Hong Kong’s first homegrown virtual bank, WeLab Bank, has publicly launched using cloud-native Temenos core banking platform to provide a range of next-generation digital services for customers to enjoy 24/7 from their mobile phones. WeLab Bank was designed, built, and launched using cloud-native Temenos core banking platform in less than 10 months. The fully digital bank has seen rapid take up with a reported 10,000 account openings within the first 10 days of launch. With the preconfigured system of Temenos core banking platform, WeLab Bank was able to bring its service to market faster and extend its innovation with more than 400 out-of-the-box APIs.

Implemented on Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, WeLab Bank is the first multi-cloud digital bank in Hong Kong. Operating on multiple clouds at the same time provides increased operational resilience and disaster recovery capability, which helped WeLab to meet reliance and resolution planning requirements of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority for all banks.

Developing a cost-effective and scalable core banking solution was paramount for WeLab Bank. With Temenos, WeLab bank is set to transform banking in Hong Kong. In as fast as 5 minutes, customers can remotely open a WeLab Bank account with $0 monthly fees and start enjoying differentiated services such as time deposits with competitive rates, an interest-bearing deposit account with an instant virtual Debit Card, and real-time payments powered by Faster Payment System (FPS). This makes it easy for WeLab Bank to scale for future business growth efficiently and eliminates the need to provision for peak processing volumes so that the bank only pays for its actual usage, yielding significant cost savings.

Cooperative Bank of Oromia (Coopbank) is an Ethiopian bank established by farmers 19 years ago. Their influence remains strong; more than half of the bank’s shareholders are still farmers, and it remains focused on the MSME farming and agricultural sector, which contributes more than 80% of the national economy, yet suffers from high levels of financial exclusion.

Coopbank is well on its way to fulfilling its goal to be the leading private bank in Ethiopia by 2025. It is already one of the country’s most profitable banks, with a total asset value of more than ETB 139.56 billion, operates 745 branches, employs more than 15,000 people, and has more than 13 million account holders, covering retail, corporate and institutional clients.

Nobody left behind

At the heart of this ambition is a mission to transform livelihoods and empower communities. “That is ultimately what we mean by innovation,” explains Aman Semir, the bank’s Vice President for Technologies and Digital Banking. “It’s really about solving people’s problems.” That mission goes hand-in-hand with a focus on ESG. “We’re early on in that journey, but we’re starting to see the fruits of our framework. For example, around 100 branches are now fully powered by solar and wind energy.”

Half of those branches are containers that have been modified. “We locate them in remote places where there is no electricity, and provide free Internet. For the people around there, they have become more than a bank branch. They are education and community gathering centers.”

Aman calls this the bank’s ‘phygital’ approach

It is this dual track – of both readying for future opportunities while ensuring nobody gets left behind – that marks the Coopbank out.

A great fit from the start

To deliver this strategy, Coopbank turned to Temenos, deploying the core banking platform in 2016. “Everyone had become frustrated by our legacy system. Staff were having to stay in the office until midnight to record the day’s work, such as new accounts opened. You just can’t grow with that sort of inefficiency.”

The bank found its way to Temenos through a combination of Gartner ranking and reviews, RFP response, customer references and personal experiences of employees. It has not looked back. “From the start, Temenos was a really great fit. The past six to seven years have proved that our choice was the right one.”

The evidence for that is everywhere. In that time the bank has grown 19x its customer base from 700,000 to 13.2 million, and is now growing its asset value by 40% year-on-year. Loan portfolio has been growing 50% year-on-year for the past six years, and deposits have increased 39% to 42% in the same timeframe

Aman paints a before and after comparison to illustrate his point. “Before Temenos, just to come up with a simple saving product would have taken us a long time. We were forced to go to our vendors and wait for them to configure their systems. But now we can do that in just a few hours, both in-house development and third-party integrations.

Powerful partnerships

For these projects the bank accessed the Temenos certified partner network to source its implementation partners – USI for the initial implementation, Inlaks for the upgrade, and Xpert Digital to enable Temenos digital.

