Ghana © Wikipedia

Ghana-based Unibank has completed a major upgrade from Temenos’ T24 R8 core banking system to R15. The bank is the first in Africa to be up and running with this version of Temenos’ flagship product, Banking Technology understands.

Unibank is a mid-sized universal bank in Ghana, with assets of around $430 million.

The project was carried out by MCB Consulting Services, an IT consultancy arm of the largest financial services group in Mauritius, Mauritius Commercial Bank.

MCB Consulting is successfully carving its niche as a T24 specialist, with core renovation assignments in Ghana, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, Banking Technology understands.

It is working on T24 projects at Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and Samba Bank in Saudi Arabia.

In addition to the T24 competency, MCB Consulting is also supplying the Gieom training and change management cloud-based platform for these projects.

MCB Group has a strong partnership with India-based Gieom (Graphical Intelligent Electronic Operations Manual) and was actually the pioneer of the Gieom platform.

The bank itself went through a lengthy and difficult T24 implementation a few years back, and used Gieom to assist it with the change management and learning process.

The built-up expertise was subsequently spun off into a separate subsidiary, MCB Consulting Services. The company opened for business in mid-2014, with Jean-Michel Felix, formerly project director for core banking implementation and head of group audit at MCB, as CEO.

We have liftoff

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!

Swift seeks stronger network security
Strikes back after hacks.

IBM to open blockchain innovation centre in Singapore
Big Blue stays true to blockchain.

Starling Bank gets UK banking licence
Aims to launch to customers by January 2017.

Unibank revamps core banking with Temenos
Good news for vendor in Ghana.

Banking Technology July/August 2016 issue out now
Packed with news, analysis, expert commentary and much more.

Did you know that our Banking Technology Awards 2016 are now open for entries? Judged Awards, Readers’ Choice, Woman In Technology (W.I.T.) Award and more. Participate, nominate, vote!

PSECU extends tech partnership with Akcelerant/Temenos

Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union (PSECU) has gone live with Temenos’ Lifecycle Management Suite’s account origination module.

Temenos says PSECU was looking for a method to “streamline” the account opening process for both deposit and loan-based accounts.

Andrew Coy, AVP of lending, PSECU, says the account origination solution goes “hand-in-hand with the other Temenos Lifecycle Management Suite products we’ve implemented over the years, but most importantly the loan origination module”.

The suite of products originates from a local specialist vendor, Akcelerant, which Temenos acquired in early 2015; and 600+ credit union clients with it (PSECU among them).

Temenos adds: “Within four hours of going live on the system, PSECU not only completed their first automatic member origination process, but did so without manual involvement from a single staff member.”

Last year, PSECU signed as an Akcelerant Framework loan origination customer. This was an expansion of an earlier relationship, as PSECU had been Akcelerant’s inaugural collection customer back when the company was founded in 2000.

PSECU is a Symitar core banking user with more than 400,000 members and assets exceeding $4 billion.

The American dream
Temenos is believed to be heading towards a new contract for its T24 core banking in the US, Banking Technology understands.

The vendor has also stated its bold claims to conquer the US market at its recent annual conference, Temenos Community Forum (TCF).

“Over the mid-term, Temenos’ total licensing revenue can be doubled through the US,” stated David Arnott, the vendor’s CEO.

He also commented that a (yet) unnamed top 25 US bank has recently signed for Temenos’ software. It will be “a great reference to get others”, Arnott said.

Triumph for Temenos

National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) – Egypt has gone live on Temenos’ Treasury Trader.

Treasury Trader was launched in 2010 and is a front to back office solution. It will integrate with the bank’s Temenos T24 core banking system.

Pakistan-based National Data Consultant (NDC), a regional partner of Temenos, carried out the implementation.

NBK – Egypt was formed by the acquisition of 51% of the shares of Al Watany Bank of Egypt in 2007.

The bank has been undergoing a tech revamp this year as it recently implemented Swiss vendor NetGuardians’ anti-fraud solution FraudGuardian.

Tarek Abuelnaga, COO of NBK Egypt, says the platform “enhances protection and efficiency” and integrates with the T24 core banking system.

FraudGuardian will be used to identify patterns, audit activities and ensure compliance for automated reports. NetGuardians COO Raffael Maio, says the implementation took a few weeks.

Integris Credit Union in major technology overhaul with Temenos

Integris CU, a credit union in Canada’s British Columbia, is implementing a new core banking platform, Banking Technology understands. This is Temenos’ T24.

