Challenger

End-to-end digital transformation to provide seamless customer experiences

Melbourne, Australia

At a glance

• Onboard customers in 5 minutes instead of 60 minutes

• Straight-through processing for 95% of onboarding processes

• 92% faster to compile loan documentation

• Reduce the cost of customer acquisition and servicing

• Provide great digital customer experiences

• Built a new front-to back solution on the Temenos banking cloud

Recently, Challenger, an Australian investment management firm, acquired MyLife MyFinance. In an Australian market dominated by the “Big Four” banks, MyLife MyFinance aims to offer a genuine alternative to the leading players. Headquartered in Melbourne, the bank promises customers fair, ethical, and simple savings and lending products and services, which help them to build a brighter and more prosperous future. MyLife MyFinance, innovation means finding ways to deliver new value to those customers.

Mark Sawyer, General Manager at MyLife MyFinance, explains: “We consider ourselves a niche bank, targeting consumers looking for a transparent, low-fee service. Although we are not aiming to compete directly with the giant retail banks, we want to create a compelling and market-relevant value proposition that compares favorably with their offerings and ensures that we serve our customers well.”

As part of this strategy, MyLife MyFinance looked to design a more engaging, frictionless digital experience. For example, the bank wanted to accelerate onboarding processes that previously consisted of many time-consuming, manual steps. MyLife MyFinance also aimed to introduce self-service capabilities that would give customers greater flexibility in how they could manage their accounts and make payments.

Planning digital transformation

To develop and launch this enhanced customer journey, MyLife MyFinance realized that it would have to modernize its core and digital banking systems. Previously, the bank was using heterogeneous on-premise legacy technologies with limited functionality that restricted innovation and scalability. Using solutions from multiple vendors, MyLife MyFinance also wanted to address management workloads and operational risk.

Zvonko Balic, Chief Technology Officer at MyLife MyFinance, continues: “With our existing systems, the cost and complexity of customer onboarding and servicing was simply too high. Also, we saw that the solutions would make it difficult for us to adapt to changing regulations and hamper our ability to capitalize on emerging market opportunities.”

Selecting a more agile model

To transform its technology stack, MyLife MyFinance decided to deploy Temenos front-to-back banking solutions on the Temenos banking cloud. The Temenos package combines Temenos core and digital banking, and Temenos Analytics and provides capabilities within a modern Open API-first architecture.

Mark Sawyer comments: “When assessing vendors, Temenos stood out for many reasons. First, the broad functionality of the solutions enable us to tailor our new customer journey. Also, the rich integration features allow us to connect to third-party solutions to enhance our services. Temenos also has a strong track record working with Australian and global banks, which inspires confidence that they will always deliver.”

The Temenos banking cloud also offered major advantages for MyLife MyFinance, as Zvonko Balic explains: “As a smaller, niche bank, we do not have the technology budget of the larger financial institutions. Adopting the cloud approach meant that we could focus resources on serving customers rather than managing infrastructure. Plus, we know that Temenos invests heavily in building cutting-edge new functionality, which allows us to roll out enhancements quickly and easily rather than having to perform development work ourselves.”

“Adopting the cloud approach meant that we could focus resources on serving customers rather than managing infrastructure”

Zvonko Balic, Chief Technology Officer at MyLife MyFinance

Deploying fast, despite the pandemic

To implement the solutions, MyLife MyFinance worked with Temenos and Temenos business partner LTIMindtree. Within 12 months, the project teams effectively built a whole new banking infrastructure from scratch in the cloud and completed the customer data migration. Travel restrictions within Australia due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant that Temenos completed two-thirds of the implementation remotely.

During the deployment, Temenos helped MyLife MyFinance to integrate the core and digital solutions with a wide array of third-party services. These include solutions for debit cards and payments, document management, fraud monitoring, customer ID verification, and automated credit decisioning for consumer mortgage and lending products.

Being able to go live with such a diverse ecosystem of services in just 12 months was a great result. The disruption caused by the pandemic made this an especially challenging project, but Temenos provided the resources and expertise to ensure success. The engagement with their sales, account management, executive, and implementation teams has been very positive.”

