Sector: Private Banking
Bank of Beirut UK
Building a Modern Core to Power Strategic Expansion
London, United Kingdom
At a Glance
• Accelerates Corporate Banking growth with Temenos Core and Payments
• Enables correspondent banking and supports complex SWIFT payment flows
• Strategic shift to grow private and retail banking for the Lebanese diaspora
• Threefold customer growth targeted within three to five years
Connecting continents through finance
Bank of Beirut UK is a specialist trade finance bank with a unique footprint. Based in London and regulated by the Bank of England, it plays a key role in connecting banking corridors between Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
“Our core business is correspondent banking and trade finance,” said Sophoklis Argyrou, CEO of Bank of Beirut UK. “We act as a gateway for regional banks wanting to finance exports into Africa and the Middle East. Today, we work with over 300 banks across these corridors.”
While this wholesale network remains central, the bank also serves a specific and growing segment: the Lebanese diaspora – typically high-net-worth individuals in West Africa, MENA, and Lebanon. Sophoklis sees this group as a cornerstone of future growth.
Time for change
While the bank’s previous systems were functional, they lacked the capabilities to enable modernization at scale. Enhancements were costly, operational visibility was limited, and compliance demands were growing.
“We felt the systems no longer gave us what we needed – from performance to security to reporting,” Sophoklis explained. “And as we looked to expand, we needed a platform that could support that ambition.”
The bank launched a full replacement of its core and payments infrastructure, with four main strategic goals:
- Scale their trade finance business to strengthen their corporate banking proposition
- Enable growth in retail and private banking
- Improve operational efficiency and regulatory readiness
- Ensure long-term stability and control
Rigorous selection – independent and informed
Although the Temenos platform was already being evaluated by the parent group, the UK entity conducted its own due diligence.
As a UK-regulated bank, we had to go through a separate vendor selection process. We even hired an external consultant to run it independently – and we still landed on Temenos.”
Sophoklis Argyrou, CEO of Bank of Beirut UK.
The bank was particularly drawn to Temenos’ focus on banking.
“They are a specialist financial services core provider,” he noted. “Unlike other tech firms covering multiple sectors, Temenos is purely focused on banking. And their client base matched our profile; institutions facing similar regulatory and operational complexity.”
Technology that matches the mission
The solution includes Temenos Core, Temenos Trade Finance, and Temenos Payments to meet UK regulatory and data residency requirements.
This was not a standard plug-and-play implementation. As a correspondent bank, Bank of Beirut UK handles complex payment flows using SWIFT MT100, MT200, and MT700 series messages – capabilities that require robust configuration.
Our payments business is not simple. We need a payment hub that can manage third-party flows, and Temenos Payments gave us the flexibility to build around that complexity.”
Sophoklis Argyrou, CEO of Bank of Beirut UK.
The bank worked closely with LTIMindtree, Temenos’ preferred partner in the region.
“LTIMindtree delivered the project with professionalism and care. We had confidence in them from the start, and they validated that confidence throughout,” Sophoklis said.
“For this transformation, tight collaboration was essential,” said Hemal Jayasinghe, Chief Business Officer, at LTIMindtree. “Bank of Beirut UK, Temenos, and our delivery team worked as one from day one – aligning on priorities, managing the regulatory environment, and solving challenges together.”
Real impact, right away
The project went live in just over 12 months. And while formal ROI assessments are scheduled for the next phase, the immediate feedback has been clear – especially from frontline teams.
“The trade finance team told us straight away – it’s more capable, more efficient,” Sophoklis shared. “They can process faster and with more confidence.”
Operationally, the system has already unlocked key improvements:
- Dramatically expanded management information (MI) and reporting capabilities
- Significantly improved data visibility across operations
“The data visibility is miles ahead of what we had before,” Sophoklis said. “The MI potential is limitless.
Control and security have also improved, giving senior leadership greater confidence. “We feel more secure, knowing we’re operating on an up-to-date platform with proper controls,” added Sophoklis.
A platform built for ambition
The transformation is about more than modernization – it’s about enabling a different kind of bank. While 80–85% of the business today remains wholesale-focused, the target is to reach a 60/40 split between wholesale and retail/private banking.
