Sector: Challenger Banks
EQ Bank
Modernizing the Core with the Cloud
Toronto, Canada
At a Glance
• Immediate post-cloud growth in customer base of 100% year-on-year, and 400% in transactions.
• First bank in Canada to go front-to-back in the public cloud.
• Updates and new features now released x50 per month vs one every 2 months at launch.
• Named ‘Best Bank in Canada’ for two consecutive years.
EQ Bank launched in 2016 with a groundbreaking vision. As one of the first digital-only banks in Canada, the bank aims to reimagine how customers interact with their financial services provider, offering a smarter and more flexible alternative to the complexity and hassle of traditional banking. In less than a decade it has grown to service half-a-million consumers, and has recently expanded into business banking.
Daniel Broten, SVP and Head of EQ Bank, explained: “We’re on a mission to change the status quo, with banking services that enrich the lives of our customers. As a digital-only bank, we have a major advantage over traditional banks, as we don’t have to maintain branches and therefore have more resources available to provide customer-centric services at the best possible rates.”
Meeting evolving customer demands
For EQ Bank, responding to rapidly-changing customer expectations is today’s biggest challenge. Consumers increasingly expect their financial services provider to deliver everything from faster payments solutions and more flexible lending services to user-friendly budgeting tools and much more, all available at the touch of a button. Thankfully, innovation and agility is built into the DNA of EQ Bank.
“We are always looking to react quickly to customer feedback and bring to market more innovative services,” said Daniel. “For example, we are creating frictionless digital journeys to allow users to open joint accounts in just a few clicks that would normally involve cumbersome paperwork and often a couple painful, in-person visits to a branch.”
Born to grow
In 2016, EQ Bank used an on-premises deployment of Temenos Core Banking to support its launch. The core platform proved a crucial component in the early success of the bank, providing the tools for real-time transaction processing and digital product development. Customer deposits rose rapidly, reaching more than 100 million Canadian dollars in the first few weeks. To manage the next stage of its growth journey and handle rocketing volumes of customer transactions, EQ Bank evaluated the smartest way to scale its infrastructure.
“We realized that a cloud-first model would unlock benefits in terms of scalability, reliability, and security,” added Daniel. “Plus, we knew the cloud would help with product development and give us more time to think about digital innovation rather than infrastructure management.”
EQ Bank was also keen to extend its strong commitment to environmental, sustainability, and governance (ESG) issues into its IT strategy.
Our ESG program is an important part of our business. We aim to do as much as possible to reduce our carbon emissions, and a move to the cloud would help meet our goals.”
Daniel Broten, SVP and Head, EQ Bank
Transitioning to a flexible cloud model
In 2019 EQ Bank decided to deploy an updated version of Temenos Core Banking running on the Temenos SaaS. The move provided the performance, scalability, and agility needed by EQ Bank to manage ongoing customer volumes—and made the bank one of the first in Canada to use a core infrastructure fully-hosted in a public cloud environment.
Daniel explained: “As we had used Temenos Core Banking for several years, transitioning to the SaaS version was the natural choice. Being able to host the systems on Microsoft Azure in our local region was another big advantage.”
Working closely with Temenos, EQ Bank completed the upgrade of Temenos Core Banking and the migration to Temenos SaaS in just 12 months.
“The support from Temenos accelerated the changeover, and because we run the systems with minimal customizations it minimized any complexity. Our learning curve on the Temenos SaaS was quick and easy.”
More recently it has added Temenos Payments Hub (TPH) and Temenos Data Hub (TDH) to its stack.
Creating enhanced digital services
Development speed has been one benefit of its move to cloud. “Ten years ago, we were releasing new features about every two months. Last year, we got that up to 30 every month, and this year, we peaked at 50 per month.”
With that capability, EQ Bank is now rolling out some of the most innovative digital banking services available in Canada. In the near-term, it will publicly launch its first fully digital business account, designed to meet the unique needs of Canadian small business owners, with open banking and real-time payments in scope.
And as part of its inclusion policy, it has created customized onboarding journeys to help indigenous Canadians to access financial services. Similarly, EQ Bank has launched a new low-cost, multi-currency money transfer service through an integration with leading payments provider Wise.
Daniel continued: “Setting up the integration between Temenos Core Banking and Wise was very simple. We quickly and efficiently connected all the debit, credits and payment types needed to allow our customers to make transactions. And we could do this without having to recode any APIs. Using the Temenos SaaS has made it easy for our teams to design, develop and launch new products.”