Zvonko Balic, Chief Technology Officer at MyLife MyFinance

Accelerating processes by more than 90 percent

With the Temenos solutions, MyLife MyFinance strengthened its value proposition and enabled a slick, seamless customer journey that matches the offerings of larger operators. The bank now uses straight-through-processing (STP) for 95 percent of the onboarding process, which automates slow, inefficient manual workflows, reduces onboarding costs, and ensures that new customers enjoy a fast, engaging experience.

Mark Sawyer adds: “With our old systems, it would take between 24 and 48 hours to complete the customer acquisition cycle. Within that time, an employee would have to manually key in data and complete various checks on the customer. Now, due to the STP and integration capabilities of the Temenos platform, a customer can submit their application online and open an account within minutes.”
MyLife MyFinance customers also now enjoy self-service capabilities via their digital channel of choice. Users can log in to manage their deposits account and individual profile via mobile or internet banking, make payments using a digital wallet, activate and manage debit cards, and report lost or stolen cards.

Since the final consumer mortgage and lending solutions went live, MyLife MyFinance looks to accelerate the process for compiling loan contract documentation. Previously, it could take up to 60 minutes to draw together relevant documents from various source systems. With the integrated Temenos ecosystem, the bank expects to complete now the process in just 5 minutes—a 92 percent improvement.

Now, due to the STP and integration capabilities of the Temenos platform, a customer can submit their application online and open an account within minutes.”

Mark Sawyer, General Manager at MyLife MyFinance

Spearheading a new growth strategy

Recently, Challenger, an Australian investment management firm, acquired MyLife MyFinance. As a savings and loan bank, MyLife MyFinance will give Challenger the opportunity to expand its customer base and secure retirement income offerings. The bank is confident that the self-service capabilities, STP, and scalability of the Temenos solutions will enable it to manage higher volumes of customer applications successfully. MyLife MyFinance also believes that the Temenos deployment will enable it to embrace the opportunities created by Open Banking

Mark Sawyer concludes: “As we move into a new phase in our banking journey, we are sure that the partnership with Temenos will continue to contribute to our success, helping us to adapt to evolving regulations and market conditions. So far, it has been a very rewarding collaboration, and we are looking forward to the next chapter.”

We partnered successfully with

One-Stop Pure-Play Global Partner for all Temenos Solutions, System Integrations and Digital Services

Challenger

End-to-end digital transformation to provide seamless customer experiences

Melbourne, Australia

Chile’s third-largest bank, Banco de Crédito e Inversiones (BCI), is well-established on its home turf and is now looking further afield for new opportunities. One of its newest ventures is launching a new corporate bank in Lima, Peru, offering superb digital banking experiences. BCI will use the Temenos Model Bank approach to accelerate the launch, built on Temenos core banking, Temenos Payments, and digital front-office technology. The solution will support cross-border payments, and built-in automation will help the bank maximize back-office efficiency. With help from Temenos, BCI is taking the next step in its growth strategy to expand its corporate customer base fast.

We selected Temenos as our strategic technology partner to support us with our growing plan in Peru. Temenos’ advanced technology, scale and international expertise made them the ideal partner. We were also impressed with the company’s strong presence in Americas, as well as its ability to deliver fast implementations even in these times. BCI in Peru will benefit from embedded local best practices and we expect a smooth launch next year. By launching a new bank in Peru and using Temenos’ technology as our differentiator, we aspire to have a state-of-the-art bank for corporate banking in the region.”

Eduardo Nazal, Managing Director, International Strategy Development at BCI

Region

Latin America

Solutions

Core Banking
Digital Front Office

Sector

Challenger Banks
Corporate & Commercial Banking

Challenger

End-to-end digital transformation to provide seamless customer experiences

Melbourne, Australia

Orange Bank Africa’s launch in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) region aims at supporting financial inclusion, while capitalizing on digital capabilities and increasing penetration of mobile tech. Orange Bank Africa is fully equipped to achieve reduced IT costs and operational complexity, as well as an improved cost/income ratio. The bank has developed a mobile-first banking strategy to deliver financial services to consumers’ phones supported by Temenos core banking delivered as SaaS, and its cloud-native technology, which is hosted on Microsoft Azure.

