Temenos (SIX: TEMN), the banking software company, today announced that Palestine Islamic Bank (PIB), the largest Islamic bank in Palestine, has chosen cloud-native, cloud-agnostic Temenos Infinity and Temenos  T24 Transact to transform its banking systems and drive its digital transformation.

Temenos Infinity is an independent, omni-channel digital front office banking product which will help the bank offer fast, consistent, frictionless customer journeys. Temenos T24 Transact is the most complete core banking product leveraging the most advanced cloud-native, cloud-agnostic banking technology. As part of these products, PIB also benefits from Islamic banking capabilities, advanced Analytics & Reporting and Risk & Compliance.

Founded in Palestine in 1995, PIB now operates a network of 43 branches, making it the largest Islamic banking network in the country. In 2018, The National Islamic Investment Company purchased 31.3m shares in the bank, representing a majority 45 percent holding, a move seen to strengthen the overall Palestinian banking sector and drive the national economy forward. Following the share acquisition, PIB’s new board decided to adopt a digital transformation strategy with the purpose of increasing operational efficiency as well as providing its customers with a personalized and convenient service, allowing the bank to move to a customer-centric business model.

The bank chose Temenos after a rigorous, competitive evaluation as it sought to enhance its speed to market with new products and services, as well as offer Islamic products for both retail and corporate customers. The bank will leverage Temenos' global expertise and 25 years of experience in providing integrated, scalable packaged software, as well as Temenos' aggressive innovation roadmap, with 20 percent of revenues invested in R&D every year.

The signing ceremony, which took place at St. George Hotel in Jerusalem, was attended by PIB board members and senior management and from Temenos, Jean Michel-Hilsenkopf, Chief Operating Officer and member of the Executive Committee and Jean-Paul Mergeai, Managing Director Middle East & Africa at Temenos.

Bayan Qasem, General Manager at Palestine Islamic Bank, said: “We selected Temenos as our technology partner to future-proof our ongoing growth transform the customer experience and achieve operational excellence. Our bank’s front-to-back digital transformation with Temenos’ cloud-native, cloud agnostic banking software will help us expand our capabilities, to offer a truly personalized , digital and highly convenient banking service with even greater levels of customer service and experience. Temenos has decades of experience in delivering state-of-the art software in our region and around the world.”

Jean-Paul Mergeai, Managing Director - Middle East & Africa at Temenos, said: "We are delighted to welcome Palestine Islamic Bank as our latest Islamic Bank signing in the region. Our award winning banking software products allow banks such a PIB to fulfil its vision to offer the highest quality of digital products and services to its customers by addressing the challenges of customer demands and evolving global and local regulatory requirements. Temenos strength in the Palestinian banking sector is continually expanding and we have developed a strong reputation and expertise in this market. We are best placed to support financial institutions with their digital transformation projects as they expand into the digital era. We look forward to working with Palestine Islamic Bank as it continues to grow its business and transform the services it offers to its customers."