More recently, it has developed the ‘TDH-EQB Fabric’ environment, an innovative solution enabling near real-time data access within the Temenos Data Hub. The initiative (a collaboration between EQ Bank, Temenos and Microsoft) has already had a profound impact by enabling access to key transactional data within less than 60 seconds; reducing load on the live Temenos Core database by offloading queries for historic and archived transaction data; accelerating operational decision-making by enabling near real-time intraday reporting; and establishing a scalable pipeline to support regulatory reporting.
Daniel commented: “The TDH-EQB Fabric is empowering EQ Bank with faster insights, improved system performance, and a more agile digital ecosystem—all crucial for enhancing the experience we give customers and meeting our regulatory obligations.”
These new capabilities are now powering the bank’s exploration into AI. For Daniel, AI is a natural extension of what the bank has been focussed on since it launched. “We always strive to create highly personalised experiences for each customer. That’s important at the onboarding stage for a new customer, when you really have to build for trust. The more we can show we know about them as a person, the more intimate and trusting the experience for them. The combination of good data and AI are a massive opportunity to create these moments.”
Reaching even more customers
The switch to the Temenos SaaS enabled EQ Bank to manage the rapid growth in demand for digital banking during the Covid pandemic. There was an immediate post-cloud growth in its customer base of 100% year-on-year, and 400% in transactions.
It has sustained that growth, with customer numbers increasing by 10-15% each year, and transactions by around 40%. That has been enabled with TPH but also TDH, and points to the benefits of having a single platform with broad capabilities. “Fraud management and risk mitigation on those payments is another key area where we want to have really good controls and a good synchronous way of being able to decline or stop payments before we have issues with them.”
Today EQ Bank remains Canada’s only true challenger bank and is the digital platform of Equitable Bank, seventh-largest bank in the country by assets.
The flexibility and resilience of the Temenos solution has been vital to our ongoing growth. We simply would not have been able to accommodate such rapid customer growth without the elastic scalability of the cloud.”
Daniel Broten, SVP and Head, EQ Bank
The innovative new services launched by EQ Bank have gone down extremely well with consumers. So much so EQ Bank has been named to the prestigious World’s Best Banks list by Forbes Magazine for five consecutive years.
Building a more sustainable business model
Adopting the cloud model has also helped EQ Bank to achieve its sustainability goals. Moving away from an on-premises core banking infrastructure has allowed EQ Bank to reduce power consumption within its data center, cutting carbon emissions and helping to minimize its impact on the environment.
Daniel commented: “We are very proud of how the cloud helps us to reduce our carbon footprint. We can monitor our cloud resource consumption closely, and ensure that we are using server configurations and processes that optimize performance and energy-efficiency.”
Laying foundations for future success
With a state-of-the-art, cloud-based core banking infrastructure, EQ Bank is well-placed to connect with partner ecosystems and to thrive when open banking reaches Canada.
Daniel explained: “Having such extensive API capabilities with Temenos core banking and the Temenos SaaS puts us in a strong position to develop more integrations with fintechs and to share data securely with third-party providers. These will be essential points both to comply with open banking regulations and to seize the commercial opportunities that the new model will create.”
Moving forward, EQ Bank is keen to continue the alliance with Temenos, including serving as a member of the Temenos Ambassador Program. This enables the bank to join seminars on industry trends, provide feedback on capabilities and functionality, and to influence the roadmap for new releases of Temenos solutions.
“Temenos is a fantastic partner to EQ Bank and has been integral to our rise as one of the most successful and innovative operators in the Canadian retail banking space. We are looking forward to the additional benefits we will unleash from Temenos Data Hub and Temenos Payments Hub that we are implementing currently.”
We can’t wait for the release of new Temenos solutions, especially around data, analytics, and payments, which will help us offer even greater value to our customers.”
Daniel Broten, SVP and Head, EQ Bank
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STC Bank
Pioneering Composable Digital Banking in Saudi Arabia
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
At a Glance
● Live with Temenos Core since February 2022.
● One of the first banks to run Temenos Core on PostgreSQL.
● Scaled from 3 million to 5 million transactions per day.
STC Bank is a pioneering digital bank in Saudi Arabia. It was born from the transformation of STC Pay, a wallet service launched by Saudi Telecom Company (STC). Today, it stands as one of the region’s most prominent fintech success stories, with a growing portfolio of digital financial services. Backed by STC Group and fully licensed by the Saudi Central Bank, STC Bank operates on a mission to deliver simple, accessible, and secure banking to both individuals and businesses across the Kingdom.