“We’re expanding our offering to the Lebanese diaspora – high-net-worth clients who want a secure, personalized service,” Sophoklis explained. “The new platform gives us the agility to grow without compromising our core.”
The goal is clear: grow the customer base threefold within three to five years, starting from mid-2026.
A true partnership and a path forward
For Sophoklis, the transformation is as much about partnership as it is about product.
“Temenos didn’t just sell us software. They supported us through a complex journey – technically and strategically,” he said.
Looking ahead, the bank plans to build on this foundation with greater automation, product innovation, and data-led insights. One area of potential evolution: regulatory reporting.
With its modern platform live, a trusted partner ecosystem in place, and an ambitious strategy for expansion, Bank of Beirut UK is positioned to lead – efficiently, securely, and at scale.
“This is just the beginning,” Sophoklis said. “We now have a foundation that supports where we’re going – not just where we’ve been.”
Core Banking
Consistently deliver innovative, modular and comprehensive core banking.
Financial Crime Mitigation
A single product family for fast compliance, protection and time to value.
LarrainVial
Scaling Investment Services Across Latin America
Santiago, Chile
At a Glance
• Leading Chilean investment firm with 50,000 active clients across six countries
• Temenos Core Banking in place for 15+ years, supporting international expansion
• Stability, low latency critical and real-time insights key to story of growth
• Values its membership of the Temenos Ambassador Program and access to wider ecosystem.
LarrainVial is one of Chile’s most established financial institutions, with a 95-year legacy and operations spanning six countries across the Americas. With 900 employees and 50,000 active clients, the firm focuses on three core business lines: asset management, wealth management, and investment banking. Its mission is to deliver sophisticated, responsive financial advice to institutional and high-net-worth individuals across the region.
Growing simply
As LarrainVial expanded beyond Chile into new markets, it needed a platform that could support international growth without increasing complexity.
“We approached growth as fundamentally a technology plan,” said Ignacio Osorio, Partner and Head of Technology and Operations at LarrainVial. “We wanted a system and processes that were simple, so that they could be repeatable and applicable in every market.”
The customer experience was key, added Ignacio. “Our client base (primarily institutional investors and high networth individuals) demand high performance, low latency, and real-time access to portfolio data across borders.”
The firm also required strong controls for regulatory compliance and operational risk.
Starting strong
LarrainVial’s partnership with Temenos began more than 15 years ago. It was a time when the value of Temenos as a partner, not just a vendor, was on display. “We had to learn everything: methodologies, processes, new skills. It required a very patient partner who understood where we are as a business, what we needed, and how to get us there.”
That first experience has proved a valuable investment, added Ignacio. “From then on, upgrades and new implementations have been straightforward.”
That has included two major upgrades of the core platform, which continues to be the backbone of its operations. The system provides a stable, high-performance environment with strong controls around data integrity, process execution, and regulatory compliance.
More recently, LarrainVial began implementing the Temenos Wealth solution to create a fully integrated front-to-back experience for wealth management clients.
A trusted name
The stability and scalability of Temenos Core Banking has supported LarrainVial’s regional expansion and evolving business model. With real-time information and full portfolio visibility, relationship managers can now offer more personalized and accurate investment advice. The platform has also enabled rapid, reliable integration with markets and counterparties, a critical capability for institutional clients.
The uptime and reliability of Temenos are unmatched. It gives us the confidence that our information is stable, our processes are controlled, and we can operate without disruption.”
Ignacio Osorio, Partner and Head of Technology and Operations at LarrainVial
In turn, that gives the firm’s clients confidence in them. “Temenos is a mark of trust. Our clients recognize the Temenos name, and that reflects positively on us. They feel in safe hands with a company using Temenos systems.”
The benefit of connections
LarrainVial selected Temenos for its flexibility, local adaptability, and global track record. “We knew we needed a system that could be configured to meet Chilean market realities while offering world-class performance. Temenos stood out then, and it still does,” Ignacio explained.
Beyond the technology, we value the strength of the Temenos client community. Being part of the Temenos ecosystem means we benefit from the best practices of institutions larger than ours. That gives us a strategic advantage.”
