Expands into new markets in record time with an agile digital banking platform
Lima, Peru
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
Expands into new markets in record time with an agile digital banking platform
Lima, Peru
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.
Expands into new markets in record time with an agile digital banking platform
Lima, Peru
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.”
Expands into new markets in record time with an agile digital banking platform
Lima, Peru
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.
Expands into new markets in record time with an agile digital banking platform
Lima, Peru
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 200,000loyal 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.
Expands into new markets in record time with an agile digital banking platform
Lima, Peru
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.”
Expands into new markets in record time with an agile digital banking platform
Lima, Peru
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.
Expands into new markets in record time with an agile digital banking platform
Lima, Peru
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.”
Expands into new markets in record time with an agile digital banking platform
Lima, Peru
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 & CEOat 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.’’
Expands into new markets in record time with an agile digital banking platform
Lima, Peru
At a Glance
• 25.1% operating profit margin and increased operating income by 14.3%
• Achieved 99.9 percent straight-through-processing soon after go-live
• Temenos core banking Integration Framework implemented in just 10 months
Swissquote is a Swiss bank like no other. Founded in 1996, it aims to ‘democratize banking’ by providing free, real-time access to prices on international securities exchanges, along with services including private banking, wealth management, multicurrency credit cards, and cryptocurrencies.
Innovation has been hardwired into Swissquote’s DNA from day one. Having been the first pure digital bank in Switzerland, Swissquote is today one of the world’s leading online currency trading service providers. The bank’s online portal, which enables users to access their accounts as well as information on global stock exchanges, currently receives two million hits every month.
Driving internal efficiencies
To maintain this track record of success and attract new business, Swissquote strives continuously to find new efficiencies and innovations. Specifically, the bank looked to increase internal efficiency by streamlining many back- and middle-office workflows. By eliminating time-consuming manual workflows, such as the processing of thousands of daily transactions, Swissquote wanted to free up resources to focus on value-add tasks—including development work on its in-house-developed online trading portal
As a business that began life as a financial software provider, Swissquote has always placed cutting-edge technology at the heart of its growth strategy. When it decided to refresh its core banking system, only a best-of-breed offering would suffice.
Transforming core systems
The bank previously relied on an aging core system that was built on an accounting and performance management platform, and required extensive customization as customer and transaction volumes increased. In its place, Swissquote looked to deploy a modern core banking solution with rich digital capabilities.
We wanted to find a cutting-edge core platform that would enable us to automate key processes and scale seamlessly as customer volumes increased. When we started to assess potential vendors, we also looked for easy integration with our current environment, including our Java-based application servers and front-end systems.”
Spokesperson at the bank
Finding the right fit
After assessing core banking solutions from four market-leading vendors, Swissquote decided to implement Temenos core banking Integration Framework. The bank runs the core platform on its Java Enterprise Edition application server and uses Temenos Integration Framework to leverage its existing middleware message broker to connect its front-end systems with Temenos core banking.
Spokesperson at the bank continues: “Of the core banking solutions that we looked at, Temenos offered the most sophisticated functionality by some distance, and was the only vendor with a platform framework to connect the different components of our ecosystem. Another impressive factor was the long-term technology roadmap presented for its core and integration solutions, which gave us confidence that we had identified the right partner.”
Implementing and integrating
Working alongside expert teams from Temenos, Swissquote completed the implementation of Temenos core banking Integration Framework in just 10 months. The bank now makes extensive use of the core platform’s straight-through-processing (STP) capabilities to automate and accelerate back- and middle-office workflows, such as transaction handling. As customer volumes increase, Swissquote can easily scale the solution by adding additional application servers as and when required.
Going live after only 10 months was a great achievement, made possible by the expertise of the Temenos and their willingness to provide on-site solution architects. Since then, we have been impressed by the scalability of the platform, which supports our ongoing growth, and the multi-company capabilities, which have been useful as we launched operations at many international locations beyond Switzerland.”
Spokesperson at the bank
The Temenos solution also helps Swissquote’s IT team to operate more cost-effectively. As Temenos Integration Framework utilizes industry-standard Java Enterprise Edition specifications and standards, the bank has been able to transfer its existing skills and knowledge and avoid the need to invest in additional training or to hire vendor-specific solution specialists.
Optimizing internal operations
Working with Temenos, Swissquote has achieved its strategic goal of developing smoother, faster workflows and increasing efficiency. Soon after going live, the bank achieved 99.9 percent straight-through-processing for the tens of thousands of transactions it handles each day. This exceptional level of automation has made it easier for Swissquote to process rising business volumes quickly, and helped it to continue its upwards growth curve.
This enhanced efficiency has translated into improved financial performance, with operating expenses declining and overall profit margins increasing.
Paolo Buzzi, Chief Technology Officer at Swissquote, adds: “The Temenos solutions enable us to protect our financial margins and build towards a more profitable future—the level of automation and efficiency that we have introduced to our workflows has been outstanding.”
Delivering quality service with
lean operations
Streamlined internal processes boost staff productivity at Swissquote, freeing employees from repetitive, manual tasks and ensuring more time are available for revenue-generating activities. In particular, the bank can dedicate more resources to improving its front-end virtual interface—helping Swissquote strengthen its position as an innovator in the digital banking sphere in Switzerland.
Harnessing the automation capabilities of the Temenos solutions also enables Swissquote to keep headcount low. Even as customer numbers continue to grow, the high level of STP provided by the core platform means the bank does not have to take on huge numbers of extra full-time employees. In 2019, Swissquote services a customer base of 487,847 with just 1,000 middle- and back-office staff—a ratio of one FTE to 5,650 customers.
From the start of the core banking project, we felt that Temenos was committed to our success, helping us to optimize our back-end environment and processes, and building a platform for profitable growth.”
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