Fun with flags continues

Ethiopia-based Cooperative Bank of Oromia (CBO), has gone live with new core banking software, Temenos’ T24.

The solution, which supports the universal banking activities of CBO front-to-back office, is branded as UniversalSuite by the vendor. It also includes the front office software for digital channels, Temenos Connect, and the vendor’s business intelligence/analytics product, Insight BI.

The implementation was carried out by a local Temenos partner, United System Integrators (USi).

Akalework Amde, software services manager at USi comments that CBO has become the first bank of its size in the region go live with T24 in a “big bang” fashion.

CBO’s 256 branches and 2.5 million customers were migrated from the legacy system, OmniEnterprise, supplied by India-based InfrasoftTech.

“USi, adhering to Temenos’ implementation methodology, implemented Temenos’ Ethiopian model bank, successfully bringing the bank live in four and a half months,” Amde says.

Temenos is already well established in Ethipoia, with customers including Bank of Abyssinia, Nib International Bank, Development Bank of Ethiopia (DEB) and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE).

Temenos will develop a core banking adaptor for MuleSoft’s AnyPoint platform

Banking software provider Temenos has teamed up with Mulesoft, a platform provider for building application networks. The move is intended to break down barriers to the open banking initiative by facilitating API connections, reports Julie Muhn at Finovate (Banking Technology’s sister publication).

As a part of the partnership, Temenos will develop a core banking adaptor for MuleSoft’s AnyPoint platform, a system that helps companies connect applications, data and devices into a network that allows for reuse and self-service. This will establish a standard interface between MuleSoft and the Temenos integration framework and “reduce barriers” to offer banks a “seamless experience on a unified banking platform”.

Neal McLoughlin, head of partners at Temenos, says: “With MuleSoft, clients gain an experienced and knowledgeable partner to facilitate integration between our core banking platform and countless other applications and devices.”

Temenos is headquartered in Switzerland, employs 4,300+ people in 63 offices to serve clients in 145+ countries. David Arnott is CEO.

Openbank flagship branch. (If you look closely – MicK Jagger is on the pic)

Openbank, a digital banking subsidiary of Santander, has made its new core banking system decision – the bank has opted for Temenos T24. Infosys with its Finacle offering lost out in the final.

As exclusively reported by Banking Technology last month, Openbank was in the concluding stages of system selection.

Temenos says this deal is “material” and will be reflected in the Q3 financial results report (to be published on 18 October 2017).

Openbank operates in Spain and caters for the “professionals” segment by offering current accounts, savings, investment and lending solutions (including mortgages), debit and credit cards.

It has one million customers and over €6 billion in deposits. The bank aims to grow the customer base to 30 million in the next year.

The bank has been in existence for 22 years, but has recently gone through an enterprise-wide overhaul, from products and services, to technology, to corporate culture, to new branding. It has also opened its first brick-and-mortar branch in Madrid.

Earlier this month, Temenos issued a brief statement saying its solution was chosen by an unnamed Tier 1 bank for its digital banking operations – this is understood to be Santander with Openbank.

Ovum survey reveals bank shortcomings

Banks are not responding quickly enough to the rapidly changing requirements of corporate treasurers, according to new research from Ovum. Corporate requirements are expected to change further as real-time payment infrastructures are further rolled out in the main economies in Europe and the US.

Commissioned by Temenos, the research was undertaken during the second quarter of 2017 and included data from Ovum’s corporate treasurer survey, for which 100 corporate treasurers were interviewed globally. In parallel, 100 corporate bankers globally were interviewed.

Among the key findings, 18% of corporate respondents said managing multiple relationships was a growing concern – up from 12% in 2016. Corporates are also increasingly concerned about their ability to access bank data for decision-making. The percentage citing this as their top challenge rose from 1 per cent in 2016 to 13% this year.

Ovum says banks do not have a good picture of client needs. Forty-three per cent of corporate treasurers interviewed said increasing FX risk was their biggest challenge, yet only 24% of banks cited this as a concern.

Worryingly for banks, corporate treasurers are increasingly willing to change service providers. In countries that have yet to implement real-payment infrastructures, 80% said they have considered moving their main banking relations in the past year. This figure falls to 75% in countries that have real-time payments. However, both figures are considerably higher than the 52% that gave the same response in 2016.