“It’s always been a smooth and fast process – just four months for the initial deployment, and nine months for Temenos digital.” Aman recalls that, back in 2016, the bank chose not to involve Temenos in the implementation, but instead used the model bank configuration. “The scope and flexibility of that template meant when we upgraded, there was nothing to change. It was almost too good to believe!”

Deepening the partnership

As well as upgrading the core banking platform to the latest version in 2023, Coopbank also added Temenos Trade Finance, which it uses to offer interest-free banking to Islamic customers.

The bank has also enabled Temenos digital to its suite. “It’s brought customer onboarding to the next level. We’re now able to onboard tens of thousands of customers every day, and give them a world-class experience.” It means the bank can be confident in making ambitious projections. “In the next 12 months we aim to onboard more than five million customers.” Aman explains.

On the way to the top

Aman explains that Temenos has become so important to the bank that the partnership is seen as one of the critical halves of its operation, alongside leadership. As such, it plans to double-down on its investment. “Even though we upgraded the platform just a year ago, we’re already considering adding more modules, so we will probably not wait another three to four years to do another upgrade, but get on with that very, very soon.”

Aman is confident about what that will mean for the bank’s future.

We partnered successfully with Inlaks

Learn more about Inlaks

Enda Tamweel, a leading microfinance institution in Tunisia, with 96 branches, 5 mobile branches, and over 1,800 staff has grown considerably over the last 30 years, supporting close to 900,000 customers over this timeframe. Enda has gone live with cloud-native, cloud-agnostic Temenos core banking, making Enda the ninth Temenos customer in Tunisia, demonstrating Temenos’ expertise and knowledge of the Tunisian market to fulfill its objective of contributing to the financial inclusion of millions of Tunisian entrepreneurs and offering diversified services and lines of credit.

Enda selected Temenos core banking to provide the agility to service more customers at a lower cost, and to quickly launch new products and services. Over the years, Enda’s former open-source information system has become unable to respond to the evolving needs of the institution. With Temenos’ pre-configured micro-finance capabilities, Enda is now also able to process large volumes of transactions efficiently and provide a better customer experience.

Lithuanian fintech company FINCI was founded in 2019 with the mission of offering better payment solutions to SMEs, commercial organizations, and large corporates that have long been underserved by traditional banks. The company prides itself on its ability to deliver high levels of personalized service that goes beyond chatbots and automated help centers – for example, every client gets a dedicated account manager and ongoing support.

Today, FINCI serves customers in over 30 countries with a range of products, including business accounts that allow its clients to transact in multiple currencies from a single dashboard to avoid conversion fees, improve cash flow, and make global trade more efficient. It also offers a suite of fast and flexible payment services that are perfectly suited to complex and unconventional businesses. Innovation is a priority for the company: it was awarded the Fintech Innovator of the Year at the 2023 Lithuanian Fintech Awards for accelerating the use of blockchain technology to make cross-border payments faster. It has also developed an open API ecosystem where it joins with fintechs to develop exciting new products. Sustainability is also important to FINCI, which is why it has moved away from plastic cards and has joined Mastercard’s Priceless Planet Coalition.

Better by design

According to FINCI’s CEO Mihails Kuznecovs, traditional banks are failing tens of thousands of businesses. That’s because complex international organizations such as construction companies, flight operators, logistics firms, and software houses need more support than banks are prepared to give.

“Traditional banking relationships are mostly transactional – banks prioritize interest rates and revenue,” Mihails says. “Fintechs tend to be more focused on building products from the ground up to meet exact customer needs. However, many of today’s fintechs rely on technology alone. This also fails complex businesses. That’s why our approach is different. We want to deliver exceptional experiences for our clients, and that requires a human touch.”

This doesn’t mean FINCI shies away from technology. In fact, the opposite is true. Since day one, the company has leveraged best-of-breed solutions from Temenos that have enabled it to realize new efficiencies, lower its operating costs and thereby focus its efforts on delivering a high level of service to its clients.

