with innovative, personalized banking services
Peshawar, Pakistan
At A Glance
• Launched a separate digital-only arm: Saven Finance, to offer highly competitive interest rates and more savings to its members
• 5 minutes to activate new customers
• Fully automated onboarding journeys
Consumer expectations around banking services are rising, and customers are increasingly seeking out providers that can offer 24/7 access to products on the digital channel. To attract new customers and retain existing account holders, it is more important than ever for financial services organizations to offer high-quality online and mobile banking experiences.
Since it was founded in 1939, FirstOntario Credit Union has continued to enhance and extend its range of banking services to grow its client base, which today stands at 126,000 people across the province of Ontario, Canada. To inspire a new generation of customers to engage with its services, FirstOntario Credit Union set out to create its first digital-only channel.
Furthermore, the credit union also recently decided to launch a separate digital-only arm entitled Saven Finance. The new service would offer online and mobile access to unique high-interest savings accounts and guaranteed investment certificates (GIC) with exceptionally competitive rates to 13.6 million Ontarian citizens.
Launching Saven allows us to have a greater reach to new digitally-focused members with a community-centric mission that shifts the perspective of what it means to be a financial institution. We’ve designed our digital brand to resonate with people who want anywhere / anytime banking. Our vision is to bring a no-nonsense, digital savings experience to those who want to achieve their financial goals through smart saving. To do that we needed to make our online platform easy to use, and enable our members to benefit from our competitive rates.”
Lloyd Smith, CEO at FirstOntario Credit Union
Turning Vision into Reality
After evaluating its back-office systems and processes, FirstOntario Credit Union realized that its core banking system would be unable to deliver the performance, scalability, and flexibility necessary to support the new digital services.
“Our goal is to shape seamless digital experiences, and without the foundation of a future-ready core banking platform, we knew that we couldn’t deliver our target customer journeys,” continues Michael Walsh. “To solve that challenge, we looked for new technology.”
Targeting a Future-Ready Banking Platform
To prepare itself for digital transformation, FirstOntario Credit Union chose Temenos core banking: a cloud-native, API-first core banking system.
As well as delivering on the foundational capabilities of security, performance and scalability, we wanted a core banking platform that would empower us to rapidly develop, test and deploy new services—and Temenos core banking delivered.”
Michael Walsh, Senior Vice president of Information technology at FirstOntario Credit Union
Working together with a team from Temenos, FirstOntario Credit Union deployed Temenos and migrated its core banking services to the new platform.
After two years of stable operations on Temenos core banking, FirstOntario Credit Union was ready to take the next leap forward with the development of its digital channel. As well as choosing a platform to deliver online and mobile banking services, the organization wanted solutions that would automate important journeys such as account opening, enabling it to offer real-time services outside of normal business hours.
To drive its new digital experience, FirstOntario Credit Union chose Temenos digital banking. Michael Walsh comments: “Our positive experience with Temenos core banking made it an easy choice to work with Temenos again for the next phase of our transformation strategy. In addition to providing the technical capabilities we need, the partnership gives us access to Temenos MarketPlace—a curated platform that connects us with FinTech innovations from around the world.”
FirstOntario Credit Union worked closely with Temenos to develop its new digital offerings.
To support the fully digital Saven Financial brand, FirstOntario Credit Union again deployed Temenos core banking and Temenos digital banking. The combination of core banking and omnichannel delivery capabilities provided the end-to-end platform needed to launch the new brand and will enable the swift roll-out of new products and services.
Launching innovative services
FirstOntario Credit Union surged ahead with the development of its digital banking services. Powered by the Temenos platform and a range of FinTech solutions, the organization tested the first prototype of its online and mobile platforms.
One of the biggest benefits we see in working with Temenos is the many FinTech partners already positioned to integrate well with their banking platform. In many cases, Temenos already had the APIs we needed to integrate with strategic partners. When they didn’t, Temenos brought in the resources we needed to facilitate the integration.”
Michael Walsh, Senior Vice president of Information technology at FirstOntario Credit Union
With the new digital platform, FirstOntario Credit Union is expected to deliver fully automated onboarding journeys for new customers, helping it to inspire a new generation of consumers to become members.
“Ultimately, we aim to embrace a digital-first strategy and the work we’re doing with Temenos today is an important step toward that goal,” says Michael Walsh. “In the future, there will be no need for our customers to wait for one of our employees to tell them that their new account has been approved. Everything will be automated from start to finish, and within five minutes customers will be able to access their account online. Initially, we will be delivering these services on our digital-only channel, but we can already see great potential in extending the capabilities to our existing customers.”
With Saven Financial, FirstOntario Credit Union is now offering a straightforward, easy-to-use digital-only service with attractive rates and a frictionless customer experience. The launch of Saven will increase the credit union’s reach with consumers, especially among younger digital-native Ontarians looking for flexible anytime, anywhere financial services. In line with FirstOntario Credit Union’s overall strategy, much of Saven Financial’s profits will be reinvested back into local community initiatives.