High on the agenda for banks are virtual accounts, with 53% of corporate banks planning to provide virtual accounts in the next 12-18 months. This rises to 57% among banks operating in countries with real-time payments infrastructures in place, compared to 40% in other countries.

“Banks are listening, but are slow to change,” says Ovum. It warns that corporates will move to banks that have integrated solutions that make data access, product development and regulation easier, cheaper and faster to achieve.

This article is also featured in the Daily News at Sibos 2017 – Day 1 edition. 
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Meezan Bank, the largest Islamic Bank in Pakistan, has upgraded its core banking system, Temenos’ T24, to release 16.

The project was carried out by National Data Consultants (NDC), a Pakistan-based system integrator and Temenos partner in the Middle East and Asia.

Meezan Bank, NDC and Temenos teams

Meezan Bank is a long-standing user of Temenos – since the mid-2000s.

It went live with R16 at the head office in Karachi and across its 580+ branches country-wide.

Validata wins banking tech RFP in Singapore

DevOps and application lifecycle management (ALM) tech specialist Validata has gained a new customer in Singapore to deliver quality assurance for its Temenos T24 upgrade project.

The customer is believed to be Bank of Singapore.

The bank uses Temenos’ T24 core banking system and a number of wealth management tools (now marketed as WealthSuite by Temenos). It issued an RFP earlier this year to find a partner for developing an integrated automation test solution to reduce the current manual effort and cost spent in testing.

For testing purposes, the bank was using HP’s QTP and Microsoft TFS, “but was facing challenges as the levels of automation were very low, the test scripts defined were lacking of reusability and consistency”, Validata says.

“The RFP process included an exhaustive pilot exercise where Validata designed and successfully executed end-to-end automated test scenarios covering all the scope and success criteria set by the bank,” the vendor adds.

Validata’s Quality and Release Automation Suites will be used for the upgrade from Temenos R13 Desktop to latest release in browser, as well as TripleA, Apollo Mobile Banking, Apollo Internet Banking, Swift and PDF testing and a set of other interfaces including: MarginMan, FinIQ, PitneyBowes, ODP, DWS/DWSPB, Reporting DB, Microsoft CRM, Pega, and CPOMS.

Farmers Commercial Bank (FCB) in Sudan is upgrading its core banking system, Temenos’ T24. The bank enlisted National Data Consultants (NDC), a Pakistan-based implementation partner of Temenos, to help with the project.

Farmers Commercial Bank and NDC teams

FCB will move to T24 release 17.

The bank first installed Temenos’ flagship core platform around ten years ago.

NDC has been busy throughout 2017 with T24 implementations and upgrades, including at Meezan Bank in Pakistan, Amlak International in Saudi Arabia, Sahara Bank in Libya and Al Khaliji France.

EXCLUSIVE: A top tier US-based bank is modernising its global cash management ops with technology from Temenos and Finastra (formerly D+H Corporation).

The bank is understood to be State Street.

Earlier this week, Temenos issued an announcement about a “US-based tier 1 global bank” selecting its flagship T24 core banking offering “for its global cash management platform for deposit transaction processing, internal account sweeping and interest compensation”.

The new solution will replace State Street’s legacy tech, some of which is very old. For example, in the UK, State Street was known to be using Integrated Banking System (IBS) from McDonnell Douglas (the system is long sunsetted and the provider is long gone).

The new cash management platform will be implemented “progressively in multiple countries across the globe”, according to Temenos.

Banking Technology understands that for the payments component, the bank will use the payments platform supplied by Finastra (which stems from Fundtech that was acquired by D+H and then merged with Misys to form Finastra). It would seem Temenos’ own payments platform, Temenos Payments Suite (TPS), did not the make cut.

It is understood Temenos and Finastra (D+H at the time) jointly bid for this deal with State Street. Other contenders included FIS and Oracle FSS (which made it to the system selection final), it is believed.

Temenos and Finastra both provided “no comment” responses to Banking Technology’s enquiry about the project. State Street said its policy “is not to publically endorse vendors”.

Finastra Universe London 2017: one of them needs a wig more than the other

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

The Clearing House makes history with new US payments system
The first new core payments infrastructure in the US in more than 40 years.