Scaling to meet success
STC Bank’s journey began with a simple wallet offering. Success brought scale, and scale brought complexity. As customer expectations rose, STC Pay needed to evolve into a full-fledged digital bank without losing the ease of use and rapid service that had made it successful. The team faced a critical question: how to maintain seamless, user-centric services while meeting growing regulatory demands and building the infrastructure for future growth?
“The main challenge was continuing to offer simple, user-friendly services—without compromising on compliance,” said Mansour Al-Zharani, Chief Technology Officer, STC Bank.
Their existing in-house system needed to support a high-volume digital banking operation. A new core platform was essential—one that could support composable services, automation, and regulatory compliance at scale.
A deployment first
Following a rigorous evaluation process, STC Bank selected Temenos Core as its new core banking system, implemented with support from Temenos Services and regional partner Seedz (formerly BankerWay). The solution included modules for accounts, lending, deposits, and Temenos Advanced Collection.
It became one of the first companies in the world to deploy Temenos Core on PostgreSQL, an advanced open-source database.
We were impressed by Temenos’ long-term roadmap and clear strategy for composable banking. They showed us a path from monolithic systems to modular services.
– Mansour Al-Zharani, Chief Technology Officer at STC Bank
The decision to go with PostgreSQL, combined with a microservice-driven architecture, reinforced the bank’s commitment to agility and composability. This modern tech stack has allowed STC Bank to introduce new digital services rapidly, and support anticipated increases in transaction volumes, while minimizing customizations and maximizing out-of-the-box capabilities.
Engine of growth
STC Bank went live with Temenos Core on 14 February 2022. The platform has proven its ability to scale. And now handles 5 million daily transactions with ease.
Driving these numbers are operational improvements. New products can now be brought to market faster, supported by automated deployment and CI/CD pipelines. The bank’s use of out-of-the-box capabilities and minimal customization has supported agility and reduced complexity. The launch of microservice-based lending services has laid the groundwork for a modular, data-driven banking model. Above all, the bank has achieved high service reliability, with very few issues arising after go-live.
Every product we’ve launched since go-live has moved from development to testing to production smoothly and on time.
– Mansour Al-Zharani, Chief Technology Officer at STC Bank
Mansour explains that the balance of out-of-the-box capabilities with customizations has been crucial to this. “Builds and releases are now fully automated throughout all the environments, while the ease with which we can add customizations keeps us agile.”
Deep partnership
STC Bank chose Temenos for its vision, track record, and composable architecture. The decision was rooted in a long-term view: avoiding legacy limitations and investing in a platform that evolves with innovation.
Temenos stood out for its experience in the Saudi market, strong regional partnerships, and the ability to support open technologies such as PostgreSQL.
Equally important was the partnership ethos. Temenos’ engagement was deep and broad, with product owners, technical specialists, and support all involved. STC Bank also benefits from Temenos First Level Support, including an onsite engineer for immediate issue resolution, helping preserve development speed and service continuity.
Looking ahead
STC Bank continues to expand its product set using Temenos Core, with new lending and deposit offerings in development. It is also exploring how AI capabilities from Temenos can further improve operational efficiency, development workflows, and delivery timelines.
We’re on a journey to reach more customers by offering more services—and Temenos is helping us get there. This partnership isn’t just for a year or two. It’s about long-term growth.
– Mansour Al-Zharani, Chief Technology Officer at STC Bank
With a modern, scalable core in place, STC Bank is well positioned to lead the future of digital banking in Saudi Arabia—setting the standard for what a composable, cloud-native bank can achieve.
President's Choice Financial
Enhancing operational efficiency and delivering more innovative products on Temenos SaaS
Toronto, Canada
President's Choice Financial
Enhancing operational efficiency and delivering more innovative products on Temenos SaaS
Toronto, Canada
President's Choice Financial
Enhancing operational efficiency and delivering more innovative products on Temenos SaaS
Toronto, Canada
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.
Our partnership with Temenos aligns perfectly with our ongoing commitment to providing Canadians innovative and simplified financial products with exceptional value. This partnership gives us access to world-class banking capabilities and allows us to streamline efficiencies, while enabling continued focus on delivering best-in-class products that help Canadians Live Life Well.”