Temenos’ cutting-edge cloud technology, relentless focus on innovation and unrivalled regional experience makes it the perfect partner for Orange Bank Africa as we launch our operations. Temenos core banking gives us the scalability we need to grow and provide vital financial services to millions of customers.”

Patrick Roussel, Vice President, MEA Mobile Financial Services at Orange bank

Meanwhile, the Temenos Banking Cloud enables the bank to aim for sustainable, long-term growth and allows them to scale to meet the surge in digital banking adoption in Africa. Temenos’ Model Bank approach provided highly localized, pre-configured banking functionality so the new software could be deployed quickly, without the need for customization.

We partnered successfully with

Microsoft’s Financial Services group helps financial firms leverage technology to amplify the impact their people can deliver to drive business success.

Region

Europe
Middle East & Africa

Solutions

Cloud & SaaS
Core Banking

Sector

Challenger Banks
Retail Banking

Challenger

End-to-end digital transformation to provide seamless customer experiences

Melbourne, Australia

In recent years, BHD Leon has been a key player in the rapid development of the Dominican Republic’s economy, which is now one of the largest in Central America. For the next stage of its growth, the bank aims to expand its customer base of 1.5 million people by launching into new markets and creating customized products for underbanked groups, including women and small businesses. To achieve this, the bank selected Temenos core banking running on the public cloud to transform its core banking operations. After a two-phase implementation, the solution will enable BHD Leon to automate back-office processes and gain a 360-degree view of client preferences. With this data, the bank will be able to roll out targeted offerings for specific customer groups, helping it to reach new markets and sustain its long-term growth.

We are delighted to have found a partner that shares our vision for enabling everyone, from the student, to the small business owner, to the tourist, to the large corporation, with personalized banking services for all of their needs. Temenos’ modern, open and agile technology will drive powerful change as we seek to support even more people and expand into other countries.”

Steven Puig, President at BHD Leon

Region

Latin America

Solutions

Core Banking

Sector

Challenger Banks

Challenger

End-to-end digital transformation to provide seamless customer experiences

Melbourne, Australia

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.

Region

Latin America

Solutions

Core Banking
Financial Crime Mitigation

Sector

Business Banking
Challenger Banks
Retail Banking

Challenger

End-to-end digital transformation to provide seamless customer experiences

Melbourne, Australia

As part of its digital transformation program, Bank of Queensland unveiled a technology strategy that will drive differentiated customer experiences and sustainable growth through its subsidiary, Virgin Mobile Australia.

Virgin Group Founder, Sir Richard Branson comments: “Virgin Money Australia has an ambition to challenge the status quo in the financial services industry. The new Virgin Money Australia digital bank is the antithesis of a traditional bank: it embraces simplicity and rejects the notion of financial complexity. At the core of the Virgin DNA is a challenger spirit, which brings competition to every industry we enter. I am so proud of the Virgin Money Australia team for living and breathing our DNA when designing and building the new digital bank, and keeping the customer at the heart of their decision-making.”

The new Digital Bank will deliver a truly differentiated and exciting Virgin experience. Importantly, Virgin Money Australia is uniquely positioned to build on our existing relationships with more than 200,000 loyal customers and a home loan portfolio that has quickly grown to more than $3 billion to effectively compete in the Australian market with challenger and incumbent banks alike.”

Greg Boyle, Group Executive, Retail Banking, at BOQ Group

Virgin Money Australia leverages Temenos’ front-to-back offering with Temenos core banking, the next generation in core banking and Temenos digital banking, the leading omnichannel digital banking product, on the Temenos Banking Cloud. Accessing the solution through a subscription model, Virgin Money Australia will be able to scale usage based on its business growth.

The new Digital Bank has gone live on Temenos modern cloud-based core banking platform, which provides a frictionless and fully integrated digital experience, bringing together credit cards, transaction and savings accounts, plus a loyalty program in a single, native mobile app. Through the modern app, consumers can open an account in minutes.