Top tier US bank in cash management tech revamp with Temenos and Finastra
The bank is understood to be State Street.

ACI powers Malaysia’s real-time payments network plan
An initiative to modernise the country’s infrastructure to all participants in the ecosystem.

Finastra Universe London 2017: open banking and the rise of AI
All the best bits from the conference.

Orange Bank goes live with Backbase tech
New live site for the Dutch vendor’s Omnichannel Banking Platform.

The latest edition of the Banking Technology magazine is out now! 
Click here to read it – the digital edition is free.

Now part of L&T Infotech

Indian tech vendor L&T Infotech (LTI) has acquired Syncordis, a Luxembourg-based core banking implementation specialist, for €15 million.

In addition, €13.5 million may be payable over four to five years, depending on Syncordis’ performance.

Syncordis specialises in Temenos projects, and counts Fortuna Banque, Rakuten Bank Europe, DNB Luxembourg and Advanzia Bank in its home market of Luxembourg among its clients. Further afield, it worked with Turicum Private Bank in Gibraltar.

The company’s revenue stood at €12 million in 2016.

Sanjay Jalona, CEO and MD of LTI, says the acquisition “will definitely help our penetration in banking and financial services segment and also enrich our Europe capabilities”.

At present, LTI has less than a third of its $1.1 billion revenue coming from the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector.

Jalona comments that many banks “are looking at revamping their core banking platforms”, particularly in the retail banking space. Temenos is “one of the fastest growing” providers, in his view.

LTI is interested is further acquisitions, Jalona adds, in five key areas – automation, analytics, digital, internet of things (IoT) and cloud.

In 2015, another European system integrator and Temenos’ partner, Sofgen, was acquired by LTI’s rival, India-based Tech Mahindra.

Case study: core banking integration

Namibia’s EBank has achieved digital transformation of services with Fiorano Software‘s core banking integration.

Fiorano Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) seamlessly integrates EBank’s Temenos T24 core banking system with third party suppliers and channels facilitating its vision of financial inclusion.

Integris CU in major tech revamp

Canada-based Integris Credit Union has deployed Validata’s suite of products to support its transition to Temenos’ T24 core banking system.

Validata specialises in DevOps and application lifecycle management (ALM), and Integris is its second client in Canada. The first customer, FirstOntario Credit Union, went live earlier this year.

Jeff Anderson, VP of IT at Integris CU, says Validata’s tech “helped us optimise project delivery for our testing and data migration phases, and our successful implementation of T24”.

Integris CU opted to replace its legacy Acumen system from Fiserv (which the vendor sunsetted) with Temenos’ T24 last year. It also signed for Temenos Connect (digital channels) and Insight BI (business intelligence), Banking Technology understands.

Based in British Columbia, Integris CU has $1.4 billion in assets and 25,000 members. It provides banking, lending, insurance, investment and group benefit products and services.

Validata lands core banking testing deal in US

Validata has inked a deal with a large US bank to deliver quality assurance for the bank’s Temenos T24 core banking transformation project. Banking Technology understands this is Commerce Bank.

Commerce Bank embarked on the tech transformation venture last year. The new system – T24 – will support its retail, commercial and private banking activities.

Validata says it was selected following an evaluation of “several alternatives”.

“The selection process included an exhaustive pilot exercise where Validata designed and successfully executed end-to-end automated test scenarios covering all the scope and success criteria set by the bank, outplaying the competition,” the vendor states.

Its Quality Suite (including performance testing and test analytics) will validate the initial system build and perform functional and system integration testing (SIT) for Commerce Bank’s customised T24 R17 US Model Bank implementation.

Itau Unibanco, Latin America’s largest banking group, has signed for a new core banking solution – Temenos’ T24 – for its international private banking business.

The platform, marketed as WealthSuite by Temenos, also includes portfolio management, channels and analytics functions.

It will be deployed in the cloud, in a “big bang” approach.

Carlos Constantini, CEO of US and head of international private banking at Itaú, says the new platform will “enrich the customer experience, reduce time to market for new products, generate efficiencies and reinforce the segments’ digital strategy”.

Also, it will make the bank “better prepared for the exponential evolution of technological cycles”, he adds.

