Hamilton Reserve Bank
Becoming the largest global bank headquartered in the Caribbean through end-to-end digital transformation
Nevis, Saint Kitts and Nevis
At a Glance
- US$2 billion+ in total assets, after deploying Temenos solutions in only 9 months
- Record time in launching Temenos LEAP and Temenos Digital Banking in 7 months
- 800% growth in total deposit, custodian assets, a pristine BSA/AML compliance history
- 140% growth in client base in the first six months since deploying the Temenos solutions
- 620% growth in revenues and net income, robust AI-powered compliance programs
- Cuts fully compliant new client onboarding 100% online via STP from 5 days to 20 minutes for individuals and 1 day for businesses
- Real time bank SWIFT wires, including 3rd party wires executed in 5 seconds in 126 currencies
- 250% lift in operational efficiency and staff productivity
Hamilton Reserve Bank combines the investment and commercial banking expertise of Wall Street financial strength and execution efficiency with a strong British heritage. Since 1994, the bank or its affiliates have offered a wide range of integrated services to a worldwide clientele from more than 150 countries, including private and business banking, asset protection, custodian banking, wealth management, trust and escrow services, family offices, investment banking, and new business formation. Accepting deposits in multiple global currencies and digital assets, Hamilton Reserve Bank is a truly global bank 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, communicate in 13 languages and accept deposits and payments in 126 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 presence in Asia, Panama, Dubai, other MENA regions, EU, North and South America, and Africa. Across our 24/7 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 that value speed, safety, and privacy. Similarly, the bank aims to make every client interaction an easy, fast, secure, and frictionless experience — from new account onboarding 100% online to fast payments executed in seconds and 24/7 digital access allowing multiple signers and controls in omnibus accounts; 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 demanded by large global correspondent banks.
“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 and devoted a US$30 million IT budget to build a large bank well positioned to serve a worldwide client base. We are very pleased and have not looked back since.”
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 implement Straight-Through Processing (STP) to improve the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of back-office workflows. Through Temenos STP, the bank has seen growth up to 800% 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 target 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 126 different customer deposit currencies and digital assets in real time, as well as 24/7 digital account access verified through government-grade 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. 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, Senior Regulatory and AML Counsel at Hamilton Reserve Bank
Deployed fully integrated Temenos solutions in record time of 9 months
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, Temenos Digital, Temenos Payments, and Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation, and has since also installed the latest Temenos Digital and Temenos LEAP modules (2024 version) to automate business customer onboarding, reducing 24/7 client onboarding time from one day to one hour — providing end-to-end capabilities covering product development, client acquisition, compliance, risk management, and more. This has positioned Hamilton Reserve Bank as one of the first in the world to offer a full range of the latest Temenos solutions to its clientele.
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, our direct correspondent banks including Banco Santander, The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), among others, giving our bank 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 and other modules to operate on the latest Temenos solutions.”
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 the bank’s 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 and has facilitated adoption among our worldwide staff.”
Delivered ultra-secure, tailored banking services in record speed of 9 months
Powered by Temenos, Hamilton Reserve Bank has achieved 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 SWIFT gpi while we fully comply with regulations from around the world.”
– Merkisha Desir, Senior private banking manager at Hamilton Reserve Bank.
Using Temenos Core and Temenos Digital, 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 The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), the world’s largest bank by custodian assets and 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 lightning speed 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 multicurrency payment options and handle large volumes of transactions quickly, efficiently, and securely,” adds Ghassan Nasr, CEO of International Markets at Hamilton Reserve Bank.
Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation (“FCM”) enables Hamilton Reserve Bank to scan all account applications and transactions in real time, assigning risk scores to all customer accounts 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 product family operating at great speed, the bank has automated all client screening processes, helping us to detect potential compliance issues in real time. As we continue to innovate through artificial intelligence, the new Temenos FCM AI agent will come in handy. As we frequently fine-tune our BSA/AML/KYC/KYCC rules within FCM, Hamilton Reserve Bank has maintained a solid compliance record since inception.”
Fast, secure, and privacy – enhancing customer experience throughout
Thanks to Temenos Digital, Hamilton Reserve Bank has accelerated new customer onboarding 24/7 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 20 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 service speed, deposit safety, and asset protection features that we offer. While banking online in a secure and private environment, self-directed customer transactions including internal account balance transfers among related accounts can be completed in seconds, including third party payments.”
– Sir Tony Baldry, Chairman of 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 initial implementation in 2020. 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 bank 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 powered by advanced fintech maintaining 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 while eliminating human errors. Overall, the bank believes the Temenos system has improved internal efficiency by more than 250%, helping to reduce operational costs significantly. Strategic expansion now centers on Temenos Wealth and Temenos AI, as Hamilton Reserve Bank deepens its collaboration with its correspondent banking partners, The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), Banco Santander and others to expand global asset custody and deliver sophisticated banking solutions.
“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 year after year. 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.”
– Antonio Kenyatta, the Chief Financial Officer at Hamilton Reserve Bank
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