In addition, the credit union will also deploy Temenos Connect (digital channels) and Insight BI (business intelligence), it is understood.

No comment was available from Integris.

Integris was formed in 2005 as a result of a merger of three local credit unions: Nechako Valley, Prince George Savings, and Quesnel and District.

A couple of years later, Integris signed for the Acumen core platform, a new product developed by Fiserv. However, following Fiserv’s acquisition in early 2013 of rival vendor Open Solutions, Acumen was sunsetted. Its users were offered to move to Open Solutions’ DNA core product.

Banking Technology understands that Integris decided to evaluate the market, and following a system selection, opted for Temenos.

The vendor is already well established in Canada’s credit unions space, with clients comprising FirstOntario, Coast Capital, Vancity, and Blueshore Financial.

Temenos’ flagship T24 offering also has a number of Canadian banks on its user list, such as EQ Bank, Canadian Western Bank and Laurentian Bank.

Sovereign Bank opens for business; Temenos provides tech

Ghana-based banking start-up, Sovereign Bank, has implemented Temenos’ T24 core banking system. The project was delivered by a local integrator and Temenos’ regional partner, Global Solutions.

Sovereign Bank was among the three entities granted banking licences last year. The other two are Heritage Bank and Union Savings and Loans.

Sovereign Bank is a universal bank offering commercial, corporate and retail banking services, wealth management, treasury management, transaction banking and payments.

Global Solutions says the bank is the first live site in West Africa for Temenos’ latest Java-based version of T24 (Temenos Application Framework Java – TAFJ).

Sovereign Bank’s CTO, Jamal Inkoom, compliments the integrator: “I have appreciated Global Solutions team’s effort through every step of the project. They have worked tirelessly to ensure we go live.”

Global Solutions now has ten users of T24 in Ghana on its client list. These include National Investment Bank, Universal Merchant Bank, The Royal Bank, UT Bank and Unibank.

Can do in Canada

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!

New core banking project for Temenos in Canada
Exclusive. Credit union in British Columbia goes for T24.

Swift slow on strong security say execs
“Took their eye off the ball.”

Volksbank pioneers NCR Innovation Experience Room
An “experimental playground”.

Standard Chartered bringing biometrics to Asia, Africa and Middle East
On a roll as last month launched video banking to same regions.

Payments start-up Cookies launches in Germany
App in beta phase and currently in invite-only mode.

Did you know that our Banking Technology Awards 2016 are now open for entries? Judged Awards, Readers’ Choice, Woman In Technology (W.I.T.) Award and more. Participate, nominate, vote!

Temenos goes public on core software project at BACB

Temenos has officially confirmed it is implementing its software at British Arab Commercial Bank (BACB). As reported by Banking Technology back in February, BACB opted to replace its legacy core system, Misys’ Midas, with T24.

Temenos is also supplying its digital channels (Temenos Connect) and analytics (Insight BI) products to the London-based corporate bank.

Temenos brands the offering as CorporateSuite.

The bank focuses on trade finance and treasury services to Africa and the Middle East.

David Hamilton-Brown, CIO of BACB, feels that Temenos offers “an excellent fit” for the bank’s product offering and will also improve digital delivery.

Also, “an integrated architecture will ensure an holistic view of our data and at the same time reduce our costs base in this highly competitive banking environment,” he says.

Another recent taker of Temenos’ core platform in the UK is Cater Allen, a London-based private bank and a subsidiary of Santander.

Microcred on major expansion spree; Temenos to provide tech

International microfinance entity Microcred plans to become a fully-fledged retail bank and grow its presence from nine to 17 countries by 2020.

It has opted to keep its long-standing technology provider, Temenos, and upgrade to a single instance of the vendor’s flagship system, T24. It will be operated from Dakar, Senegal.

Microcred has recently signed for the new licence for the system.

The vendor brands the offering as MicroBanking Suite.

Microcred originally signed for Temenos’ core system in 2006. It underpins the MFI’s operations in China, Senegal, Nigeria, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Mali, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso and Tunisia.

Denis Moniotte, chief innovation officer and CTO at Microcred, describes T24 as “a robust and open back-end system.” It enables the institution to innovate, scale and remain nimble, he adds.

“We see a lot of other players with very interesting new technologies but struggling to move from one successful operation to a global multi-country operation at scale,” Moniotte observes. “When Microcred decides to move into a different direction or change markets, it’s not a question of more implementation, but a simple configuration in the back-end.”