Earlier this year, another Latin American financial institution, LarrainVial, went live with T24 following a seven-year effort.

PR Savings Bank in tech revamp with Temenos

Philippine Resources Savings Banking Corporation (PR Savings Bank), the fifth largest independent thrift bank in the Philippines, is implementing Temenos’ T24 core banking and analytics solutions.

The deal was signed in 2015, Banking Technology understands.

PR Savings Bank is moving into the deposits business. “The decision to partner with Temenos was driven by our objective to expand our products and services beyond the lending sphere to better service our market,” explains Emmanuel Benitez, president of PR Savings Bank.

“Our mission is to bring banking services to the masses and agriculture society in Philippines,” he states.

With the new platform, he adds, “we will be able to bring real-time, tailored financial services to our account holders whether they are in the cities or in the countryside, full-time employees or small business owners and farmers”.

According to Temenos, the bank has opted for a “big bang” implementation approach, launching all of its business lines simultaneously.

PR Savings Bank was established in 1977, and has 46 branches and 50 offices across the country. 

That thinking feeling…

They thought for you. Enjoy some of the most interesting and thought-provoking opinion pieces on all matters fintech published by Banking Technology in 2017.

Faure to fintech – what music can teach us about communicating the benefits of tech
By Caroline Page, director, Chilli Communication
On the surface Handel or Shostakovich seem a world away from the world of finance.

It’s time to pull the brake on Bitcoin
By Daniel Döderlein, founder and CEO of Auka
Strong opinions yielded strong feedback.

Ten questions for, and about, AI
By Roger Schank, founder and CEO at Socratic Arts
“I have had it with the stream of articles about what artificial intelligence (AI) can do.”

I know what I am doing!
By Richard Buckle, founder and CEO of Pyalla Technologies
Recent business surveys together with published industry trends suggest that ATMs aren’t going to disappear from the landscape quite yet.

Wealthtech is coming to the High Street
By Dan Tammas-Hastings, founder and MD, RiskSave
Slowly and surely innovations from the fintech sector are filtering down to the mass-market.

Fintech: beware the fake news
By Ben Robinson, chief strategy officer at Temenos
In every aspect of life, sentiment overshoots.

Why I believe the US State Department is wrong about mobile money in Africa
By Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO, MFS Africa
It released a report that identified mobile money services as particularly susceptible to money laundering in Africa.

Behavioural black magic
By Michael James, head of technical architecture at Altus Consulting
In 1957, the US market researcher James Vicary claimed he could get moviegoers to “drink Coca-Cola” and “eat popcorn” by flashing messages onscreen for such a short time that viewers were unaware they had seen them.

Women in fintech: why do we need them and how do we recruit them?
By Mark Freed, CEO of E2W
The gender statistics will remain appalling until we think differently.

Yes, (financial inclusion) minister?
By Mulenga Agley, VP of growth, Monese
In today’s seemingly financially connected world, where we can send money to one another via our smartphones, and manage our spending habits via apps, it’s pretty hard to believe that financial exclusion is still a reality in the UK.

Refresh your memory with some of the major core banking software projects in 2017, with Banking Technology’s top ten.

Come Dime with me for Fiserv’s core banking DNA
US-based Dime Community Bank revamping its systems.

Airtel Payments Bank live with new core banking system
The new platform went live after “after a few tense moments”.

Openbank goes for Temenos T24 core banking system
Openbank operates in Spain and caters for the “professionals” segment.

Co-op Money NZ moves members to Flexcube
New in New Zealand.

Studio Bank starts up with CSI’s core and mobile banking
“Savvy. Social. Sophisticated.”

De Volksbank live with Ohpen core banking platform
Migrated over 122,000 investment accounts to Ohpen’s core banking platform.

Santander UK to revamp corporate tech with Infosys Finacle
EXCLUSIVE news on Santander’s corporate banking business.

Edmond de Rothschild live with Avaloq Banking Suite
The front-to-back office solution is provided on an outsourced basis.

Two new deals for Technisys in Brazil and Argentina
EXCLUSIVE: Landed two new deals for its flagship system, Cyberbank Core, and digital channels software, Cyberbank Omnichannel.

Autosoft Dynamics gains first system deal in Afghanistan
National Bank of Pakistan selects its flagship Autobanker offering.

