Launched in 2002, Rawbank aims to drive economic growth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by providing financial services to retail, business, and corporate clients. In just over 20 years, Rawbank has expanded to become the largest commercial bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As the bank expanded its share of the market, it needed to scaleup in its lending division. Previously, Rawbank assessed loan applications manually—a time-consuming and labor-intensive method that offered limited insight into the probability of clients defaulting on repayments. Moving forward, the bank wanted to improve its decision making and minimize exposure to risk by gaining a deeper understanding of applicants. In addition, the bank looked to accelerate the approvals process to deliver a higher standard of service.

Realizing that automation offered the smartest approach, Rawbank decided to use the Temenos Explainable AI (XAI) platform to streamline and improve its risk assessment for retail, SME and Corporate lending. The solution will enable the bank to rapidly develop, deploy, and integrate predictive risk models into its credit scoring workflows to determine the likelihood of applicants meeting repayment schedules. XAI will also provide transparency into how it calculates credit scores, enabling Rawbank to explain lending decisions to clients and regulatory authorities.

With XAI providing deeper insight into loan applications, Rawbank expects to reduce its loss given default rate and increase net profits on lending considerably. As well as protecting against default risk, increased levels of automation will improve the speed and efficiency of loan approvals, ensuring higher quality of service. And the bank will be able to continuously optimize the predictive models to ensure accuracy.

Already one of the top banks in Libya, Assaray Trade and Investment Bank (ATIB) has ambitious plans to become the leading digital bank not only in its home market but across the whole North African region. To achieve this, ATIB focuses on delivering first-class services that win growing numbers of customers, while building streamlined internal operations to attract the very best banking talents.

Farouk K. Laabidi, General Manager, ATIB, explains: “10 years ago, ATIB primarily focused its efforts on the corporate market. However, with the ever-increasing demand for retail online and mobile banking services among consumers, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank has strategically expanded its services into the retail banking space. Targeting these digitally-savvy customers is a key strategic goal for us.”

Setting the standard for innovation

Operating in Libya presents significant challenges for banks, as the country’s national infrastructure is currently in the process of development and its political situation has experienced some periods of unpredictability, which can present slowness to growth. Many banks have been unrushed to embrace digital technologies, with some not fully integrated to the national payment system and unable to accept all types of electronic transfers. But where other service providers see limitations, ATIB recognizes huge opportunities for building long-term success. ATIB believes that innovation is a matter of culture, it starts from the top, and all employees are encouraged to embrace it.

Farouk K. Laabidi continues: “We have focused on digital transformation since 2014, bringing many innovative services to market. For example, during the difficult times of cash shortages in the period of 2016–2019, we were one of the leading banks to launch reliable prepaid payment cards and offer an electronic wallet application that allows users to purchase goods via their mobile devices. As well as enhancing and developing new digital services, we are now excited by the possibilities of open banking.”

However, ATIB realized that its existing core and digital banking solutions were starting to restrict its ability to innovate. Building tailored services for different customer segments was a difficult, time-consuming process, and the bank did not have the modern API functionality to interface with third-party services. To sharpen its competitive edge, ATIB started to look for a more advanced, customer-centric solution.

Choosing a solution with extensive capabilities

Keen to overhaul and modernize many components of its banking infrastructure, ATIB looked for a partner with extensive knowledge and experience of large-scale transformation projects. The bank decided to deploy an integrated suite of core and digital banking solutions from Temenos including Temenos Analytics, and Temenos Payments.

Adopting a remote deployment model

Working with Temenos and Temenos business partner Prema Consulting, ATIB kicked off the implementation of the solutions, starting with Temenos core banking in a two-phase project that was completed in just ten months. To optimize performance and efficiency, the bank runs the core platform on the Microsoft Azure public cloud.

Dunia M. Ajaj, Head of PMO at ATIB, comments: “The implementation was complex, and we experienced huge disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After one month we faced severe travel restrictions, but Temenos showed great flexibility by switching to a remote deployment strategy. Going live in ten months was a great result, with Temenos delivering excellent support to keep the project moving forward.”

Muawiya Abu Jubain, CEO, Prema-C, added “We believe that ATIB’s project is a strategic project for us, knowing the ambitions the bank management and employees have in deploying the world renowned Temenos core banking system. And we wanted to be part of this exciting journey that brings growth and innovation to ATIB. Despite the pandemic, we managed to reach the bank’s goal of going live in a record time of ten months. This could have never been achieved without the dedication of ATIB’s team, Prema consultants, and the Temenos project management team and consultants.”

Transforming the customer experience

Using Temenos core banking, ATIB enhanced many of its customer services. For example, the bank used the rich integration functionality of the Temenos solution to deliver greater flexibility to customers using its prepaid payment cards. Whenever users need to top up their card with funds from their electronic wallet or account, they can now manage the process quickly and easily via their mobile device.