Big picture thinking

Despite being a startup, FINCI was keen to build its business on a solution that could scale as it grew and support it in the long term. “You have to think big right from the start, otherwise you end up facing problems later on,” Mihails says. “For us, this meant choosing an industry-leading platform.”

Temenos was the obvious choice.“Several of us already had experience with Temenos solutions,” Mihails explains. “I started my career in banking 25 years ago with the DOS version of Temenos. I’ve seen its reputation grow as a reliable, sustainable, and scalable solution. So, the choice was inevitable; we couldn’t have chosen anything else to build our business on.”

Fast time to value

FINCI chose to adopt three key Temenos solutions: core, Temenos Payments Hub (TPH), and Financial Crime Mitigation (FCM). It worked with several implementation partners to ensure it could go to market quickly.

“Temenos has many partners situated across the world – and that’s a huge benefit,” Mihails says. “It means that there’s support capacity wherever and whenever we need it.” This approach has paid off.

Today, the cloud-based Temenos core `allows FINCI to easily integrate with new payment networks such as Ripple Payments. In fact, the company can onboard new payment providers in a matter of weeks, without a huge investment in internal IT staff.

“We can take new products and services to market faster,” Mihails says. “This gives us an edge over the competition.”

Security made simple

At the same time, the advanced security protocols delivered by Temenos FCM have enabled FINCI to identify potential sanctions and anti-money laundering breaches before a payment completes.

With payments screening completed in just seconds, FINCI can offer the instant payment processing its clients are looking for. “We can process thousands of requests per second without any lag,” Mihails explains. “It’s completely reliable – I don’t recall a time when the system has been down.”

All this can be done while staying compliant. “Temenos Payments Hub supports new global and regional payment rails, including SEPA, SWIFT, and the TARGET2 ISO20022 standard, right out of the box,” Mihails explains.

A foundation for growth

FINCI’s rapid growth speaks for itself. The company started with zero customers in 2020 and now has thousands – many of which are large enterprises. “We’ve gone from processing hundreds of payments every day to hundreds of thousands,” Mihails says. “Today, we are processing over €1.2 billion annually. We have realized a 50% growth in card transactions every year and 100% growth in the volume of payments we are processing.”

Mihails says he owes this success to Temenos.

Reflecting on its success to date, Mihails offers advice to other fintechs looking to hit the ground running in such a competitive industry: “Our success is a result of having a scalable solution that removes a lot of headaches for us,” he says. “With that in mind, I’d encourage any like-minded startup to think big instead of thinking local like so many do. As a first step, engage with the Temenos team. Once you start having the discussion, you’ll see the solution come to life and realize just how easily your problems can be solved.”

Embracing the future

This is just the start of FINCI’s journey with Temenos. Having recently extended its contract from three years to eight, the company is keen to embrace new functionalities and services.

“We’re excited to see what we can achieve with Temenos’ new AI capabilities,” Mihails says. “We’re also looking at integrating with crypto, blockchain, and investment product providers as we look to expand into new markets.”

In Ireland and beyond, the events of 2020 have had a lasting impact on consumer interactions with financial service providers. Previously, Croí Laighean customers preferred to talk person-to-person in a branch; now, 80 percent of interactions are online. For Croí Laighean, the new challenge is how to create a digital presence that rivals the banking giants and emerging fintechs. To achieve this, the credit union will replace its legacy, on-premises systems with an agile model using Temenos community banking solution delivered as a Software-as-a-Service offering. Hosted by Microsoft Azure, the solution will enable Croí Laighean to automate processes and eliminate the cost and complexity of managing infrastructure. The rich functionality will enable the credit union to deliver outstanding digital experiences and personalized services, helping it to compete with larger operators.

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.

Learn more about Microsoft

At a Glance

• 1st Finance company in MEA to run front-to back banking solutions on the Temenos banking cloud.
• Built a new digital bank from scratch in 2 months.
• 1st time in MEA direct interface from the core banking to the central bank without a middle system.
• A leading innovator in the SME market thanks to the new digital capabilities and channels.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) represent 94 percent of all companies operating in the United Arab Emirates, and play a pivotal role in the country’s prosperity. For these thousands of companies, success often depends on fast access to liquidity—but in many cases, raising loans through traditional banking channels means navigating complex, paperwork-heavy processes..