Ammara Masood, NDC

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the country’s central bank and regulator, has completed a major upgrade of its core banking software.

The bank moved its currency and banking systems from Temenos’ legacy platform Globus G11 to T24 R15.

The project was carried out by the bank, Temenos and National Data Consultants (NDC), Temenos’ implementation partner in the region.

Ammara Masood, president and CEO of NDC, says this was “the largest jump in releases for any Temenos upgrade worldwide”.

The IT team celebrating the successful go-live

EXCLUSIVE: Slovenian bank NLB has become one of the first live sites of the R17 version of Temenos’ T24 core banking system. The bank states it’s keen to attract top talent as part of its digital transformation strategy.

NLB moved from R12 to R17 of UniversalSuite (the T24 branding for universal banking), which took almost six months to complete. The bank says the upgrade is an important milestone of its digital revamp.

The work was carried out “on a tight schedule” by NLB with the assistance of external specialists, and concluded at the end of last year. NLB flags “great cooperation” between its IT team, user acceptance testing (UAT) business users, Temenos’ product analysis and customer support (PACS) and a local vendor.

NLB says it has been regularly upgrading its core system  – “a conscious endeavour to remain close to the core product” – starting from G9 on WIN NT server to G12 when migration to the AIX platform was adopted.

In 2009, it moved to the R8 version of T24, which included migration from the jBase to DB2 platform.

In 2013, it completed the upgrade to R12 and migrated from desktop to web browser.

NLB hopes the latest upgrade will help it improve customer experience, take advantage of new product enhancements, improve compliance and risk management, increase operational efficiencies. As part of the project, T24 Non-Stop was also implemented to ready the bank for the upcoming instant payment functionality and approve corporate customer loans 24×7 via mobile devices and using cloud-based digital signature.

As core banking system upgrades often take unforeseen turns, this project, too, had some challenges. Project manager Jurij Tihelj and the team had to deal with some extra complexities. “The bank was running on a very tight deadline. Parallel to the upgrade we have also included the configuration of IFRS9 implementation, several initiatives to improve the loan origination process and did some preparation work for the instant payments initiative,” Tihelj explains.

“However, we have also consciously decided to implement the latest technology, which meant we needed to take into account the late start of the project until the release was available and we also had to bear with some of the bugs that inevitably come with every new version release.”

The stabilisation and bug fixing required some extra efforts by the Temenos PACS team and some of the workarounds had to be developed by NLB and local support. The project timeline has nevertheless been kept, with only a slight delay of a few weeks.

The nightshift during the production migration weekend

NLB Group is the largest banking and financial services group in Slovenia and south-eastern Europe. Within its digital transformation initiative, it has already introduced a number of innovative digital solutions, such as the NLB Klikpro mobile app – it provides entrepreneurs and SMEs with simple “check – pay – order” services across mobile devices.

The bank also says its Klikin mobile banking platform for consumers is “constantly being upgraded with user-friendly functionalities”.

Last year, NLB became the first bank in Slovenia to introduce a 24×7 video call functionality, accessible from various devices to assist customers with advice and processing of transactions.

According to NLB, more than 90% of its daily domestic transactions are initiated through electronic channels today.

NLB’s innovation director, Mitja Učakar, anticipates a vibrant 2018. “To keep pace with customer expectations, we are kicking off several exciting projects to enhance our advanced customer analytics, integration management and digital engagement platforms,” he says.

“Introducing some world class technologies should also come with attracting top talent to join NLB on the journey towards digital transformation,” he states.

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

New year, new us: say hello to FinTech Futures!
We’re starting 2018 with a bang!

NLB pioneers Temenos’ T24 R17 core banking tech
EXCLUSIVE. Slovenian bank becomes one of the first live sites of the R17 version.

Conister Bank in core banking tech revamp with TCS
EXCLUSIVE. Community bank in the Isle of Man has a plan.

New challenger bank on UK scene, Chetwood Financial
Based in Wales and plans to create 90 jobs locally.

Cake4Good fintech charity bake off!
Bake it! Fake it! Or Buy it! In support of The House of St Barnabas.

The latest edition of the Banking Technology magazine is out now!
Click here to read it – the digital edition is free.