Using Temenos Analytics, ATIB adopted a more customer-centric approach to development, as Farouk K. Laabidi explains: “With our old core platform, we could not gain a detailed picture of customer behavior. Using Temenos Analytics, we analyze their preferences and requirements in depth, and build more relevant, personalized offerings closely aligned with their financial needs and lifestyles.”

Breaking new ground in the Libyan market

Since then, ATIB has worked with Prema Consulting to implement Temenos digital banking platform – becoming the first bank in North Africa to harness the cutting-edge capabilities of the solution. The bank went live on an on-premises instance of the solution in a phased deployment process, with the business partner helping to integrate the platform with Temenos core banking and a series of third-party solutions.

ATIB has used Temenos to develop and launch a brand new feature-rich digital banking service for retail and corporate clients: ATIB Online. Accessible web and mobile app, that allows users to manage their accounts, monitor transactions, top up local and international payment cards in various currencies, and purchase mobile phone vouchers thanks to integrations with several network operators and internet service providers.

In another breakthrough move, ATIB recently added transferring funds between two bank accounts within Libya, as Farouk K Laabidi explains: “We added an integration with the national payment system to allow users to transfer money online or via their mobile. This represents a first-of-a-kind service for the Libyan market, so once again we are leading the way in terms of innovation.”

Offering customers the speed and convenience of transacting online without having to head to a bank branch has had a hugely positive impact on satisfaction levels. And ATIB Bank plans to add more products and services to the digital application, as Farouk K Laabidi notes: “We are around 60 percent of the way towards reaching our digitalization objectives. We are planning to use Temenos digital banking to create online loan origination and onboarding workflows in 2024, and we will also implement Temenos Payments Hub.”

Reaching new customers

The partnership with Temenos is helping ATIB to achieve its goal of increasing market share and becoming one of the banking leaders in Libya and beyond. The enhanced portfolio of products and services has contributed to a 40 percent boost in customer volumes, and the bank has grown its assets under management by 40 percent since partnering with Temenos. In particular, during the first three months of offering ATIB Online, the platform gained 5,000 new users—and is now aiming to onboard 20,000 by the end of 2023, and 100,000 by the end of 2026.

A Step Ahead of the Competition

Within ATIB, the Temenos solutions have had a significant impact on workflow efficiency. Higher levels of automation removed the need for manual interventions during many key processes, enabling employees to work more productively and reducing overall costs. Furthermore, this focus on efficiency has helped ATIB reduce its cost-to-income by up to 15 percent, and to achieve a strong return on equity of between 15 and 17 percent.

ATIB also believes that deploying a modern, world-leading suite of banking solutions will help to attract the brightest bankers in Libya.

As the Libyan banking market becomes more digitalized and embraces Open Banking, ATIB is in prime position to take full advantage, as Abdulmohaimen M. Matoug explains: “The Temenos solutions will enable us to integrate with many different partners, not only among financial services providers but also airlines and utilities companies to provide customers with more convenient payment methods.”

We partnered successfully with Prema Consulting

Prema Consulting is a fast growing IT company with Temenos core banking functional and technical skilled consultants.

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We partnered successfully with Microsoft

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

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In a crowded marketplace, you need to think outside the box and offer something unique to succeed. That’s the challenge for Bank SinoPac operating in Taiwan, one of the most oversaturated banking markets in the Asia Pacific region. Part of Taiwanese finance group SinoPac Holdings, the bank serves individual and corporate clients and also operates in China, Hong Kong, Macao, Vietnam, and the United States.

Irene Huang, Chief Digital Officer, Bank SinoPac, explains: “We are competing against 38 commercial banks for a slice of a limited market. But there are opportunities, too. For example, there is high demand for digital and mobile banking services among younger people, especially those we call High Earners, Not Rich Yet or HENRYs, who form an important target demographic.”

One key component in Bank SinoPac’s strategy is a focus on digital innovation, as Irene Huang adds: “On the one hand, it’s about embedding new technologies, such as open APIs and artificial intelligence (AI). But it’s also about the right mindset, and always thinking of the customer experience when designing products. While many Taiwanese banks are conservative in their thinking, we adopt a more innovative approach.”

Taking the first steps on the transformation journey

This strategy dates back as far as 2009, when Bank SinoPac began to transform its core banking environment. To replace inflexible legacy systems, the bank selected Temenos core banking. They migrated previously data related to three million customers onto the platform. The move led to major efficiency gains: close of business (COB) processes ran 70 percent faster, and infrastructure costs were cut in half.

