Cairo Amman Bank
Modernizing the Core to Enable Scalable, Digital-First Banking
Amman, Jordan
At a Glance
• Significant annual savings were achieved by eliminating extended maintenance (EM) fees
• 2,900 local customizations targeted for removal in the upcoming “back-to-core” adopt strategy
• Replacing outdated infrastructure and unsustainable compensating controls which mitigate possible security vulnerabilities
• VBOT implementation reduced FCM false positives by 40–50%; meeting Central Bank of Jordan mandates
Banking across generations and segments
Cairo Amman Bank (CAB) has been a leading financial institution in Jordan and Palestine since 1960. It serves a diverse customer base through three distinct segments, LINC (a youth-focused digital brand for ages 18-40), SIGNATURE (elite individuals and corporate clients), and the mass market operating under the CAB brand.
In Jordan, LINC is deeply embedded in university life through co-branded prepaid student ID cards, while SIGNATURE and CAB serve the bank’s premium and broad-based customer segments.
By 2025, CAB reached a critical juncture. Although Temenos Core had been fully rolled out in 2012, following a period of coexistence with a legacy system, the core platform had not been upgraded in more than a decade, limiting CAB’s ambitions that need additional scalability and innovation.
“We knew we couldn’t scale the way we wanted,” said Rami Maayah, Group CIO. ” Our previous setup demanded too many resources just to keep things running. It was clearly time for a meaningful step forward.”
From stalled to scalable
Given the complexity of the previous setup, an upgrade in 2017 wasn’t finished at the time, so CAB later adopted a more structured approach and launched a full‑scope technical transformation in Jordan and Bahrain. The bank went live successfully on 12 October 2025, marking a major milestone in its modernization journey.
The shift was significant: CAB migrated from IBM DB2 to Oracle and replaced outdated JBoss middleware with IBM Liberty, eliminating years of compensating controls required to manage security risks. “The upgrade removed vulnerabilities we couldn’t address before due to database and middleware limitations,” Rami explained. “We now have a stable, modern, and secure technology stack.”
The Jordan upgrade took a little over a year, reflecting the complexity of the transformation. Now live, CAB has eliminated costly extended support contracts, significantly improving cost efficiency.
The previous environment required additional maintenance, while the new subscription model delivers much greater value for only a slight increase in investment.
A clear three-phase transformation roadmap
With Jordan and Bahrain now on a modern release, CAB has defined a clear three-phase strategy:
- Technical Upgrade – Move the remaining entities to a modern release, supported by Temenos’ always upgradable platform.
- Back-to-Core Assessment – Remove ~2,900 local customizations and realign with an adopt approach to consume rich and standard functionality.
- Functional Upgrade – Build on a clean core to deploy new digital services and innovation.
Momentum in CAB Palestine
CAB is also applying the same approach to its Palestine operations, with the upgrade targeted for completion by mid-2026. Unlike Jordan, the Palestine environment still runs on Jbase, a file-based system, adding complexity.
“We took the hard road first in Jordan,” Rami noted. “CAB Palestine will benefit directly from those lessons, allowing us to move faster and more efficiently.”
Modernizing compliance and AI readiness
CAB also completed its upgrade of the Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation (FCM) suite in December 2024, in line with a mandate from the Central Bank of Jordan. The bank uses the full suite of FCM modules, including screening, profiling, and KYC+.
With VBOT implemented, false positives dropped by 40–50%, significantly reducing manual review effort and compliance overhead.
Looking ahead, CAB plans to deploy Temenos AI in the near future, leveraging subscription-based licensing secured during contract renewal. This AI-driven capability is expected to further enhance screening accuracy and operational efficiency.
Strong governance, growing capability
CAB attributes the success of the transformation to strong governance and close collaboration with Temenos, formalized through various Temenos services and dedicated support agreements.
“These agreements were the key success factor,” said Rami. “They ensured accountability, alignment, and full engagement across all stakeholders. It wasn’t about hoping to succeed, but about planning to succeed. It was a win-win situation.”
In parallel, CAB is investing in internal capability building, training staff through the Temenos Learning Community (TLC) with the goal of executing future upgrades independently.
We want to own our transformation end to end. Partners are important, but internal capability means we can scale on our own terms. Leveraging Temenos Learning Community, we can own our transformation while reducing long-term delivery costs.”
Rami Maayah, Group CIO at Cairo Amman Bank
Benchmarking for the future
Later in 2026, CAB will re-engage with the Temenos Value Benchmark (TVB) to assess progress against the digital maturity matrix and guide investment decisions for the next three to five years.
The bank is also evaluating Temenos Digital, Temenos Payments, Trade Finance, and Treasury capabilities that were previously unattainable on the previous platform.
Temenos’ standing in analyst reports helped validate CAB’s long-term choice. Temenos is focused on banking, and its roadmap is fully aligned with what we need. This isn’t just about modernizing for today. This upgradable platform is the foundation for what comes next: AI, digital onboarding, and instant payments. We are now in a position to move fast on a solid base.”
Rami Maayah, Group CIO at Cairo Amman Bank
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.