This is where Al Ain Finance PJSC wants to make banking better. Founded in Abu Dhabi in 2016 and regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE, the company looks to provide simple, transparent, and practical alternative finance solutions—without the usual hassle and hidden costs. With this client-oriented and innovative approach, Al Ain Finance PJSC aims to help SMEs across the Emirates to gain the working capital they need to thrive.

Selecting digital solutions
on the Temenos banking cloud

Since it began operating in 2017, Al Ain Finance built a positive reputation among clients, particularly for its trade finance services. For the next stage of its growth journey, the finance company targeted a broader portfolio, adding enhanced lending, deposits, payments, and digital services. This strategy, Al Ain Finance believed, would help to sharpen its competitive edge, appeal to more potential clients, and win greater market share.

After assessing offerings from several vendors, Al Ain Finance chose Temenos digital and core banking on the Temenos banking cloud to replace its legacy in-house system and achieve end-to-end digital transformation. The front-to-back digital banking offering on Temenos banking cloud will provide the broadest out-of-the-box functionality for Al Ain Finance to deliver differentiated digital experiences to SMEs. The Temenos banking cloud will be hosted on Microsoft Azure and meant that it could be remotely implemented, simplify its digital business model, and drive operational efficiencies.

Going live in a rapid timeframe

Al Ain Finance managed to implement the new core and digital banking platforms within two months— a proposition made more challenging by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Temenos’ cloud-native, technology was delivered remotely on the Temenos banking cloud to allow the business to respond to increasing demand for digital banking during COVID-19 in the quickest possible timeframe. Temenos and Stoics IT provided the expert resources to complete the go-live for loans, fixed deposits, accounts, payments, and liquidity management solutions within the target date. Soon after, the project team added Temenos digital banking internet and mobile banking functionality and is now working to launch check clearing and direct debits.

Setting the standard for digital transformation

With the successful implementation, Al Ain Finance PJSC became one of the first finance companies in the region to harness the latest version of Temenos core banking running in the cloud. In another ground-breaking move, the core platform interfaces directly with the systems of the Central Bank of the UAE to enable clients to make secure, compliant electronic wage transfers. Combined with making banking better by providing SME’s with much needed access to liquidity, fast, we see Al Ain Finance as a true “Changemaker”.

“Even employees with limited experience of modern core systems find the Temenos solutions easy to use,” adds a spokesperson at the bank. “They particularly enjoy being able to access consolidated customer information through a single interface rather than having to click between multiple applications. Although Temenos offers cutting-edge, sophisticated functionality, the learning curve for users was very quick and simple.”

Technology Innovation improving customer experiences

Supported by Temenos, Al Ain Finance achieved its goal of broadening its service portfolio and winning more business among SME clients in the Emirates. The company now offers a comprehensive suite of lending, deposits, and payments products. These include enhanced Wage Protection System (WPS) offerings, which help SMEs to pay their workers in a timely manner, while registering transactions with the Central Bank.

Furthermore, Al Ain Finance now offers clients the flexibility and convenience of managing their accounts via internet or mobile channels. Rather than relying on traditional customer verification methods, the company integrated its digital services with third-party biometric security solutions—enabling clients to use fingerprint and facial recognition to confirm their identity and positioning Al Ain Finance as a leading innovator in the SME market.

Leveraging Technology to drive efficiency

The Temenos solutions also helped Al Ain Finance PJSC to develop faster, more efficient business processes. For example, users previously created reports manually using spreadsheets to collate data. With Temenos core banking, the company can generate reports at the click of a button, ensuring business leaders gain insights into market trends sooner, and enabling employees to focus more time and energy on value-add tasks.

A spokesperson at the bank concludes: “Working with Temenos has been a great experience. Whichever direction that we take, we know that Temenos will provide the solutions, expertise, and implementation support to ensure our success. It is a great partnership, and we look forward to the next stage of the journey.”