Entering the era of open banking

Since then, Bank SinoPac has worked with Temenos to upgrade the core platform in 2012 and 2020. The latest upgrade provided access to advanced API integration functionality, which enabled the bank to take advantage of the open finance initiative launched in Taiwan in 2020. The bank uses the open APIs to interface with the systems of 12 partner organizations and SinoPac Holdings subsidiaries.

For the internal teams at Bank SinoPac, Temenos solution has proved easy to use, as Irene Huang confirms: “Temenos core banking is a very intuitive platform. For example, the preconfigured components simplify work such as product development, eliminating the need for us to write lines of code.”

Developing a first-of-a-kind mobile banking app

Using Temenos core banking has enabled Bank SinoPac to push ahead with its innovation strategy. For example, the latest upgrade helped the bank achieve a threefold improvement in time to market for new services. The solution also helped the bank kick off the development of new digital banking services, such as the groundbreaking DAWHO app, which stands for Digital Account with Happiness and Opulence.

Irene Huang explains: “In Taiwan, banks typically offer mobile apps to manage only one service, such as savings or payments, causing a fragmented experience when users want to complete several different transactions. With DAWHO, we aimed for an ‘ecosystem’ approach that would offer customers a frictionless digital journey and enable them to access multiple services through one portal.”

In a first for the Taiwanese market, DAWHO integrates seven services: deposits, wealth management, foreign exchange, personal loans, mortgages, credit cards, and securities—all provided by Bank SinoPac or a SinoPac Holdings subsidiary. Temenos core banking processes all customer transactions made through the DAWHO app and enables the bank to create and deploy new product features.

Attracting an extra million customers

The DAWHO app has been a huge success, giving Bank SinoPac a valuable differentiator in the Taiwanese market. User feedback has been extremely positive, with satisfaction scores of 4.9 out of five on the Apple App Store. And in just over three years since the launch of DAWHO, the bank has seen 1.5 million customers open digital accounts—including 78 percent, or 1.17 million, net-new clients.

The app has helped Bank SinoPac to reach younger market segments, as Irene Huang notes: “Before the launch of DAWHO, the average age of our retail banking customers was 47. Today, it is 33—indicating that we have increased our appeal to generations Y and Z, including the HENRYs.”

This surge in customer numbers translates into a much bigger slice of the Taiwanese market. “We are now ranked number four in Taiwan in terms of digital banking account holders,” explains Irene Huang. “And overall, we have grown our market share from around five to ten percent since the rollout of DAWHO.”

Refining the digital experience

In the latest collaboration, Bank SinoPac is using Temenos digital banking to reshape and unify the user experience across all its digital delivery channels—including its e-banking web portal and mobile app, DACARD payments app, and integrated DAWHO app. The project is progressing well, and the bank expects to complete the enhancements and launch the new digital ecosystem early in 2024.

Irene Huang adds: “Our design team finds Temenos digital banking very useful for developing new layouts for our digital portals. They also highlight the value of Temenos Visualizer, which gives them the tools to create a consistent look and feel for all of our apps. Once live, we will be able to roll out updates to all four digital portals at once through Temenos digital banking, rather than having to run them separately.”

Established in 1996, Bank of Abyssinia is currently the largest privately held bank in Ethiopia, and plans to become the leading commercial bank in East Africa by 2030. To reach this milestone, the bank is on a mission to grow its customer base, boosting financial inclusion in the country and beyond.

Helping more Ethiopians access banking services

According to the National Bank of Ethiopia, 75 percent of Ethiopians don’t have a bank account and up to 40 percent of all bank branches in the country are located near to the capital. For many years, banks have struggled to expand their reach beyond urban centers as setting up and running branches in rural locations involves significant upfront capital expenditure and high operational costs.

However, market conditions are rapidly changing in Ethiopia, as more people gain regular and reliable access to the internet. Bank of Abyssinia identified an opportunity to help more people access financial services by building a 100 percent digital banking offering.

Addis Tadesse, Director for Application Management at Bank of Abyssinia, explains: “We’ve offered digital banking services for many years, but most of these services still required our customers to visit a branch at some stage – for instance, to bring identification to open new accounts. Also, some processes such as loan applications required in-person consultations. If we could make the experience completely digital, we would be able to reach underserved communities in remote areas and dramatically increase our market share.”

With no other bank in Ethiopia offering a fully digital service, Bank of Abyssinia decided to pioneer the new approach and searched for a technology partner to support its initiative. Crucially, the bank targeted a solution provider that would help it deliver a truly seamless digital experience and ensure that it could meet strict regulatory requirements for new digital banks set by the National Bank of Ethiopia.

Finding the perfect solution

Bank of Abyssinia decided to build 100 percent digital banking services with Temenos. At the same time, the bank chose to upgrade its Temenos core banking system to ensure that it could provide customers with the very latest innovations in both digital and in-branch banking.