Daksa Mody, SVP Central Operations at PC Financial
President's Choice Financial
Enhancing operational efficiency and delivering more innovative products on Temenos SaaS
Toronto, Canada
At a Glance
• 100,000 transactions daily
• Response times decreased by 50%
• Faster customer onboarding
• 1.2 million app downloads since launch
Launched in 2016 Zain Cash is a mobile wallet business licensed in Iraq, growing 150% Year-on-year.
The mobile wallet product supports both SMEs and consumers to have easy and convenient access to payment, such as collections and payroll services; money transfer services nationally and internationally as well as bill payment, with more than 10,000 agents across the country providing deposit and withdrawal services.
Zain Cash has rapidly expanded, achieving over 1.2 million app downloads.
Yazen Altimimi, CEO, Zain Cash, explains: “ZainCash attract customers with effortless onboarding and innovative and accessible payment solutions designed for everyday convenience.”
Zain Cash has a network of agents across Iraq, which could be a mobile phone shop, local store, or a gas station. Agents are both cash-in and cash-out locations as well as a registration location, which has the potential to improve and increase banking accessibility and ease.
Building a new future
Innovation for Zain Cash is about leveraging technologies to provide better customer experiences. This is in evidence in their product, which utilizes face ID and iris identification, incorporating AI to improve the customer experience and enhance security.
This appetite for innovation has become more important than ever. While Zain Cash’s only product is currently a mobile wallet, the organization’s vision and ambitions are expanding, with hopes to become a digital bank in the near future. That opportunity also presents a number of challenges. Iraq’s banking sector is very regulated and complex. It is also a very competitive industry. There are 70 banks in Iraq, and more standalone providers of wallets and payment solutions. Against this backdrop is an increasingly sophisticated consumer. Yazen explains: “Iraqis are not the consumer of five or ten years ago. They are now very tech-savvy, and mobile first. As a result, they’re expecting the same level of digital services they could find in more developed countries.”
To deliver this future, Zain Cash deployed Temenos core and Temenos Payments Hub (TPH) in March 2024 with Prema Consulting as the implementation partner. This transition included migrating data and balances from 700,000 wallets.
Yazen says: “In March, we relaunched all our tech stack, so the Temenos core banking platform connected to the middleware TIBCO. We were the first to perform this connection. It was a rebirth for Zain Cash.”
Another area Zain Cash wants to focus on innovating is compliance, risk, financial crime and management of AML all from within the Temenos platform.
Scaling ethically
Before moving to Temenos and TPH, Zain Cash had a mobile wallet solution, but did not feel it fulfilled their vision and plan for the future.
We wanted to scale very quickly. Zain Cash was already processing over 100,000 wallet transactions a day. Regulation in the country and consumer behaviour are both changing. We wanted a system that is agile so we can introduce new products easily and scale quickly.”
Yazen Altimimi, Chief Executive Officer at Zain Cash
Scalability in terms of product development has been matched by the ability to onboard more customers. “With our legacy system, we were very limited in adding new customers. The more we added, the heavier the system became, which compromised performance. Now with Temenos we don’t have that friction. And because we can easily scale, we are able to push our marketing campaigns to drive new sign-ups and improve retention.”
For Zain Cash, growing at scale is also about growing sustainably. And according to Yazen, Temenos is helping them to achieve that too. “We wanted a system that is reliable and sustainable for the future. We have plans to focus on introducing lending products, and that’s something that Temenos does very well. Moving to Temenos means it’s very easy for us to introduce new products very quickly, whether for today or for five years from now.”
While growing at scale and at speed, Zain Cash has implemented ESG principles from the start, especially around its environmental impact.
Being and acting ethically, as well as always thinking about diversity, are important to Zain Cash. In the end, the products we have reflect our organization and our mindset.”
Yazen Altimimi, Chief Executive Officer at Zain Cash
Improving efficiency and reliability
Zain Cash has seen improvements in operational efficiency and reliability since making the move to Temenos, and positive customer feedback has given them more confidence to increase marketing and product development.
Yazen says: “When we launched with Temenos, we were impressed by the operational efficiency that we were able to unlock. We found that work was much more seamless and reliable. There has been no interruption to our daily payment volume of 100,000 transactions, onboarding customers is now faster, and the response times have improved by 50%. We’re also seeing great feedback from the consumers who use our product.”
According to Yazen, Zain Cash intends to keep the momentum going.
We want to utilise and leverage the system very quickly. We’ve already kicked off work on our lending products, and we’re hoping to launch new products by the end of the year as a result.”