Digital-only Banco del Sol is targeting a top-three position in the Argentine retail banking market, followed by an expansion into the SME space that comprises 99 percent of the country’s businesses. To build a compelling service proposition, the bank worked with Temenos partner GlobalLogic to implement Temenos core banking, Temenos Financial Mitigation, and Temenos Data & Analytics — gaining integrated core banking, fraud detection, and reporting capabilities. The bank can now launch new services quickly, scale its operations seamlessly, and deliver a consistently high-quality client experience. With more consumers using online services than ever due to COVID-19, this innovative digital presence will help Banco del Sol to achieve its growth objectives.

We partnered successfully with Global Logic

GlobalLogic combines design, agility and extensive experience helping clients to innovate and transform their businesses through technology, creating unique software from ideation to implementation.

As part of its digital transformation program, Bank of Queensland unveiled a technology strategy that will drive differentiated customer experiences and sustainable growth through its subsidiary, Virgin Mobile Australia.

Virgin Group Founder, Sir Richard Branson comments: “Virgin Money Australia has an ambition to challenge the status quo in the financial services industry. The new Virgin Money Australia digital bank is the antithesis of a traditional bank: it embraces simplicity and rejects the notion of financial complexity. At the core of the Virgin DNA is a challenger spirit, which brings competition to every industry we enter. I am so proud of the Virgin Money Australia team for living and breathing our DNA when designing and building the new digital bank, and keeping the customer at the heart of their decision-making.”

Virgin Money Australia leverages Temenos’ front-to-back offering with Temenos core banking, the next generation in core banking and Temenos digital banking, the leading omnichannel digital banking product, on the Temenos Banking Cloud. Accessing the solution through a subscription model, Virgin Money Australia will be able to scale usage based on its business growth.

The new Digital Bank has gone live on Temenos modern cloud-based core banking platform, which provides a frictionless and fully integrated digital experience, bringing together credit cards, transaction and savings accounts, plus a loyalty program in a single, native mobile app. Through the modern app, consumers can open an account in minutes.

At a Glance

• Reduce the duration of the close-of-business processes to 2 hours
• Ability to extract daily automated IFRS 9 reports
• Enables the creation of in-depth reports on expected credit losses and asset performance
• Simplifies product development and customization with the latest Arrangement Architecture workflows

Two decades of rapid economic growth have turned Cambodia into one of Asia’s biggest success stories in recent years. While a dynamic retail banking sector has emerged to serve people living in cities, it is the country’s many microfinance institutions (MFIs) that support the rural communities that form the overwhelming majority of the population.

Among the most prominent is Woori Bank, founded in 2003 and one of only seven fully licensed microfinance deposit-taking institutions (MDIs)—meaning it can provide current accounts alongside loans. The MDI pursues a strong pro-poor agenda, offering financial packages that help families save for their children’s education, and providing millions of dollars in loans to help households purchase sanitation products and enable agricultural cooperatives to buy vital equipment.

Woori Bank has won many accolades for social responsibility and financial transparency from leading global development organizations such as the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP). And in June 2018, it received another boost as Woori Bank, one of Korea’s leading banks, took over the MDI. As well as continuing its work with Cambodia’s rural communities, Woori Bank is now looking to become one of the major players in the national market.

How to Maintain an Upwards Growth Curve?

With over 60 separate providers, microfinance is a crowded market in Cambodia, and staying competitive is a tough task. For MFIs aiming to remain relevant to customers, there is the temptation to lower interest rates on loans to attract more business, but this erodes profitability. Meanwhile, over-indebtedness among customers is another major challenge and potential curb on growth, especially as financial literacy remains limited in Cambodian society.

Putting in place robust governance structures has therefore been a strategic goal for the government and the National Bank of Cambodia. Over time, they have introduced stronger regulations to align the financial sector with international best practices and accounting standards that require rigorous monitoring of areas such as non-performing loan rates.