Protecting against fraud

As the first bank in Ethiopia to launch entirely digital services, Bank of Abyssinia knew its new platform would be a potential target for fraudsters and cyber criminals. To safeguard against this risk, Bank of Abyssinia also decided to implement Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation—equipping the bank with the tools to spot and prevent illicit activity in near real-time.

Deepening partnerships

To achieve a rapid implementation, Bank of Abyssinia enlisted the support of Temenos business partner Xpert Digital to deploy Temenos digital banking, including the setup of an API integration with Idemia—the bank’s identity and security solution. Supported by Temenos and Xpert Digital, Temenos digital banking went live in just four months.

“Xpert Digital played a lead role in helping us design a digital banking ecosystem that is secure, reliable and, crucially, easy to use,” comments Addis Tadesse. “The Xpert Digital team went the extra mile by helping us to redesign key workflows for a completely digital environment incorporating best practices. For instance, they helped us to leverage integrations with Idemia to build efficient, highly secure and automated verification processes—allowing us to onboard customers rapidly and with confidence.”

Welcoming new digital customers

By building and launching end-to-end digital banking services with Temenos core and digital banking platforms, Bank of Abyssinia has significantly increased its customer base.

“Temenos gives us the tools we need to offer reliable, convenient and always-on digital banking services,” explains Addis Tadesse. “Today, through our Apollo service, customers can sign up for an account from their mobiles by submitting a video of themselves and a copy of their national identity card. With Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation and Idemia, we can run verification processes quickly and get new customers up and running with their new bank account within one day.”

Empowering more people to invest in their future

As well as offering digital account management services, Bank of Abyssinia enables customers to apply for loans via its mobile banking app—helping more people to access credit, as Addis Tadesse adds: “With Temenos digital banking, we can approve the loan and give our customer to their funds within a few seconds, as long as they meet our lending criteria, where previously this would take months.”

He concludes: “With Temenos, we’ve been able to bring a game-changing solution to the Ethiopian banking sector and empower our customers to bank with us confidently at any time and from any location. We look forward to strengthening our partnership with Temenos in the years ahead as we continue to develop our digital banking offerings and help more customers manage their money effectively.”

We partnered successfully with Xpert Digital

Xpert Digital (XD) is a Certified Temenos Services Partner specializing in delivering exceptional digital experiences by creatively nurturing innovation with technology.

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At a glance

• 3 months to migrate major acquisitions to Temenos core banking
• 45 days to launch branch operations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from scratch
• 50% efficiency gains in the back-office support highly cost-effective growth
• 49% rise in profits in 2022, a new record for Capital Bank
• 12 months for the subsidiary National Bank of Iraq to go live with Temenos core banking and payments hub
• Processed 188,000 payments in the first month after launch, with 99% STP rate

Established in 1995, the Capital Bank of Jordan (Capital Bank) specializes in commercial and investment banking services for retail and corporate clients. Capital Bank has developed into one of the top financial institutions in Jordan, and has built a strong regional presence through expansion into markets including Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

A spokesperson at the bank, says: “The last three years have been remarkable for our business. We’ve grown in Jordan to become the 3^rd largest bank, rising from the 15^th position in 2020, We also currently rank among the 50 largest banks in the Middle East.”

How has Capital Bank made such an impressive rise? With a strategy aimed at driving rapid expansion across local and regional markets, fueled and sustained by the bank’s longstanding partnership with Temenos.

Bringing on big acquisitions

Capital Bank has counted on Temenos core banking technology for more than a decade. As the bank ramped up its growth plans, it knew that its core banking model also needed to evolve.

A spokesperson at the bank explains: “In 2020, we began negotiations to acquire Bank Audi’s operations in Jordan and Iraq. They were a bank of similar size to us, so it was a serious undertaking, effectively doubling our operations. We wanted to bring them onto our Temenos core banking system, and we decided to upgrade to the latest release of Temenos in preparation for the integration.”

The upgrade primed Capital Bank to take advantage of a more modern system architecture and all-new functionality. It paved the way for a swift, smooth integration of the Bank Audi business; in all, it took between three to four months to complete the core banking migration.

Capital Bank’s expansion strategy took another leap forward in late 2022, with the acquisition completion of Société Générale Bank Jordan. Once more, Capital Bank was able to migrate the new business’ core banking operations to Temenos in a span of just three months. This allowed the bank to minimize disruption to both employees and customers, while unlocking the benefits of a larger operational footprint sooner.

Deepening and expanding the partnership

With these latest acquisitions under its belt, Capital Bank turned its attention to a more established part of its business: the National Bank of Iraq. Acquired in 2005, the National Bank of Iraq deal has allowed Capital Bank to make inroads into an important regional market.