Getting a progress report from the experts
The organization is now working with expert consultants from Temenos to help ensure that the new journeys meet its customers’ high expectations. The team ran an in-depth assessment of the proposed online account opening solution and provided insights into how the organization’s approach compared to others in the industry
Michael Walsh continues: “Temenos assessment placed us in the top quadrant for our space, which gave us the reassurance that our development efforts were moving in the right direction. Before we go live with the finished product, we plan to invite Temenos back to evaluate our progress.”
Choosing Temenos core banking is a decision that defines the next decade or more.”
Tom Bijvoet, Chief Administration Officer at FirstOntario Credit Union
FirstOntario Credit Union is confident that the new services will strengthen its leading position in the province.
“The credit union system is built on cooperation, and we regularly meet with our peers to discuss challenges and find solutions,” adds Michael Walsh. “We see that Temenos shares that philosophy, and from day one, they’ve been fully engaged with our business and committed to our success. The amount of investment that Temenos puts into research and development really shines through in the quality of their offering. We have no hesitation in recommending Temenos as a partner and as a world-class banking solution.”
Capturing new customers with innovative, personalized banking services
Peshawar, Pakistan
Formed in 2018, Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG) aims to foster financial inclusion and deliver simple, satisfying customer experiences. To realize its ambitious growth plans, the bank decided to implement Temenos core banking, migrating its previous disparate core systems onto a single instance of the cloud-native platform. With the Temenos solution in place, CBG has the capabilities it needs to create innovative new offerings for its one million customers and launch easy-to-access digital services that will boost accessibility to financial services in Ghana. The advanced core functionality will also enable the bank to streamline internal processes, reduce operating costs, and scale seamlessly to support its growth plans.
Together with Temenos we can deliver on our vision to become the bank of choice in Ghana, providing a simple, secure and differentiated banking experience to our customers.”
Daniel Addo, Chief Executive Officer at Consolidated Bank Ghana
Capturing new customers with innovative, personalized banking services
Peshawar, Pakistan
Openbank, the digital online bank of the Santander Group, has more than 1 million customers worldwide and is considered Europe’s largest digital bank. To drive domestic and international expansion and to support the group’s digital strategy, Openbank chose Temenos core banking, the next generation in core banking, to help power its operations for retail and SME banking across its global operations. Temenos Wealth Front Office was added and integrated with Temenos core banking to enhance the overall digital customer experience. By adopting Temenos’ packaged and extensible software Openbank will be able to gain a deeper understanding of their customers’ needs and be fastest to market with new personalized products and services at a very low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Temenos software allows the bank to launch products in cycles that are probably 10x faster than before. We are working together with Temenos as partners to transform our business digitally from bottom up.
Capturing new customers with innovative, personalized banking services
Peshawar, Pakistan
At A Glance
Smartphone penetration in Saudi Arabia stands at 88%, almost double the global average
Ability to launch new locations in just4 to 6 months with the Temenos solution
‘Best Islamic Bank in Saudi Arabia’ in 2014
How can it continue to set the standard for high-quality service with so many nimble new players entering the market? For Al Rajhi Bank, it is a case of continuing to observe its time-honored formula of combining innovation with deep-rooted Islamic values and Sharia-compliant practices.
Since its foundation in 1957, these principles have helped the Saudi Arabian market leader to build combined assets of $90 billion and a customer base of 18 million. Along the way, Al Rajhi Bank has earned international recognition from prestigious publications such as The Asian Banker, as well as being named ‘Best Islamic Bank in Saudi Arabia’ in 2014 by Euromoney.
In early 2018, Al Rajhi Bank began investigating breakthrough technologies like Blockchain and was poised to introduce fingerprint identification and electronic signatures. But it also came to realize that it faced a similar challenge to many banks around the world: aging core infrastructure that threatened to restrict future product innovation.
Overcoming Limitations
In the Saudi banking sector, time to market has traditionally been a major differentiator between the leading operators and those lower down the ranks. To develop, launch and manage its offerings, Al Rajhi Bank relied on legacy systems that had been in place since 1998. While well-suited for the marketplace of that time, the bank realized that continuing with this strategy threatened to limit agility.
A spokesperson at the bank, explains: “We operate in a crowded market, where many banks offer similar services and look to seize first-mover advantage to get ahead. With our legacy systems, we had to perform increasing amounts of time-consuming development work to bring new services to market or adapt to changing regulations, increasing our risk of falling behind.”
Embracing the Digital Revolution
Customer preferences have changed dramatically in recent times in the Middle East, with a steep increase in the uptake of digital banking. Research firm McKinsey discovered that 80% of consumers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates prefer to bank online, and half would happily open an account with a digital-only bank. Smartphone penetration in Saudi Arabia also stands at 88%, almost double the global average.
Small digital-only banks and fintechs are already entering the Saudi market with next-generation services, determined to win customers. For established players, the pressure is on to provide engaging digital services to protect hard-won market share. Al Rajhi Bank developed a successful digital presence but wanted to continue evolving its online and mobile services.