The latest step in establishing these solid, sustainable foundations for the sector was the introduction of IFRS 9 accounting standards, which require banks and MFIs to move from reporting on incurred credit losses to expected credit losses. The government set a deadline for all Cambodian financial institutions to comply with the new rules by January 1, 2019.

Tackling IFRS 9 With Temenos

The fast-approaching IFRS 9 deadline posed two significant challenges for Woori Bank. First, the project team had to break down and understand the full requirements of the new regulations. Then, it needed to implement a solution capable of performing the calculations to meet IFRS 9 standards. To achieve these goals, Woori Bank turned to Temenos for an upgrade of its existing Temenos Inclusive Banking core banking systems, including the addition of the new Temenos IFRS 9 module.

Meeting Demanding Deadlines

After kicking off the project in September 2018, Woori Bank gave Temenos and implementation partner MCB Consulting Services Ltd. [MCBCS] just four months to complete the installation. MCBCS took the lead and handled the configuration and testing of the new solutions, with Temenos support. Despite the tight timeframe, the upgrade was ready on schedule and on budget without a single delay.

Mr. Chanveasna Heang continues: “We were extremely pleased with the solution delivery from MCBCS and Temenos. In the past, we have seen many other vendors miss deadlines and exceed budgets. This time, everything ran smoothly thanks to MCBCS’ clear understanding of our requirements and deep knowledge of Temenos Inclusive Banking solutions, and also how technology can truly add as a business enabler.

Creating More In-Depth Reports

Using the Temenos module, Woori Bank can now classify its assets as amortized costs or fair value contracts in accordance with IFRS 9 standards before running impairment calculations to determine expected credit losses. By generating reports providing in-depth, forward-looking assessments of asset value within the Temenos solution, the MDI ensures that it can identify and take timely action in the event of non-performing loans.

Looking Ahead to the Full Benefits of the Upgrade

By upgrading to the latest version of Temenos Inclusive Banking, Woori Bank gained new capabilities that will help it achieve operational efficiencies, improve customer service, and seize a competitive advantage. The MDI has already cut the time it takes to complete close-of-business processes by up to two hours.

Looking to the future, Woori Bank is exploring features within the Temenos solution, including the 360-degree view of individual customer data, which will enable employees to offer more relevant services, and new Arrangement Architecture module workflows that will make it easier to develop and customize new loan and savings products. The MDI is also looking into the Temenos Integration Framework, which it can use to build collaborative projects with partner organizations.

Since its foundation in 1982, Arab Tunisian Bank (ATB) has carved out a position as a top five bank in Tunisia by offering award-winning retail and corporate products. The bank has recently gone live on Temenos open platform for composable banking looking to transform its banking infrastructure to capitalize on the new digital age. ATB is a mid-sized universal bank serving retail, SME and corporate customers with a staff of 1,300 and 134 branches across the country, awarded as the “Best Commercial Bank in Tunisia” by Global Banking & Finance.

The initial phase of the transformation of its core banking systems for retail and corporate business lines with Temenos frees the bank from legacy constraints to accelerate product delivery and digital growth. The second phase of the implementation includes additional Temenos Core Banking Capabilities and pre-composed Banking Services for Digital Banking, Payments and Enterprise Risk Management. On Temenos open platform, it aims to differentiate itself in the market as a customer-centric bank through technology and innovation. Leveraging the platform’s core and digital banking capabilities to power new growth opportunities, drive efficiencies at scale, and deliver seamless customer experiences.

ATB is a mid-sized universal bank serving retail, SME and corporate customers with a staff of 1,300 and 134 branches across the country, In 2017, the bank was also awarded the “Best Commercial Bank in Tunisia” by Global Banking & Finance. With demand for online and mobile banking rising rapidly in North Africa, Temenos’ next-generation platform, built on microservices and APIs, will allow ATB to quickly and sustainably scale its business. Cloud-native and with an ecosystem built around it, the Temenos platform also enables ATB to open up to fintechs and the possibilities of new business models in the future.

We partnered successfully with ITSSA:

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

Learn more about ITSS