Until 2022, the bank had been running on a legacy core banking system. In that year, Capital Bank decided to also migrate the bank’s end-to-end operations to the Temenos core banking platform. At the same time, it also deployed the Temenos Payments Hub (TPH) at National Bank of Iraq, the first bank in its suite of companies to adopt the solution.

The relative size of the National Bank of Iraq (about twice as big as Capital Bank), and deploying TPH, made the project more complex than previous migrations. Yet it was completed within one year, noting that the project also involved bringing more than 25 third-party vendor integrations, deployment of four other brand-new systems, configuration of new automations, including with the central bank of Iraq, and translation of the system into Arabic. With all the testing completed, the actual migration was delivered in December 2023, taking 96hrs, with all the planned capabilities, dashboards, and metrics available from day one of go-live.

The work was led by one in-house project manager, with Temenos and ITSS Egypt, a Temenos partner, providing support.

The bank didn’t have to wait long to see the impact. In the first month after go-live, it processed 188,923 incoming and outgoing domestic and international payments, with a 99% STP rate. The project was also named ‘Best Core Banking Implementation: Best Project Implementation’ by IBSi as part of their 2023 Innovation Awards.

The partnership with Temenos has supported  Capital Bank establish additional presence in Saudi Arabia. Two years ago, National Bank of Iraq received a banking license to launch a new branch in Riyadh, the country’s capital city. To get operations at the site up and running and start accepting customer transactions, the bank implemented a new instance of Temenos core banking, going live in just 45 days.

Recipe for success

A spokesperson at the bank is in no doubt about the game-changing nature of its expansion of Temenos to the National Bank of Iraq.

Reflecting on the project, Izzidin Abusalameh points to several crucial factors. On the technical side, the availability of pre-configured out-of-the-box capabilities within both Temenos core banking and TPH meant the team could avoid building complex customizations. He also points to the value of having a meticulous project plan from the outset, detailing thousands of tasks, that acted as a reference throughout the project and ensured clarity and accountability at all times.

Culture was also an ingredient of success, says a spokesperson at the bank, “We had the right people, with relevant skills, experience and spirit, and enabled by our board with authority to make quick decisions.”

Supporting stellar operations

With Temenos core banking now deployed throughout its businesses, Capital Bank has a trusted and powerful platform for supporting its full range of banking products and services across retail, corporate, asset management, and more. When the bank wishes to enhance existing services or introduce all-new products, it uses Temenos to simplify and accelerate the process.

“Temenos core banking makes life easy for us,” confirms a spokesperson at the bank. “It’s essential for us, providing all the capabilities we need to support our banking operations. When we are building a new product or implementing a new bank business model, we put as much on the core as possible, because we know that Temenos is capable of supporting it.” In Temenos, Capital Bank has found a partner it can count on to keep expanding and improving this core banking universe.

Free to grow

Enabled by Temenos, Capital Bank has been able to grow without limits, adding new products, and winning more customers all while controlling cost and complexity. As operations have expanded, the bank has simultaneously lifted back-office efficiency by at least 50 percent.

The efficiency gains translate into a better experience for Capital Bank’s rapidly growing customer base. They can count on transactions to be processed quickly and accurately, and for service requests to be handled promptly. It allowed the bank to maintain high customer retention levels—crucial to the long-term success of its acquisitions—and to cultivate a reputation for service excellence that’s helping it win even more new business.

Fit for the future

Capital Bank’s hard work over the past three years has led to impressive financial results, including record profits with a 17% increase over the previous year. The bank considers Temenos to be an important contributor to this success, and an integral part of its plans for the future. No surprise then that it plans to upgrade all its banks to the latest release 23 of the Temenos core banking throughout 2024 and extend TPH to Capital Bank of Jordan as well.

A spokesperson at the bank continues: “We have big plans for the coming years and wherever that journey takes us, we know that Temenos will be accompanying us. Through all our growth and change, Temenos core banking has been the one constant.”

We partnered successfully with ITSS:

ITSS provides high-quality services for banks with Temenos Core in parts of Africa, Middle East, Asia and Latin America.

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At a glance

• Greenfield corporate bank established to support Saudi Arabia’s non-oil export sector.
• Temenos Core deployed, including Corporate Lending, as well as Trade Finance, and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) modules.
• IFRS module implemented in 3 months.
• Plans underway to extend Temenos footprint with new modules, including Temenos Payments Hub and Temenos Data Hub.

Saudi EXIM Bank was established in 2020 with a clear vision – to support and accelerate the growth of non-oil Saudi businesses in international markets. Its creation is a key part of the Kingdom’s ‘Vision 2030’ strategy to diversify its economy, and reports to the National Development Fund. It provides export credit, trade finance, and lending solutions to Saudi enterprises seeking global expansion.