Ignacio Osorio, Partner and Head of Technology and Operations at LarrainVial
The firm also takes pride in its role in the Temenos Ambassador Program. “It’s a powerful community where we share experiences and strategy. It helps us and others grow together,” Ignacio added.
LarrainVial is continuing its modernization journey with plans to fully implement the Wealth solution and deploy Temenos Data Hub to unlock AI-driven insights. “We want to use AI to enhance backoffice productivity and client understanding. Temenos gives us the foundation to do that, and explore so much more,” Ignacio concluded.
Temenos Wealth Management
A single platform of independent capabilities unifying digital, portfolio management, data, and core for wealth and private banking.
Data Hub
Transform banking with real-time data, AI acceleration, and seamless integration.
Mauritius Commercial Bank
Laying the foundations for future innovation by simplifying and renovating the core banking environment
Port Louis, Mauritius
Mauritius Commercial Bank
Laying the foundations for future innovation by simplifying and renovating the core banking environment
Port Louis, Mauritius
Mauritius Commercial Bank
Laying the foundations for future innovation by simplifying and renovating the core banking environment
Port Louis, Mauritius
At a Glance
- Achieved a 70% reduction in workloads for the bank’s internal development teams
- Able to schedule one upgrade at least per year per subsidiary with a 50% shorter execution time.
- Create development environments within a day instead of 5 days
- Consolidated 4 separate core banking instances to a single technical stack
- Completed initial upgrade of Temenos Core in 6 months following a phased, low-risk strategy
- Reduced cost operation by 1M USD compared to previous setup
- There has been at least 90% improvement in overall automation testing
Founded in 1838, Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) is the oldest and largest banking institution in Mauritius. MCB provides a range of personal, corporate and institutional banking services through a local network of 40 branches. The bank also maintains a strong regional presence, operating through subsidiaries and associated companies in Madagascar, Maldives, Mozambique, Seychelles, Dubai, South Africa, Kenya and France.
Although MCB has a long history, it has always focused on looking forward. The bank has built a reputation for innovation, being the first financial institution to introduce ATMs to Mauritius in the 1980s. It was the first to launch a mobile banking app: MCB Juice, which has since, upgraded several times to allow users to check their accounts, transfer funds, manage cards, pay bills and view investments among others all while on the move. A new beta version of the mobile banking application is under test that will reveal further enhancement and new functionalities.
Reza Chady, Architecture Chapter Lead at MCB, confirms: “Innovation plays a very important role in our culture, and we pride ourselves on being able to adapt to a demanding operating environment. Today, customer preferences and regulatory requirements are evolving rapidly. To stay ahead of the change, we need banking systems that are flexible and adaptable, while also providing a secure environment for delivering our services.”
Getting fit for the future
As part of this continuous push to innovate, MCB set out on a journey to update and transform its core banking infrastructure. The bank has been using Temenos Core since 2007 and, after years of expansion, it felt that the time was right to change the bank’s setup. Key objectives for MCB were rationalizing what had become a complex systems landscape, and achieving greater economies of scale and speed across multiple subsidiaries and banking functions.
“Our core banking landscape has not grown in a very uniform way,” explains Reza Chady. “Previously, we maintained 5 different versions of Temenos Core, with individual environments for each operating entity. This approach was overly complex, and made it difficult to scale the business and execute new strategies in a unified way—not to mention adding considerable cost and management overheads.”
Core banking, upgraded
To rationalize and streamline its core banking environment, MCB decided to consolidate all of its separate entities on one centralized Temenos Core technical stack, running in its private cloud. This cloud-powered platform has shaped the heart of a new digital backbone at MCB, transforming current business and operational processes to gain greater efficiency, agility and innovation.
For its new private cloud environment, MCB opted for a container-based architecture. The bank’s development team already had a positive experience using the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform for creating containerized applications for its digital channels. So naturally, the team was keen to build on the platform again when it came to the core banking renovation.
Assembling an expert team
The core banking upgrade and private cloud migration represent one of the bank’s most ambitious recent projects. To minimize risk and ensure a smooth execution, MCB engaged Temenos services experts for their support and guidance.