Region

Asia Pacific

Solutions

Cloud & SaaS
Core Banking
Digital Front Office
Financial Crime Mitigation
Payments

Sector

Challenger Banks
Retail Banking

Challenger

End-to-end digital transformation to provide seamless customer experiences

Melbourne, Australia

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.”

Region

North America

Solutions

Core Banking
Digital Front Office

Sector

Business Banking
Challenger Banks
Credit Unions & Community Banking
Retail Banking

Challenger

End-to-end digital transformation to provide seamless customer experiences

Melbourne, Australia

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.

Spokesperson at the bank

Region

Europe

Solutions

Cloud & SaaS
Core Banking
Financial Crime Mitigation
Payments

Sector

Business Banking
Challenger Banks
Retail Banking
Wealth Management

Challenger

End-to-end digital transformation to provide seamless customer experiences

Melbourne, Australia

At a Glance

• Launched the first Taiwanese digital-native bank in 1 year

• About half million customers onboarded in seven years

• Reduced new products’ launch time to 3-4 days

• Reduced customer onboarding time to 2-3 hours

O-Bank is Taiwan’s first digital-native bank. It was initially established in 1999 as Taiwan Industrial Bank, a corporate bank. In 2017, it acquired a commercial banking license so that it could enter the retail space and restructured into O-Bank, or ‘Wangdao’ in Chinese. O-Bank’s Chinese name is drawn from a spirit of inclusiveness, walking the right path, and fulfilling oneself by benefiting others. The English letter ‘O’ represents fulfillment and the unending cycle of life. The bank is committed to sustainability and is focused on delivering innovative financial services products that create win-win outcomes and mutual prosperity for consumers.

Venturing into new markets

Successfully entering the retail banking space is a challenging feat, particularly in Taiwan which is often described as overbanked.

“We only had a year to prepare, build, and launch our retail business,” says Lichen Hung, O-Bank’s Chief Information Officer. “This was a challenge. Since we are a mid-sized operation, we don’t have significant IT resources like enterprise-sized banks, so we are not equipped to build our own infrastructure.”

That’s why O-Bank sought a comprehensive core banking platform, one that could not only enable it to launch quickly, but also support its need to develop and launch personalized, customer-relevant products rapidly.

“Customers are no longer prepared to wait for new products, so we need to act fast,” explains Lichen. “We needed a flexible system to facilitate this and help us deliver personalized offers to our customer base.”

Speed and scalability

Lichen and her team began searching for a solution. Unfortunately, the first two options they found would take more than a year to implement. But then they discovered Temenos.

“The Temenos core banking platform stood out,” Lichen says. “Following discussions with the Temenos professional services team, who shared their previous implementation experience, we were convinced we could make our launch deadline.”

O-Bank was also impressed by the Temenos core banking architecture.

Temenos is much more agile and flexible than other products on the market. We discovered we could launch new products very quickly and without the need for any special coding or extensive technical knowledge. That was very appealing to us.”

Lichen Hung, Chief Information Officer at O-Bank

In 2016, O-Bank began the implementation. Everything went smoothly and, although there were some challenges along the way, O-Bank was supported by the Temenos professional services team, which was on hand to provide coaching and offer advice.

“The Temenos team solved all our difficulties. As a result, we met our deadline and, within 12 months, we were able to open our doors as Taiwan’s first digital-native bank.”

Lichen and her team have never looked back. Today, O-Bank has over half million customers, $21 billion USD in assets, and over $100 million USD in profits.

Much of this success is owed to O-Bank’s new-found ability to operate at speed. For example, with Temenos core, the time to onboard a new customer was reduced from seven days to just two or three hours.

Faster time to market

Temenos core banking is also helping O-Bank to launch new products in a matter of days.

In the past, it has taken us at least three months to launch a new product. But after using Temenos core, we’ve reduced that to three or four days. It takes us a day to set up the parameters, then we spend a couple of days testing, and then we can go live. And as the processes are automated now, we can easily integrate with the surrounding system, so there’s no manual intervention, which is also driving down operational costs.”