Start with the best

Entering into an already competitive market, Saudi EXIM knew that technology would be a key differentiator.

Commonality was also important. As a greenfield bank with no legacy, EXIM had the luxury of mandating a single core banking solution across its entire business. That meant a platform with a wide breadth of capabilities – transaction management, credit administration and approvals, asset management, customer data analysis and risk management being some of the key ones that the bank evaluated solutions against.

EXIM shortlisted Temenos Core because of its reputation in the market. From there, the platform stood out in a number of regards, recalls Ahmed. A user-friendly interface and navigation provided the bank with confidence that Temenos would be easily adopted by users. Integration with third-party software would allow for automation; a capability that has been applied to customer onboarding and credit risk. And expectations for constant innovations have already been realized. “In every new release there are valuable additions,” says Ahmed.

Flexibility and control

EXIM went live with Temenos Core in January 2023 initially deploying Corporate Lending and Trade Finance, supported by Temenos Islamic banking features. The in-built flexibility of the Temenos’ Corporate Lending capability has allowed the bank to create tailored products for different markets, most notably for compliance with Sharia law. With proven success, the bank now has an ongoing development roadmap of specially configured corporate lending products.

Conversely, EXIM is using Temenos’ Trade Finance in its out-of-the-box format. As Ahmed notes, the ready-to-use nature of the module meant that they could add it into the initial implementation scope, without adding complexity. The bank is using Trade Finance primarily to source letters of credit and guarantees.

The agility of Temenos’ solution was further tested when the bank’s finance team asked for support adapting to international accounting standards. Temenos provided an expert in this field, who worked with the bank to understand its specific needs. Within three months of that request, the bank had also activated the platform’s International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) module, a first for the region with the bank now enabled to configure solutions for specific markets.

It speaks to how the bank leverages the expertise and diligence of Temenos from within the platform.

Temenos Core also serves as the data hub for all analysis that the bank performs, from customer onboarding numbers to productivity measures. “We now have a single source of truth, without the need for any manual intervention, which has been one of the key objectives of the bank from the start.”

Accelerating transformation

Innovation has been the ultimate prize; the ability to launch new products into the market at rapid speed. This has been reflected in the numbers. Today, the bank has over 300 accounts, across more than 100 corporate customers.

Its customers are highly satisfied with the bank’s collaboration, which has supported their objectives from the beginning by enabling quick and efficient onboarding, providing timely transaction advice and notifications, and helping them better plan and manage their cashflows. This partnership has been instrumental in achieving their financial goals. What’s more, Ahmed’s team is receiving more and more requests from the bank’s different business units to adapt products and create new ones, evidence that everyone understands the capabilities they possess.

Alongside the technology, EXIM also values the personal side of its partnership with Temenos.

Those conversations are now focussed on expanding how Temenos can help the bank through Temenos Payments Hub and Temenos Data Hub.

Ahmed emphasises this strategic advantage: “With Temenos Core, we’re not just running a bank – we’re enabling Saudi businesses to compete globally with world-class financial services. With Temenos, we have the technology to scale our impact and continue to be a catalyst of growth for years to come.”

Meezan Bank has achieved a meteoric rise to become the largest Islamic bank in Pakistan. Initially established as an investment bank, Meezan Bank became the first Islamic commercial bank of Pakistan in 2002, with a comprehensive range of Shariah-compliant retail, business, treasury, trade finance, and corporate banking services.

Ali Imran Khan, Deputy Chief Information Officer at Meezan Bank explains: “We aim to be first choice for people seeking financial services without compromising on their faith. By bringing our offerings to more consumers, we hope to improve financial inclusion and create a more equitable society.”

In recent years, the Islamic banking market in Pakistan has become increasingly popular. Although Meezan Bank is the pioneer, there are now many other Islamic and conventional banks with Shariah-compliant offerings. So how has Meezan Bank managed to rise so quickly and maintain its status as the premier Islamic bank in Pakistan? One key factor has been the Bank’s longstanding focus on strengthening its technological infrastructure. Over the years, the Bank has held a longstanding partnership with Temenos.

Aiming for a streamlined and scalable approach

In the years following its launch, Meezan Bank saw consistent growth in customer volumes, deposits, and transactions. Gradually, though, as the Bank’s popularity grew over time so did its demands for an efficient technology strategy. At that time, each branch ran its own servers to record and process transactions. But as the bank expanded to more than 150 locations, there was a need for a more sustainable, less complex and costly solution.

Ali Imran Khan continues: “Our legacy core banking system was decentralized. Customer data was not stored centrally and we had to do extra efforts to enable the online transactions. We continued to add hardware when we opened a branch, which resulted in managing hundreds of servers, taking up valuable time and resources.”