Microcred was founded in 2005 by Arnaud Ventura, with the support of Positive Planet and a number of institutional investors. Its HQ is in France. The company employs around 2,400 people internationally.

Want to know more about the power and the good of microfinance? Click here to read our exclusive interview with the co-founder and CEO of Finca International, Rupert Scofield. (Finca is a major user of Oracle FSS’s Flexcube core banking system, in case you were wondering.) 

Join our hub

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!

Temenos and BACB go public on core banking software project
We knew back in February.

Al Hilal Bank’s new CIO looks to collaborate with fintechs
Let’s talk.

Famous five unsettle Bitcoin with utility settlement coin
Arrival of a rival.

Rise of fintech heralds Singapore payments revamp
Changes to framework and a new council.

Innotribe and Innovate Finance launch global hub federation
When two tribes go for more.

Did you know that our Banking Technology magazine is free to read online (for a limited time only)? Click here to find out more.

Tier 1 US bank live with Temenos core and payments software

Temenos says it has gone live with its flagship T24 core banking system at a “top 20 US bank”. Banking Technology understands this is Ally Financial.

The bank is also now live with the vendor’s newly-built payments hub, Temenos Payments Suite (TPS).

It is “the first tier 1 bank to do so in the US”, according to Temenos.

The project started last year, Banking Technology understands, and it has not been specified by Temenos which components of T24 and TPS are live.

Earlier this year, Temenos revealed its ambitious plans to conquer the US market. It is also understood to have recently beaten US vendor Fiserv to a core banking software deal with Missouri-based Commerce Bank (as exclusively reported by Banking Technology).

What is TPS and who’s using it

TPS was originally unveiled in 2012 as a joint development between Temenos and ABN Amro. Initially, the go-live was expected before the end of 2013. This was then postponed until June 2014, but due to a number of issues, the date was pushed back again.

Quite far into the project, for instance, a glaring oversight was discovered: a key piece of functionality failed to make it to the original requirements list, and this significantly contributed to the delay.

By mid-2015, ABN Amro passed three stages of system testing for TPS, and was in the second phase of environmental testing. Cognizant was assisting with the testing process.

The new go-live date was set for September 2015, in Germany. TPS was then to be rolled out to eight further countries, with completion anticipated in Q2 2016.

The functionality is limited for high-value, low-volume payments in the corporate banking space.

TPS is now being sold as a standalone solution, competing with the likes of FIS/Clear2Pay, D+H/Fundtech and Dovetail.

So far, the uptake of TPS has been slow, but there is expectation that ABN Amro’s go-live will provide a much-needed live reference site, translating into more sales. ABN Amro is already “happily providing references to new customers”, according to David Arnott, CEO of Temenos.

In addition to Ally, another new taker of TPS is Citco, an international group of independent financial service providers that specialise in corporate, fiduciary, financial and fund management services.

Citco is looking to modernise its core banking software across its European operations – replacing Misys’ Equation at a number of sites with T24 – and will also deploy a new payments hub based on TPS. The project started last year and is expected to go live some time in 2016, with the new payments hub covering six countries.

Temenos’ T24 gets more

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!

Tier 1 US bank live with Temenos core and payments software
Part of its American dream.

Swift reveals more cyber thefts
Private letter goes public.

PhonePe and Yes Bank unveil India’s “first” UPI-based payments app
Unified Payments Interface speeds things up.

Finacle core banking system available on Huawei FusionCloud
Proud of the cloud.

Bancolombia’s Nequi first in Colombia to deploy mobile biometrics
Sure to see several selfies in South America.

Did you know that our Banking Technology magazine is free to read online (for a limited time only)? Click here to find out more.

Temenos living the American Dream

Banking technology vendor Temenos says 16 financial institutions in the US have signed for its account and loan origination, collection and recovery software in the last six months.

The suite of products originates from a local specialist vendor, Akcelerant, which Temenos acquired in early 2015; and 600+ credit union clients with it. Jay Mossman, formerly CEO of Akcelerant, is now CEO and president of Temenos North America.

Among the new takers is Alaska-based Credit Union 1, a $1 billion entity, which is implementing the Akcelerant’s Lifecycle Management Suite.

“For the first time”, Credit Union 1 has been able to customise the experience it offers to its 86,000 members across all digital channels as well as in a branch, Temenos says.