Yazen Altimimi, Chief Executive Officer at Zain Cash
Looking to the future
Yazen concludes: “Temenos is quicker, more reliable, scalable, agile, and empowers innovation. And there’s still a lot to learn. It’s just the beginning of our journey with this partnership. We depend a lot on Temenos already, and we’re keen to learn more about Temenos models and how we can leverage them in the future. We have big visions for the future and achieving it will only be possible with Temenos.”
“As a leader of Zain Cash for the past eight years, and as someone that has been operating in the financial service sector in Iraq, which is such a challenging market, I believe Temenos is the best product for anyone who has a vision to provide modern financial services, whether in Iraq, in the region, or across the world.”
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President's Choice Financial
Enhancing operational efficiency and delivering more innovative products on Temenos SaaS
Toronto, Canada
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.”
President's Choice Financial
Enhancing operational efficiency and delivering more innovative products on Temenos SaaS
Toronto, Canada
At a Glance
• 2 mins 40 seconds to provide loan decisions, significantly faster than domestic competitors
• 4.8 out of 5 Trustpilot TrustScore, far exceeding the banking category average of 3.4 out of 5
• 2100% growth in deposit portfolio and 66% growth in lending portfolio since ADI issued in December 2022
With offices in Sydney and Brisbane, Alex Bank is a 100 percent digital challenger bank, committed to providing customers in Australia with faster, fairer, and more flexible financial solutions. Alex Bank serves individuals and small businesses across the country with a range of retail and commercial banking products.
Simon Beitz, CEO of Alex Bank, takes up the story: “Our domestic market is dominated by four banks with a combined market share of around 85 percent. We surveyed 2,500 prospective customers about their frustrations with their current banks. We found that one of the biggest pain points was slow service. With legacy banks, applications for savings accounts, loans, and mortgages can often take several weeks to complete. We saw an opportunity to shape higher-quality retail and commercial banking experiences by removing the friction from these journeys.”
Targeting the optimal core banking platform
As a newly authorized deposit-taking institution (ADI) licensed by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA), Alex Bank looked for the optimal technology stack to help it deliver outstanding customer experiences. Compliant, always-on digital services were a must, and the bank targeted a core banking platform that could support its long-term goals.
“We want to be the most efficient bank in Australia, with a cost-to-income ratio of 30 percent or lower. To deliver seamless digital services to thousands of customers with a lean team of just 38 people, we knew we had to develop highly automated systems and processes. Choosing the optimal core banking platform would be a key enabler of this strategy, and we set out to find the right partner.”
Simon Beitz, CEO of Alex Bank
Building a platform for service innovation
To lay the foundation for next-generation services, Alex Bank selected Temenos core banking on Temenos SaaS, deployed on a resilient and highly available platform.
“We evaluated potential vendors against several criteria, including industry experience, access to support, and a proven track record of successful deployments,” recalls Beitz. “Temenos met all our operational and technical requirements for a new core banking platform. As well as having global reach, Temenos has a very strong footprint in Australia, which gave us the confidence we could get effective support whenever we needed it. Temenos core banking can be customized flexibly and deployed rapidly, which allows us to address stringent regulatory requirements without sacrificing our challenger bank agility.”
Accelerating deployment, reducing costs
By deploying Temenos core banking on SaaS, Alex Bank accelerated its core banking implementation while avoiding the significant capital and operational costs associated with deploying an on-premises infrastructure.
Beitz elaborates: “Temenos SaaS offers us many advantages over an on-premises approach. With managed services from Temenos, we are free from the burden of maintaining our infrastructure, which empowers staff to add value in other areas of the business. We can also scale Temenos core banking quickly and easily as we grow—a big advantage for a challenger bank. Crucially, Temenos SaaS offers us mature security and high availability capabilities, giving us the peace of mind that our organization and our customers are always protected.”
Unlocking vital insights
Working with an expert team from Temenos, Alex Bank leveraged the solution’s built-in tools to tailor its banking products to meet the needs and expectations of its target market, and to design Temenos Analytics reports to deliver business insights to management and leadership teams.
“We can modify business rules in Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation with minimal support from Temenos, saving time and effort and helping us to keep pace with the needs of the business.”
Rocketing ahead in the Australian market
Through its collaboration with Temenos, Alex Bank is rapidly establishing itself as one of Australia’s fastest-growing financial organizations.
