At a Glance
• US$1 billion+ in total assets, after deploying Temenos solutions in only 9 months
• 600% growth in total deposit assets, a pristine BSA/AML compliance history
• 140% growth in client base in the first six months since deploying the Temenos solutions
• 420% growth in revenues and net income, robust compliance programs
• Cuts fully compliant client onboarding from 5 days to 20 minutes for individuals and 1 day for businesses
• 50% lift in operational efficiency and staff productivity
Hamilton Reserve Bank combines the investment and banking expertise of Wall Street with a strong British heritage. Since 1994, the bank or its affiliates have offered a wide range of integrated services to a worldwide clientele, including private and business banking, wealth management, trust and escrow services, family offices, investment banking, and new business formation. Accepting deposits in multiple global currencies, Hamilton Reserve Bank is a truly global institution with offices and representatives located around the world.
Akinnia Glasgow, Senior Manager, Business and Private Banking of Hamilton Reserve Bank, explains: “With a global workforce, we are headquartered on a sprawling 12-acre bank campus in Saint Kitts and Nevis, the birthplace of America’s founding father Alexander Hamilton. Our staff comes from 13 countries, speaking 15 different languages, and 80% of our colleagues are female. We serve clients from more than 150 countries and accept deposits in 70 different currencies. Our client mix is 65% businesses and 35% individuals. We are always looking to expand through advanced financial technology. For example, we have affiliates in Asia as well as presence in the Middle East, EU, North and South America. Across our operations around the globe. we pursue a client-first philosophy, working tirelessly to improve the prosperity of the individual and business customers that rely on us daily for their banking needs.”
Hamilton Reserve Bank strives to create products tailored to meet the unique requirements of its global clients. Similarly, the bank aims to make every client interaction an easy, fast, secure, and frictionless experience — from new account onboarding 100% online to payments and 24/7 digital access; all backed up with robust security, privacy, and top compliance measures. The bank chose Temenos for its highly reputable and dependable core banking system with exceptional transaction and real-time monitoring capabilities.
“Our previous core banking tools had limited integration capabilities,” adds Akinnia Glasgow. “Key processes such as manual client onboarding could take 5 days for staff to approve account applications.”
As customer onboarding exploded with many new account applications waiting to be processed, we had to scale our global operations through a fresh approach. The flexible Temenos modules became our solution after we had rejected many others. We signed an 11-year agreement with Temenos as a key partner. We are very pleased and have not looked back since.”
Akinnia Glasgow, Senior Manager, Business and Private Banking of Hamilton Reserve Bank
Implemented full-scale systems modernization through facial recognition technology
Hamilton Reserve Bank planned a comprehensive overhaul of its core and client-facing solutions. From an internal perspective, the bank decided to introduce Straight-Through Processing (STP) to improve the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of back-office workflows. Through Temenos Straight-Through Processing, the bank is seeing growth up to 600% in total deposit and custodian assets. Similarly, the bank knew that sophisticated authentication tools would ensure accurate KYC and real time transaction monitoring, meeting stringent compliance targets while mitigating operational risk.
“For new clients, we targeted a streamlined and fully compliant application journey that has enabled seamless onboarding within minutes,” continues Prabhakar Kaza, the London-based CEO of Hamilton Reserve Bank who has 40 years of banking experience. “And we wanted to enrich our service portfolio, adding advanced functionality such as processing 70 different customer deposit currencies in real-time, and 24/7 digital account access verified through highly accurate facial recognition solutions.”
“Since adopting Temenos, Hamilton Reserve Bank has not had a single incident of wire payment loss of any sort due to mistaken identities,” says Sebastian Ambrose, a Senior Regulatory and AML Counsel at Hamilton Reserve Bank.
Our customers initiate wire transfers online via facial recognition that automatically matches their valid passports already on file. All wire details must be entered directly by our customers. The bank only processes wires submitted in the highly secure and identity verified Temenos environment.”
Sebastian Ambrose, a Senior Regulatory and AML Counsel at Hamilton Reserve Bank
Deployed fully integrated Temenos solutions in record time
To support a rapidly expanding global clientele, Hamilton Reserve Bank looked for a technology partner with the latest market-leading core and digital banking solutions. After evaluating many vendors, the bank selected Temenos to concurrently deploy Temenos core banking, Temenos digital banking, Temenos Payments, and Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation, and has since initiated installation of the latest Digital banking Enterprise and Temenos LEAP modules to automate business customer onboarding, reducing client onboarding time from one day to one hour — providing end-to-end capabilities covering product development, client acquisition, compliance, risk management, and more.
Adrian Joseph, an IT manager at Hamilton Reserve Bank comments: “Temenos offers an outstanding breadth of functionality that has helped improve our operations and grow our client base. It allows Hamilton Reserve Bank to integrate with many other solution partners such as Mastercard Cross-Border Services, one of our correspondent banks Banco Santander and our customer asset custodian The Bank of New York Mellon, giving our bank an added layer of flexibility and agility to drive both financial and compliance KPIs. We also love that Temenos is continuously updating its solutions which has enabled Hamilton Reserve Bank’s core banking software to operate on the latest year 2024 Temenos platform.”