Lichen Hung, Chief Information Officer at O-Bank

Using Temenos core banking’s in-built automation tools, O-Bank can personalize new products to specific customer segments without manual intervention. For example, O-Bank has recently launched a multitier deposit account that pays different interest rates depending on the account holder’s financial circumstances. This approach is already proving a hit with customers. In the quarter following O-Bank’s launch of its multi-tiered deposit account, it witnessed a 12% uptick in account openings and a 75% increase in deposit balances.

A growing success

Since its establishment, O-Bank has grown its customer base each year. These customers are sticking around: “Our success comes from attracting new customers and then keeping hold of them,” Lichen says. “Loyalty is a priority”. We partner with a customer, and then take care of all their financial service needs over their whole life.

O-Bank isn’t resting on its laurels. Thanks to its use of Temenos, it is preparing to take advantage of the opportunities arising from open banking by leveraging APIs to connect with external ecosystems.

This will help it to continue to innovate.

Innovation is so important to us. We are already using robotic process automation and generative AI solutions. Building our bank on an open platform like Temenos core banking allows us to take advantage of new digital technologies as they arise.”

Lichen Hung, Chief Information Officer at O-Bank

Powerful partnerships

In the longer term, O-Bank plans to migrate its corporate business to Temenos core, too. “Having one core platform is our ultimate goal,” Lichen says. “We will achieve it through our long-term, strategic partnership with Temenos.”

When asked if she would recommend Temenos to other banks like hers, Lichen replied with an emphatic ‘yes’.

“If you want to launch a digital bank from scratch, then Temenos is your best solution,” she says.

Temenos core banking is ready to use, it has removed many of our problems. We don’t need to employ a team of software developers, and we don’t need to pay people to maintain the system or keep track of its security. Everything is managed by Temenos, which means we can focus on what we do best: delivering a best-in-class service to our customers.”

Lichen Hung, Chief Information Officer at O-Bank

Region

Asia Pacific

Solutions

Core Banking

Sector

Challenger Banks
Corporate & Commercial Banking
Retail Banking

Challenger

End-to-end digital transformation to provide seamless customer experiences

Melbourne, Australia

At a Glance

● First Fintech to be a fully digital national bank

● 25% cost to service a customer

● With a lower cost/income ratio compared to traditional banks

Varo Bank is re-imagining personal banking. Launched in 2018, Varo is the first consumer fintech granted a national bank charter in the US. Its mission is to improve the financial lives of its customers with a unique range of high-yield savings accounts, spend tracking and cashflow. Varo provides innovative digital banking services to 180 million Americans currently underserved by the traditional system.

Varo’s efforts to build a better kind of bank powered by modern cloud technology have been recognized nationally. Varo has been named as one of the Inc. 5000 2023 fastest growth companies in the U.S.

One of the main factors that differentiates Varo is its technology platform. The bank based its architecture around open API’s and the cloud. Varo partnered with Temenos and is using its core banking, Temenos Payments and Temenos digital banking services on the cloud. For Varo it was very important to find a bank partner, who could support its hyper efficient cost model in order to pass real value back to its consumers.

Temenos is a great partner for us to help that rapid cycle of products iteration, gaining insights and be able to continue to deliver solutions that solve real pain points for consumers.”

Colin Walsh, Founder & CEO at Varo

Using Temenos cloud-native APIs, Varo can develop new products such as home loans and credit services, launch them rapidly to the market, simplify compliance with American banking regulations, and scale operations seamlessly as momentum builds behind its customer-first approach.

Temenos Banking Cloud has helped the bank to bring innovative products to market faster and at scale to meet the surge in digital banking. Temenos Banking Cloud enables Varo to scale based on customer demands, deploy new products quickly, and drive down operational costs substantially. The broad functionality of Temenos Banking Cloud allows Varo Bank to meet specific business needs and support its regulatory requirements.

With a lower cost/income ratio compared to traditional banks, Varo now offers market-leading digital banking services at a lower cost and expands financial inclusion for millions around the US.

It was really important to find a bank partner like Temenos. We would not be as nimble if we were working with other core banking providers.’’

Colin Walsh, Founder & CEO at Varo

Region

North America

Solutions

Cloud & SaaS
Core Banking
Digital Front Office
Payments

Sector

Challenger Banks
Retail Banking

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