Harnessing a centralized core system

To maintain its upwards growth trajectory, Meezan Bank looked to replace its legacy systems with a powerful, centralized core banking platform. After assessing potential solutions, the bank chose Temenos core banking, engaging Temenos business partner Systems Limited to plan and manage the implementation.

During the deployment, Systems Limited helped to familiarize users at Meezan Bank with the tools in Temenos core banking, as Ali Imran Khan confirms: “It’s important to have knowledgeable partners for large-scale projects. Systems Limited and Temenos were excellent: they not only resolved any issues/challenges faced, but also helped us build our internal skillset.”

Enabling seamless fintech integrations

Today, Meezan Bank uses the full suite of modules within Temenos core banking to support its operations—from deposits and treasury services to Islamic trade finance. The bank is also exploring using the open API capabilities of the Temenos platform to integrate with third-party solutions.

Ali Imran Khan adds: “Islamic fintechs are a growth market in Pakistan, especially in payments and financing. We have already connected our core platform with services from one startup, and we know that it will be quick and easy to onboard others. In time, we expect the Pakistani market to move towards Open Banking; Through continuous investment in digital infrastructure and innovation, we aim to pioneer the future of banking, making it more accessible, convenient, and customer-centric. Temenos core banking gives us the integration capabilities we will need to capitalize on the shift.”

Expanding the scope for innovation

Using Temenos core banking, the bank integrated the core platform with its digital and mobile channels to enable customers to access their accounts, check transactions, and make payments anytime, anywhere.

Meezan Bank can now launch a product in 3 to 4 months’ time, previously, it was more than a year.

Reaching millions of customers

Replacing distributed legacy systems with a centralized core platform has made expanding the bank’s branch network much easier. Now, the bank simply onboards new locations to the platform, without adding local infrastructure. Meezan Bank had around 200 branches when Temenos was deployed; it now has more than 1000 across Pakistan.

Enhanced services and a wider branch network have contributed to a much larger customer base: Meezan Bank has more than 4.5 million customers and is now the most profitable Pakistani bank. Meezan Bank also continues to lead the Islamic banking market, with a 33 percent share—When Temenos was deployed, Meezan Bank had just reached the top 15 banks in Pakistan, with deposits of PKR 100 billion; today, it is ranked number four, with deposits of PKR 1.66 trillion. On the digital front, Meezan bank’s transaction volume are growing, with 90% more online transactions than over-the-counter transactions.

Ali Imran Khan continues: “Temenos core banking has been one of the important components in our phenomenal growth. The platform allows us to innovate and seamlessly manage much higher transaction volumes.”

Winning international recognition

Meezan Bank’s success has brought plaudits within Pakistan and beyond. The bank has been named as the ‘Best Bank’ – (2018 & 2020) and ‘Best Consumer Bank’ (2022) at the most prestigious Pakistan Banking Awards by IBP Pakistan, as well as being heralded by prestigious international publications such as Global Finance, Asiamoney and The Banker.

We partnered successfully with Systems Limited

Systems Limited is a global technology public limited company founded in 1977 with the mission to offer holistic transformations to its clients. 

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At a glance

• Sets new standards for innovation as one of the first digital-only banks in Ecuador
• Plans to bring new banking services to one million existing cardholders and business clients
• Running on the Amazon Web Services public cloud provides exceptional levels of availability
• Data analytics supports development of differentiated, hyper-personalized services

Since 1968, Diners Club Ecuador has been among the premier financial service providers in South America. Part of Grupo Pichincha—one of the largest finance groups in the region—Diners Club Ecuador was the first issuer of credit cards in the country, and has since extended its services to include payments, insurance, investments and much more. The organization now serves around one million cardholders and merchants.

Mónica Carrión, Vice President of Services Center Club Ecuador, explains: “We lead the Ecuadorian credit card market through continuous innovation and improvement. We are always focused on building lasting relationships with our clients and merchant clients, helping them at every stage of their lives.”

Tackling a fresh challenge

In recent years, a regulatory change has created a valuable opportunity for Diners Club Ecuador. The new rules allow the organization to operate as a full-service bank, rather than solely as a credit card issuer and merchant acquirer. To take advantage of the new financial landscape, Diners Club Ecuador planned to launch user-friendly banking products, including deposits, loans, and mortgages.

Making the transition into banking would require a new technology strategy. The key requirement was a powerful, scalable core banking platform to manage transactions, ensure compliance, and support always-on digital services. Alongside this, Diners Club Ecuador looked to enhance its data analytics capabilities to enable the development of smarter, more targeted products and services.

“Exceptional performance and availability were absolute musts for our new core solution, as just one second of downtime could have huge costs and significantly damage the client experience,” adds Mónica Carrión. “We wanted to extend our use of predictive models and AI beyond credit scoring and risk management to understand client behaviors in more depth.”