A spokesperson at the bank adds: “The majority of our customer transactions are now completed through our digital channels. This makes it vitally important that we continue to enhance the user experience and deliver more innovative, intuitive products. Trying to achieve this by adapting and re-configuring our legacy systems was leading to unsustainable levels of complexity.”
Identifying a Vendor with Strong Islamic Credentials
To continue to thrive in this new banking landscape, Al Rajhi Bank launched a project to transform its core banking platform, issuing a request for proposals to leading international software vendors in mid-2018. After narrowing the search down to a shortlist of four candidates, the bank decided to deploy Temenos Islamic Banking, which provides Sharia-compliant core and digital banking features.
Of all solutions we considered, Temenos offered the most comprehensive set of Islamic finance capabilities. We also noticed that many other leading banks in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates run Temenos, which gave us a great confidence that Temenos Could support us with expert resources in our region.”
Spokesperson at the bank
Accelerating Product Development
Working with Temenos, Al Rajhi Bank kicked off the first phase of the implementation process in January 2019. When the platform is fully deployed, the bank will benefit from increased automation, an agile development framework that enables it to bring products to market faster than ever, and the ability to enhance its digital services and respond to changing customer requirements.
We’re excited about uncovering the full value of the Temenos solutions. One of the most impressive things about working with Temenos is the emphasis they place on research and development, delivering new software releases every year. We now have the most up-to-date, cutting-edge banking solutions on the market in our hands, and this won’t change.”
Spokesperson at the bank
Simplifying Expansion
With the Temenos solution in place, Al Rajhi Bank can facilitate the launch of operations in locations beyond the borders of Saudi Arabia. Over the last 15 years, the bank has established 18 branches in Malaysia, seven in Jordan as well as a presence in Kuwait. Temenos Islamic Banking ensures that Al Rajhi Bank can continue this expansion at speed.
A spokesperson at the bank continues: “Building an international presence is a strategic goal for us, but brings challenges in terms of local Sharia customs and other banking regulations. With the Temenos solution providing pre-configured compliance features along with the ability to adapt our existing service offerings in line with local rules, we believe that we can launch new locations in just 4 to 6 months—a tremendous result.”
He concludes: “Today’s fast-moving market presents many challenges, but with Temenos on our side, we are well-placed to win new customers and maintain our hard-won position as a leader. The Temenos solutions will ensure we continue our long and successful history, and continue to deliver a first-class service that meets the needs of modern consumers while staying true to Islamic principles.”
Temenos digital banking platform will enable us to transform faster, drive out complexity and lower our overall total cost of ownership. Temenos has a worldwide reputation for robust, innovative banking software and an extensive presence and commitment in Saudi Arabia. With Temenos we will be able to introduce new and innovative products more quickly and help reduce operational costs, as well as offer a cutting-edge digital experiences to our customers.”
Capturing new customers with innovative, personalized banking services
Peshawar, Pakistan
Since its foundation in 1982, Arab Tunisian Bank (ATB) has carved out a position as a top five bank in Tunisia by offering award-winning retail and corporate products. The bank has recently gone live on Temenos open platform for composable banking looking to transform its banking infrastructure to capitalize on the new digital age. The project’s first phase, which was completed by the implementation partner, Information Technology Solutions and Services (ITSS), included Temenos Banking Capabilities for Accounts, Lending, Deposits and Financial Crime Mitigation.
The initial phase of the transformation of its core banking systems for retail and corporate business lines with Temenos frees the bank from legacy constraints to accelerate product delivery and digital growth. The second phase of the implementation includes Temenos Banking Capabilities and pre-composed Banking Services for Digital Banking, Payments and Enterprise Risk Management. On Temenos open platform, it aims to differentiate itself in the market as a customer-centric bank through technology and innovation. Leveraging the platform’s core and digital banking capabilities to power new growth opportunities, drive efficiencies at scale, and deliver seamless customer experiences.
We are delighted to complete the successful migration of our retail and corporate banking customer accounts to the Temenos Core Banking Platform. This go-live is a major step forward in the bank’s strategic roadmap and to further develop the digital transformation. A modern, agile banking platform is vital for developing distinctive products and services and adapting to changing customer expectations and market evolution. Temenos gives us that agility we need and future-proofs our technology infrastructure to grow sustainably and tap new growth opportunities.”
Ahmed Rjiba, CEO at Arab Tunisian Bank
ATB is a mid-sized universal bank serving retail, SME and corporate customers with a staff of 1,300 and 134 branches across the country, In 2017, the bank was also awarded the “Best Commercial Bank in Tunisia” by Global Banking & Finance. With demand for online and mobile banking rising rapidly in North Africa, Temenos’ next-generation platform, built on microservices and APIs, will allow ATB to quickly and sustainably scale its business. Cloud-native and with an ecosystem built around it, the Temenos platform also enables ATB to open up to fintechs and the possibilities of new business models in the future.
We partnered successfully with
ITSS provides high-quality services for banks with Temenos core banking in parts of Africa, Middle East, Asia and Latin America.
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