Terri Colson, senior project manager, Credit Union 1, comments: “By consolidating platforms we have been able to break down the silos between our departments, foster collaboration across divisions, and streamline our processes.”

She adds that Temenos “was able to demonstrate several major areas where the Lifecycle Management Suite could increase our efficiency, and we really connected with their philosophy”.

At the back office, Akcelerant’s solution will interface to Credit Union 1’s core processing system, Fiserv’s DNA.

Elsewhere, Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union (PSECU) has recently gone live with Lifecycle Management Suite’s account origination module.

Dream big
Temenos has stated its bold claims to conquer the US market at its recent annual conference, Temenos Community Forum (TCF). “Over the mid-term, Temenos’ total licensing revenue can be doubled through the US,” stated David Arnott, the vendor’s CEO.

Commerce Bank is believed to be heading Temenos’ way for core banking software renovation.

Also, the vendor has gone public on a go-live of its T24 platform at a tier 1 US bank. Banking Technology understands this is Ally Financial.

Finland-based Aktia Bank says its new core banking platform – Temenos’ T24 – “will be implemented step-by-step during the last quarter of 2016”.

The project has been underway since 2013. T24 will replace a legacy development by a local vendor, Samlink.

The total investment is now estimated to exceed €65 million – a €10 million increase since the estimation at the start of 2016 and more than double since the original estimate at the start of the project (€30 million).

The total activated investment costs for the project are estimated to amount to €55 million (previously €50 million). “Expenses have increased mainly due to prolonged testing to ensure a smooth transition for our customers,” the bank explains.

At the end of June, the activated investment costs amounted to €48 million. Aktia says the increase in costs will not impact the outlook for its 2016 annual results.

The go-live of T24 has been pushed back a number of times too.

Aktia says that “acceptance testing of the systems included in the new core banking platform has advanced well”. The bank also commenced staff training last spring, “and the feedback has been positive”.

The new core banking system will improve customer service processes and modernise work approaches, Aktia says. It will also be a base for further digital development of services.

The cost savings brought by the new core platform will materialise from 2017 onwards, the bank adds.

Aktia provides a range of products and services within banking, insurance and real estate agency. It has 300,000 customers, 1,000 employees and 50 branches.

Temenos CEO David Arnott

Bank of Ireland has selected Temenos’ T24 core system, Temenos Connect for digital and Insight BI for analytics as part of its five-year €500 million revamp plans – aka Project Omega.

Temenos now brands its offering for universal banks as UniversalSuite.

David Arnott, CEO at Temenos, says its deal with the bank is a “material transaction about which we will provide more details in due course”.

As Banking Technology reported in April, the bank, one of Ireland’s “big four” players, was looking to modernise its legacy software.

The bank’s current set-up is outsourced to Accenture, which manages its group technology and change division. The deal was signed in 2014, and around 200 staff transferred to Accenture from Bank of Ireland as a result.

Temenos and Capgemini – with their joint Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering – were evaluated. The offering is known as Capgemini’s Banking Platform, and is underpinned by Temenos’ flagship core system, T24.

The legacy

In Ireland, the bank has a mixture of systems, including Misys’ Bankmaster for retail, Temenos/Financial Objects’ IBIS for corporate and FIS’s ACBS for syndicated lending.

On the treasury and capital markets side, it has Misys’ FusionCapital Summit and Wall Street Systems’ Wallstreet Suite.

For payments, the bank is a long-standing user of the Global PayPlus platform supplied by D+H Corporation’s payments unit, GTBS (formerly Fundtech).

Its UK operations stem from Bristol & West Building Society, acquired by the bank back in the mid-1990s. It is also the exclusive provider of financial services via the UK’s post office network.

The UK operations run a number of legacy systems, including Accenture’s Alnova core banking system, Sopra Banking Software’s MSS suite (savings and mortgages), DRP Consulting’s loan origination system and iConnect (supplied by another domestic vendor, HML) for loan servicing and administration.

For treasury management, there is the TMS system from Wall Street Systems (formerly IT2).

Digital banking era is upon us… Is there a place for humans in it?

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!

Bank of Ireland chooses Temenos for core banking revamp
Project Omega: five years and €500 million.

ING axes 7,000 jobs in digital banking drive
The dark side of digital…

Apple Pay launches in Russia
Supported by MasterCard and Sberbank.

Avaloq core banking implementation at BHF-Bank put on hold
This is due to differences in the interpretation of the contract, the two parties say.