“Our goal isn’t simply to offer slightly faster services than our banking competitors. We want to deliver experiences that match the speed and convenience of our customers’ favorite brands — for example, e-commerce retailers. To realize our vision, we’ve designed every stage of every journey with the customer experience at the center.”
Simon Beitz, CEO of Alex Bank
“Our goal isn’t simply to offer slightly faster services than our banking competitors,” explains Beitz. “We want to deliver experiences that match the speed and convenience of our customers’ favorite brands — for example, e-commerce retailers. To realize our vision, we’ve designed every stage of every journey with the customer experience at the center.”
Providing decisions in seconds
By combining the capabilities of Temenos core banking with its own AI technologies, the bank is delivering lending decisions and onboarding customers within minutes, speeding ahead of its competitors.
“We have created a smart, real-time credit decisioning system called Alex Intelligence™, which uses data analytics to accurately assess an applicant’s credit risk,” explains Beitz. “For unsecured loans, we’ve compressed the entire customer application process down to two minutes and 40 seconds. When a customer applies via their digital device, we can give them a decision significantly faster than our competitors and deposit the money to their account within as little as three hours. We’ve since expanded to secured personal loans, and next we plan to build a similar offering for small business owners.”
Nurturing customer loyalty
Alex Bank’s relentless focus on the customer experience is already paying dividends. The organization is racing ahead of its competitors with a Trustpilot TrustScore of 4.8/5, far exceeding the banking category average of 3.4/5.
“We are now measuring a satisfaction score of 81.7/100 on Trustpilot, which shows that our approach is really resonating with our customers,” says Beitz. “Our growth trajectory is so steep that we’re often breaking our own daily records for new lending and deposits. Since ADI issued in 21DEC22, deposits have increased by 2100 percent and lending has grown by 66 percent. These results contributed to Alex Bank receiving Fast Starter awards from both Deloitte and the Australian Financial Review.”
Planning for the future
Looking ahead, Alex Bank plans to work with Temenos to bring its mortgage offering for small business owners to market, and the bank expects to achieve profitable operations within a matter of months.
“We have high expectations of Temenos, and Temenos continues to meet those expectations by helping us get innovative products to market rapidly. Having Temenos as our core banking partner is integral to delivering excellent customer experiences and staying ahead in a highly competitive industry. We’re excited to build on what we’ve achieved with Temenos core banking on SaaS.”
Simon Beitz, CEO of Alex Bank
President's Choice Financial
Enhancing operational efficiency and delivering more innovative products on Temenos SaaS
Toronto, Canada
One of the largest financial groups in Latin America with operations in the Dominican Republic and Panama, Qik combines more than five decades of banking experience with the operational agility and cutting-edge digital experiences enabled by the Temenos platform. Part of Grupo Popular, Qik launched Qik Banco Digital Dominicano on Temenos Banking Cloud, becoming the first digital-only bank in the Dominican Republic. The launch of Qik on the Temenos Banking Cloud with consultative support from ITSS will enable the bank to quickly establish a presence in the Dominican Republic, planning to onboard up to thousands of people in the first year. With instant access to packaged banking services via software-as-a-service (SaaS) on Temenos Banking Cloud, Qik can meet the emerging needs of digital customers with the highest technological, security and service standards, built around the way customers live their daily lives.
Qik will be able to measure, reduce and report on their emissions with BI data, so that they can comply with regulations, address the changing needs of their customers and reach their sustainability targets. The bank will also utilized Temenos core banking and payments services on a pay-as-you-go basis, as it launches products from debit accounts to savings to personal loans across the Dominican Republic. The open and flexible platform will empower Qik to quickly design and deliver innovative products and services.
We wanted to create a bank with agility, flexibility and state-of-the-art technology to improve the banking experience and create availability to banking services to a larger portion of Dominicans. Our value proposition is focusing on people´s needs to maximize their time and resources, which is the demand of today’s customers. That’s why we chose Temenos, because its cloud technology has a successful track record across Latin America and we knew that it could help us deliver a digital experience that redefines banking so that our customers can bank smarter, happier and more connected than ever before.”
Arturo Grullón Finet, CEO of Qik
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President's Choice Financial
Enhancing operational efficiency and delivering more innovative products on Temenos SaaS
Toronto, Canada
One of MENA’s leading international banks, Bank ABC will replace its legacy core banking systems for its network of operations serving customers in twenty-five markets from fifteen countries worldwide with a single instance of the Temenos platform. Temenos and Systems will replace its core banking systems for its retail, corporate and wholesale businesses and furthermore power its subsidiary, ila Bank, the MENA region’s fast-growing digital mobile-only bank. Consolidating multiple back-end systems on the Temenos platform in the Cloud will enable Bank ABC to drive scalable efficiency, with a single dashboard and complete 360-degree customer view across business lines and geographies.