Managing a project of this scale and complexity requires precise coordination among all partners and a high level of trust. We were very pleased with the strong working relationship we built with Temenos. The collaboration between our teams has been extremely productive, and that’s evident in the quality of the deliverables.”
Reza Chady, Architecture Chapter Lead at MCB
Adopting a low-risk, step-by-step upgrade strategy
Together, MCB and Temenos identified that a phased approach was the smartest way forward for the upgrade project—reducing complexity and risk. As the first stage in the implementation, MCB migrated the core banking environment of one of its entities in the Maldives onto the latest version of Temenos Core.
Reza Chady continues: “The initial upgrade took around six months to complete and went very smoothly. Since then, the latest version of Temenos Core has been working perfectly, as is the Red Hat OpenShift environment. The combination of Temenos and Red Hat has proved really powerful, and we are very pleased with the stability and performance we have achieved since the upgrade.”
Following Maldives successful and smooth upgrade, we proceeded with MCB Mauritius core banking upgrade from R23 to R24. Following another positive outcome and smooth implementation, this upgrade has been extended to our remaining regional subsidiaries—Seychelles has been upgraded to R24, while Madagascar continues on R23, ensuring alignment with regional deployment strategies.
Currently, the Mauritius COB time has been reduced to around 2 hours 20 minutes from an initial average COB time of around 7 hours.
Strategic Adoption and Modernized Management with OpenShift
MCB strategically selected the OpenShift Container Platform as its container orchestration solution for its robust enterprise features, which have greatly enhanced operational agility and efficiency.
Leveraging OpenShift, each Application Server instance is deployed as an independent Pod, simplifying management and ensuring isolation. Horizontal Pod Autoscalers (HPA) dynamically scale workloads based on performance metrics, while Prometheus provides real-time monitoring and alerting for proactive system oversight. In addition, OpenShift’s rollout-based restart mechanism enables application instances to restart without service interruption, ensuring zero-downtime deployments and improved service availability.
Ongoing initiatives
In parallel, the bank is rolling out the Temenos Extensibility framework, which will allow it to connect its core banking platform to different third-party services.
MCB is deploying Temenos Payments Hub in November 2025 and evaluating the Temenos Data Hub to enable near-real-time data processing.
Increasing agility and cutting costs
MCB is already getting compelling results from its core banking upgrade. With Temenos Core running in its private cloud environment, MCB has opened up a whole new world of agility and scalability, which has already accelerated time-to-market for new client services with a streamlined development pipeline. MCB will now be able to schedule one upgrade at least per year per subsidiary with a 50% shorter execution time.
Today, we’re deploying new services faster, with fewer issues during release management and more controlled access to production. Before, it took around five days and the efforts of multiple teams to create new development environments; now, we create them within a day. We estimate that this has resulted in a 70% reduction in workloads—and we expect to build on these efficiencies as we automate more workflows.”
Reza Chady, Architecture Chapter Lead at MCB
The bank is also unlocking major cost savings by consolidating on a single core banking instance and database, as Reza Chady explains: “By migrating to Temenos Core in our private cloud, we expect to reduce our hardware estate by at least 70%. Likewise, by consolidating from individual instances to a single core banking platform and database, we expect to realize significant savings on licensing costs, as well as administrative and maintenance resources.”
Reaching new horizons
The benefits and value of the core renovation will only increase as MCB works to bring more of its entities onto the latest version of Temenos Core. Building on the well-established partnership with Temenos, the bank is looking forward to a brighter future.
We have been working with Temenos for 15 years now. In that time, it has been amazing to see how far their technology has come. Temenos Core has evolved into a truly modern, sophisticated platform with a robust architecture and rich capabilities. We are very excited to have Temenos as the backbone supporting our ongoing digital transformation.”
Reza Chady, Architecture Chapter Lead at MCB
We partnered successfully with
MCB Consulting
MCB Consulting Services Ltd (MCB Consulting) has been fully incorporated in June 2014 as a wholly owned subsidiary of MCB Group Ltd, the largest financial services provider in Mauritius and increasingly in the region.
Red Hat
Providing a clear modernization path to adopting a cloud strategy for core banking, digital banking, wealth management, fund management, and payments systems.