Swift smart modules seek stronger security
Hacking threats are not going away any time soon.

Missed Sibos 2016? Or perhaps want to relive it again? We’ve got news, interviews, features, photos and more from this major industry event – all here and all free.

Suez Canal Bank in Egypt upgrades core banking software

Banking software provider and integrator ITSS has completed the upgrade of Temenos T24 core banking system at Suez Canal Bank (SCB) in Egypt.

ITSS applied Temenos’ partner-led project governance for services provided onshore and offshore. Onsite support was provided for system integration testing (SIT), user acceptance testing (UAT) and go-live.

Pierre Rafie, director at ITSS, says SCB’s upgrade was driven by the need “to improve operational efficiency, reduce the system support burden and facilitate growth in general”. SCB has been using Temenos’ customer for over a decade.

SCB’s CIO Abdelrazak Oan says the go-live was “smooth and of high quality”. The project was a “a great collaborative effort” between the bank and ITSS, he adds.

“The investment we have made was well worth the while and is already showing some returns.”

Cairo-based SCB has been operating in Egypt since 1978. It provides institutional, consumer and Islamic banking services. It has 34 domestic branches and a representative office in Tripoli, Libya.

UAE-based Islamic Finance House (IFH) has upgraded its core banking system to Temenos’ T24 R14 platform.

IFH has been using T24 since its inception in 2004, and says the latest enhancement “has given way to resource optimisation, scalability management and shortened approval processes”.

Firdousi Maheen, general manager of IFH, says “refurbishing the T24 system goes hand in hand with IFH’s innovation strategy”.

“Ideas we once thought were inconceivable were actualised through technology,” he states.

IFH specialises in Shari’ah-compliant consumer and commercial finance, and proprietary investing. It has branches in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, and is listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. Its total assets as of 30^th June 2016 stand at AED 4.4 billion ($1.2 billion).

Image source: IFH

Temenos CEO David Arnott

Temenos has reported a growth in total quarterly revenues by 9% and profit by 17% on the back of major banking tech revamps.

For its third quarter 2016 results, IFRS revenue for the quarter was $160.6 million, up from $145 million in Q3 2015. Non-IFRS revenue was $160.8 million for the quarter, up from $148.9 million in Q3 2015, representing an increase of 9% in constant currencies.

As part of this growth, Temenos CEO David Arnott pointed to its largest ever deal with Nordea, where the latter is going through a €1 billion technology overhaul in the Nordics, with Temenos’ T24 to be its new core banking solution and FIS’s (formerly Clear2Pay’s) Open Payment Framework (OPF) to be its new payments hub.

There were more positives as IFRS EBIT was $41.4 million for this quarter, up from $30 million in Q3 2015. Non-IFRS EBIT was $50.8 million in Q3 2016, an increase of 17% from Q3 2015 in constant currencies. Q3 2016 non-IFRS EBIT margin was 31.6%, up 2% points on Q3 2015.

IFRS total software licensing revenue for the quarter was $64.6 million, and non-IFRS total software licensing revenue for the quarter was $64.8 million, an increase of 5.5% from Q3 2015 in constant currencies.

The firm says the year-on-year growth was driven by the Standard Chartered Bank deal and “strong delivery” in Europe.

Not to be left out of the party, Temenos CFO and COO Max Chuard adds that its Bank of Ireland deal gave it to a “strong start” to Q4.

Looking to the future, Chuard says its guidance figures have changed – total software licensing to grow 15% to 20%, and for total revenues to grow between 12.5% and 14.5%.

New core software selection in the UK

Smith & Williamson, a UK-based investment, tax and accountancy services firm, is looking for a core processing system, Banking Technology understands.

The company declined to comment on the matter. “We’re developing a number of things but unfortunately I wouldn’t think we’ll be in a position to comment appropriately on them for the foreseeable future,” a spokesperson told Banking Technology.

It is understood that Smith & Williamson has issued an RFP for a new core processing system, compiled by local consultancy Goodacre. Goodacre will be also assisting with the selection process.

Banking Technology understands a number of “usual suspects” from the core banking software world are on the list, such as Temenos, Avaloq and ERI.

Smith & Williamson is the UK’s eighth largest accountancy firm, with revenues of £213.9 million for the year ending 30 April 2015. It employs 1,600 people. It provides accountancy, tax, financial advisory, investment management and private banking services to a range of clients, from individuals and families to entrepreneurial businesses, mid-large corporates, professional practices and non-profit organisations.