Today, marks a momentous milestone in our journey to build our bank of the future. Consolidating our banking systems on a single platform will give us a robust foundation to accelerate growth and create significant value for our stakeholders. Temenos offers an ideal Cloud-native solution with the breadth of banking functionality needed to support all spectrums of our wholesale and retail businesses. I am confident that this next-generation core banking system will drive further operational efficiencies for the Group, enabling us to become even more responsive and adaptive to our clients’ ever-evolving needs.”
Sael Al Waary, Acting Group CEO at Bank ABC
The first phase of the project is the implementation of Temenos retail core banking solution and origination on digital banking for ila Bank. Subsequently, Bank ABC will leverage Temenos’ cloud-native solutions and its open and API-first architecture for easy extensibility and open banking integration to enhance the experience and the services delivered to its customers. The project will see the gradual transformation of the Group-wide core banking infrastructure, enabling Bank ABC to benefit from Temenos’ broad set of banking functionality and lower operational cost across its retail and wholesale banking operations.
Achieving operational agility is crucial for the future success of Bank ABC. We are continuously exploring leading-edge technologies to enable our ambitious expansion and digital transformation aspirations. Temenos’ platform will enable us to efficiently scale our services. In addition, hosting our core banking system on the Cloud will significantly increase our levels of security and resilience. We look forward to working with Temenos and NdcTech teams during the implementation phase and reaping the benefits of this investment.”
Ismail Mokhtar, Group Chief Operating Officer at Bank ABC
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President's Choice Financial
Enhancing operational efficiency and delivering more innovative products on Temenos SaaS
Toronto, Canada
London-headquartered Deep Tech and Banking company, Tintra PLC aims to create true fiscal inclusion in trade and finance across the emerging world delivered via a strategic network of full bank licenses on four continents and using advanced artificial intelligence, machine learning, and Web 3.0 technologies. Tintra will be using Temenos core banking platform, customer onboarding, market-leading payments, and its Financial Crime Mitigation solution to power its innovative new bank designed solely for emerging market clients. The Tintra technological innovations will connect via APIs with Temenos’ open platform to deliver a single, end-to-end solution for onboarding, transaction management, monitoring and forex services. In addition, with Temenos’ low-code integration and APIs, Tintra can easily customize its banking services to meet the unique needs of its customers and quickly adapt to changing market conditions.
Tintra currently is in discussion with regulators globally and has already secured a Fintech Services License to operate in the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) and Payment Intermediary Service License in Mauritius. Tintra has opted to host Temenos banking platform on private cloud and its own datacenters in markets where required by regulators. Temenos’ regional functionality and packaged country model bank framework will help Tintra to quickly comply with local regulations and business practices at a lower cost.
We are delighted to partner with Temenos, the world’s most trusted core banking platform. Tintra has global ambitions and building our borderless banking infrastructure on top of Temenos means we benefit from Temenos’ vast global experience and the regional functionality of its country specific model banks. This will enable us to go-live faster and focus investment to bring our revolutionary AML/KYC solution to market, whilst at the same time giving global regulators the assurance that our core banking services are built for today and the future.”
Richard Shearer, Founder of Tintra PLC
President's Choice Financial
Enhancing operational efficiency and delivering more innovative products on Temenos SaaS
Toronto, Canada
At a Glance
• Provides the foundations for the first ever digital-only bank in Singapore
• Enables 83% faster product development than typical core banking platforms
• Requires 50% fewer resources to manage and operate than standard systems
In 2019, the Monetary Authority of Singapore offered its first ever licenses for digital-only banks. Chinese property development company and Fortune Global 500 member Greenland Group and Hong Kong fintech Linklogis saw a golden opportunity to seize first-mover advantage. Together, they developed plans for Green Link Digital Bank, a financial service provider that would set the standard for innovation in Singapore.
Mr. Kuang Mi, CEO of Lianqi Cloud, and the Head of IT, Greenland Digitech (Parent company of Green Link Digital Bank), explains: “We decided to focus on micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in high-growth sectors such as technology and sustainable construction. Our goal was to provide digital and mobile banking that would enable our clients to access much-needed capital, manage and improve their liquidity and cash flow, and expand their businesses.”