Launching Temenos, Hamilton Reserve Bank dedicated a large IT budget and went live in just nine months. The bank’s operational level has considerably increased the asset base and employee productivity that has also translated into greater margins while achieving stellar regulatory compliance. These efforts have significantly enhanced its revenue growth. The bank harnessed resources from the Temenos Learning Community (TLC) to concurrently train employees, as Adrian Joseph explains: “The TLC provided excellent learning tools that enabled us to build a thorough knowledge of the solutions quickly despite the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and has facilitated adoption among our staff.”
Delivered ultra-secure, tailored banking services in record speed
Powered by Temenos, Hamilton Reserve Bank is able to achieve new milestones including its recent entry into new markets, expanded many correspondent banking relationships, and winning several prestigious awards recognizing the bank’s advanced fintech advantage.
“Temenos has made it possible for us to process multicurrency wires in real time via our SWIFT gpi while we fully comply with regulations from around the world,” says Anthea Walcott, a senior private banking manager at Hamilton Reserve Bank.
Using Temenos core banking and Temenos Digital banking, Hamilton Reserve Bank has consolidated its back-office operations and digital banking services into a highly efficient ticketing system shared among its colleagues located on several continents. The solutions enable the bank to automate many processes and offer clients instant, round-the-clock anytime banking access, as well as a wider range of customized products. For example, the bank is developing new wealth management solutions using Temenos Enterprise Wealth in collaboration with Rosenblatt Securities, the largest floor trading firm on the New York Stock Exchange.
With Temenos Payments, Hamilton Reserve Bank now has the capabilities to offer fast cross-border payments to its global clientele.
We can process millions in client transactions every year. Temenos Payments gives us the scalability and sophisticated functionality that we need to provide real-time payment options and handle large volumes of transactions quickly, efficiently, and securely”
Ghassan Nasr, CEO of International Markets at Hamilton Reserve Bank
The fully customized Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation (“FCM”) module enables Hamilton Reserve Bank to scan all account applications and transactions in real-time, assigning risk scores to all customer accounts, using powerful artificial intelligence to detect suspicious activities, and timely filing regulatory reports as needed. The risk-based FCM solution has allowed the bank to pinpoint specific compliance risks while significantly reducing costs and human errors. Thanks to the Temenos FCM, Hamilton Reserve Bank successfully passes annual BSA/AML/KYC independent compliance audits.
Albert Rodriguez, the Chief Operating Officer of Hamilton Reserve Bank notes: “With the fully installed FCM module operating at great speed, the bank has automated all client screening processes, helping us to detect potential compliance issues in real-time. As we frequently fine-tune our BSA/AML/KYC/KYCC rules within FCM, Hamilton Reserve Bank has maintained a solid compliance record.”
Fast, secure, and privacy – enhancing customer experience throughout
Thanks to Temenos Digital Banking, Hamilton Reserve Bank has accelerated new customer onboarding which is now 100% online and self-directed by an account applicant. Back-office automation has improved onboarding speed by 400 percent. Business account applications that previously took five days are now completed in one day. Personal account applications are processed even faster: applicants can finish the entire self-directed onboarding journey 100% online in as short as twenty minutes, fast, safe, and compliant.
Our enhanced services and online experience have led to excellent client feedback.We have seen a 100% increase in our customer satisfaction ratings since Temenos was installed, with clients valuing the greater flexibility that we now offer. While banking online in a secure environment, self-directed customer transactions including internal account balance transfers among related accounts can be completed in minutes.”
Elleen Commodore, a senior business banking executive at Hamilton Reserve Bank
The partnership with Temenos has also enabled Hamilton Reserve Bank to accomplish its growth objectives, with a 140 percent increase in client growth within six months after the implementation. The move to a modern, scalable suite of core and digital banking tools provides a robust foundation for rapid international market expansion as the bank is currently experiencing.
“Working with Temenos makes us a highly competitive institution in the global financial markets, with a strong value proposition and high quality of service for our personal and business banking clients,” confirms Howard Anthony Lewis, an enterprise risk specialist and a board member of Hamilton Reserve Bank. “Harnessing the Temenos solutions has positioned Hamilton Reserve Bank as a leading innovator bank, helping us to become the largest global bank headquartered in the Caribbean with a spotless regulatory compliance history.”
Streamlined back-office workflows, achieved record financial results
The adoption of Temenos solutions has unlocked major efficiency and productivity gains for Hamilton Reserve Bank. Product teams now build and launch tailored services faster, while automating screening and compliance tasks has freed employees from repetitive manual work—saving time for more valuable activities while eliminating human errors. Overall, the bank believes the Temenos system has improved internal efficiency by more than 90 percent, helping to reduce operational costs significantly.
Temenos is an excellent core banking product. The solutions provide a fully integrated digital ecosystem that enables us to accurately deliver client-centric services to our rapidly expanding global customer base, enabling the bank to deliver record financial results.
Antonio Kenyatta, the Chief Financial Officer at Hamilton Reserve Bank
Antonio adds: “Temenos is now integrated into our marketing programs for client origination and customer satisfaction. As we undertake additional Temenos module enhancements, we are looking forward to working with Temenos for many years to come. Successful banking is all about competent technology. Hamilton Reserve Bank is very pleased to have Temenos on our side.”
Temenos Ambassador Awards 2022
Delighted to recognize Hamilton Reserve Bank as one of the winners of the Innovation Hero Awards for deploying an innovative and impactful project, using a Temenos solution.