Harnessing proven solutions from the market leader

After compiling a shortlist of providers that could deliver core banking and sophisticated analytics solutions in South America, Diners Club Ecuador decided to deploy Temenos core banking and Temenos Analytics running on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud.

She continues: “Another point in favor of Temenos was their investment in research and development; we knew we were getting the best and latest banking functionality. The cloud model is part of our long-term innovation strategy, allowing us to optimize cost efficiency and outsource infrastructure management.”

Implementing high-performance cloud-native tools

Diners Club Ecuador worked with Temenos to implement and configure the core banking and analytics solutions running on the AWS cloud. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizations employed a remote working model to maintain momentum on the project.

Mónica Carrión adds: “The deployment was a steep learning curve, but Temenos offered support at every stage.”

The Users across the IT, product design, innovation, and marketing departments at Diners Club Ecuador now harness the Temenos solutions to develop digital banking services, monitor and analyze online client interactions, and process transactions. Easy to scale, the cloud-native Temenos on AWS solutions have been purpose-built to provide high levels of performance, resilience, and security.

Bringing digital banking to Ecuador

Working with Temenos, Diners Club Ecuador is adding banking products to its existing credit card portfolio. Already, existing clients are opening bank accounts, with more services planned for the coming months. The simple, secure 100% digital banking offerings will enable users to access accounts, and check and manage transactions while on the move, 24/7.

Among the services currently under development are interest-bearing deposits accounts, advance billing services for businesses, and mortgage loans. The organization has also created bespoke lending products for merchants that enable users to sign up online with just a few clicks; within a few months, Diners Club Ecuador has already granted loans worth tens of millions of US dollars.

Mónica Carrión explains: “With Temenos, we have enhanced our value proposition, bringing user-friendly digital banking to the market. In the coming months, we aim to cross-sell banking services to one million existing clients, as well as winning new business”.

Using Temenos Analytics, Diners Club Ecuador is uncovering insights into client preferences, as Mónica Carrión confirms: “With Temenos Analytics, we can analyze clients’ purchasing habits and create more compelling and hyper-personalized banking services. This will help to inspire long-term loyalty.”

Building a more successful future

Diners Club Ecuador is also keeping a close eye on Open Banking regulations in Europe, with the possibility that the rules could soon be extended to Ecuador. If this happens, the API capabilities of the Temenos platform will place Diners Club Ecuador in an excellent position, enabling seamless third-party integrations.

We partnered successfully with AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a secure cloud services platform, offering compute power, database storage, content delivery and other functionality to help businesses scale and grow.

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Baiduri Bank is one of the largest providers of financial products and services in Brunei, and serves diverse customer segments ranging from retail, MSMEs to corporate and institutional clients. The Bank offers a comprehensive suite of digital solutions including an award-winning mobile banking app and dedicated business digital banking service. The bank will adopt Temenos banking services for core banking, data analytics and financial crime mitigation (FCM) to support its retail and corporate banking, finance and wealth management operations. With this move, Baiduri Bank will be the first bank in Brunei to operate its core banking platform in the cloud under the SaaS model.

Replacing legacy systems with Temenos modern SaaS on Microsoft Azure will enable Baiduri Bank to offer superior customer propositions with personalized offerings at a fraction of the time and cost. The move to Temenos Banking Cloud will commence in 2023, led by Temenos implementation partner Tech Mahindra. Temenos Banking Cloud allows Baiduri Bank to progressively renovate its IT landscape using a composable banking approach to deploy new services faster, more cost-effectively, and at scale.

Established in 1975 as a public shareholding company, Invest Bank offers a wide range of financial products and services for corporate as well as retail banking. Invest Bank intends to leverage Temenos’ event-driven open-API architecture and extensibility framework to go beyond banking and create a lifestyle services platform. The premier commercial bank in UAE, has selected Temenos to take its digital and core banking to the cloud in partnership with Systems.

Invest Bank will adopt an end-to-end retail and wholesale banking solution on the Temenos Banking Cloud, becoming one of the first in the UAE to adopt a full SaaS model for its digital and core banking platform. The front-to-back capabilities of digital banking and core banking delivered as SaaS on Temenos’ open platform for composable banking will enable Invest Bank to modernize legacy platforms, bring new products and services to market faster, as well as deliver more innovative customer experiences. Planned enhancements include instant onboarding and origination with automated approvals based on AI-based rules. The bank will also use the Temenos platform to improve operational efficiency with increased automation and digitized workflows.

We partnered successfully with Systems Limited

Systems Limited is a global technology public limited company founded in 1977 with the mission to offer holistic transformations to its clients. 

Learn more about Systems Limited