Turning plans into reality
Building an all-new digital bank from scratch was a considerable challenge. The founders wanted Green Link Digital Bank to offer an extensive range of services—from deposit accounts, loans and electronic payments to specialist trade and supply chain financing, and cutting-edge open banking offerings.
Mr. Kuang Mi continues: “We knew we would face strong competition from other agile fintechs that specialize in developing user-friendly, multi-channel banking services. To survive and thrive in this challenging market, we aimed to implement a lean, agile, and cost-efficient operating model that would enable us to focus on digital innovation and foster long-term relationships with our clients.”
Turning plans into reality would require the right mix of robust infrastructure resources and flexible product development capabilities. To move quickly, the team behind Green Link Digital Bank searched for a proven, best-of-breed core banking platform that would help to meet regulatory requirements and serve as a reliable foundation for its online and mobile services. Scalability was another key requirement: once the bank was well established in Singapore, the plan was to expand into other South Asian markets.
Laying robust foundations
After assessing core banking systems from international and local vendors, Green Link Digital Bank selected Temenos core banking running on the Huawei Cloud to support its launch. The bank makes extensive use of the core platform, including Temenos Payments and Temenos Data Hub, for product development, managing client accounts and transactions, and for key back-office and compliance processes.
Greenland Digitech led the implementation of the core platform for Green Link Digital Bank, with support from Temenos and Huawei. The bank went live in just 11 months, as Mr. Kuang Mi confirms: “Temenos delivered exceptional support, ensuring we completed the implementation quickly and efficiently.”
“The Temenos team was very impressive, presenting well and offering helpful guidance when we applied for our banking license. The platform offered all the core functionality we needed to move to market quickly. We also drew confidence from the fact that many leading Asian banks use Temenos solutions, while their international expertise will be especially useful as we scale operations beyond Singapore.”
Mr. Kuang Mi, CEO of Lianqi Cloud, and the Head of IT at Green Link Digital Bank
Breaking new ground in Singapore
Supported by Temenos, Green Link Digital Bank has successfully launched on the market, becoming the first digital-only bank to operate in Singapore. Using product development frameworks in Temenos core banking, the bank has created compelling and relevant payments, lending, and supply chain finance services to help MSMEs to access vital working capital and trade with local and international partners.
At Greenland Digitech, we have considerable experience with other core banking platforms. In most cases, it can take as long as six months to develop, trial, and launch new products. With Temenos core banking solution, we can bring services to market within one month—83 percent faster, which is helping us to make an impact in the Singaporean market and reach clients before competitors.”
Mr. Kuang Mi, CEO of Lianqi Cloud, and the Head of IT at Green Link Digital Bank
The pre-configured workflows in Temenos also simplify systems management for Green Link Digital Bank, as Mr. Kuang Mi comments: “Most core banking systems require customization and additional coding. Temenos core banking eliminates this complex, time-consuming work: we can manage and operate the platform with 50 percent fewer resources than a typical core system, freeing time for more valuable work.”
Forging a nimble, cost-efficient operating model
Running Temenos core banking on the Huawei Cloud is helping Green Link Digital Bank optimize agility and cost-efficiency. “With the cloud model, we avoid the hassle and expenses of managing on-premises infrastructure, and we can quickly deploy additional resources to run testing cycles for new product features,” adds Mr. Kuang Mi. “Using Temenos core banking on the cloud makes us a more nimble operation.”
Furthermore, Temenos Data Hub is enabling Green Link Digital Bank to achieve efficiencies in its back-office workflows, as Mr. Kuang Mi adds: “Temenos Data Hub offers us a lot of flexibility around how we schedule and run our batch processes, and helps us gain a clear view of our end-of-day position.”
Currently, Green Link Digital Bank is using the API capabilities of Temenos core banking to develop and trial open banking services for MSMEs. The bank is running several pilot schemes with clients to test and optimize the new offerings before launching them to the wider market in Singapore.
“Temenos core banking gives us very strong foundations to support our operations. We will continue to build on the platform to create differentiated banking services for MSMEs. With Temenos, we have launched a first-of-a-kind digital-only bank in Singapore, and we have the capabilities in place to innovate, win new business, and scale our operations into other Asian markets when the time is right.”
Mr. Kuang Mi, CEO of Lianqi Cloud, and the Head of IT at Green Link Digital Bank