Bank ABC, one of MENA’s leading international banks, has signed agreements with Temenos and NdcTech to replace its core banking systems for its retail, corporate and wholesale businesses and power its subsidiary, ila Bank, the MENA region’s fast growing digital mobile-only bank, with Temenos’ core banking platform on the Cloud.

With this transformation project, to be implemented by NdcTech (a Systems Limited Company), Bank ABC will replace its legacy core banking systems for its network of operations serving customers in twenty-five markets from fifteen countries worldwide with a single instance of the Temenos platform. NdcTech will also be providing end-to-end managed services to enable Bank ABC to run its operations seamlessly on the cloud.

Consolidating multiple back-end systems on the Temenos platform in the Cloud will enable Bank ABC to drive scalable efficiency, with a single dashboard and complete 360- degree customer view across business lines and geographies. The first phase of the project is the implementation of Temenos retail core banking solution and origination on Infinity for ila Bank. This will replace current systems for the digital mobile-only offering in Bahrain and provide the agile core for planned greenfield expansion. Subsequently, Bank ABC will leverage Temenos’ cloud-native solutions and its open and API-first architecture for easy extensibility and open banking integration to enhance the experience and the services delivered to its customers.

The project will see the gradual transformation of the Group-wide core banking infrastructure, enabling Bank ABC to benefit from Temenos’ broad set of banking functionality and lower operational cost across its retail and wholesale banking operations. NdcTech will provide its country model bank accelerators combined with a wealth of knowledge and experience to drive value as part of Bank ABC's transformation journey. Banks are increasingly realizing the benefits of the cloud to remain agile and meet the demands of a constantly evolving industry, and NdcTech’s end-to-end Managed Service on the cloud will fulfill that promise.

During the signing ceremony, Sael Al Waary, Acting Group CEO, Bank ABC, commented: “Today, marks a momentous milestone in our journey to build our bank of the future. Consolidating our banking systems on a single platform will give us a robust foundation to accelerate growth and create significant value for our stakeholders. Temenos offers an ideal Cloud-native solution with the breadth of banking functionality needed to support all spectrums of our wholesale and retail businesses. I am confident that this next-generation core banking system will drive further operational efficiencies for the Group, enabling us to become even more responsive and adaptive to our clients’ ever-evolving needs.”

Ismail Mokhtar, Group Chief Operating Officer, Bank ABC added: “Achieving operational agility is crucial for the future success of Bank ABC. We are continuously exploring leading-edge technologies to enable our ambitious expansion and digital transformation aspirations. Temenos’ platform will enable us to efficiently scale our services. In addition, hosting our core banking system on the Cloud will significantly increase our levels of security and resilience. We look forward to working with Temenos and NdcTech teams during the implementation phase and reaping the benefits of this investment.”

William Moroney, Managing Director – Middle East & Africa, Temenos, said: “We are delighted to have been selected by Bank ABC to transform its core banking systems and power the MENA region’s fast-growing digital mobile-only ila Bank on a single platform in the Cloud. Temenos gives customers the freedom to implement on the public Cloud of their choice and is the trusted platform for thousands of banks worldwide. Our proven expertise taking banks live on the Cloud, including many in the Middle East region, gave Bank ABC full confidence in Temenos to successfully deliver this complex project with NdcTech.”

Ammara Masood, CEO and President, NdcTech, said: “We are pleased to be putting our combined strengths to work, allowing Bank ABC to innovate faster using Cloud capabilities to grow their business while meeting sustainability commitments. What sets NdcTech apart is our accelerators, hands-on experience within global markets and how we keep the end-user experience in mind while driving digital transformations. NdcTech services and country model on the Cloud platform paves the way for banks to deliver mission-driven products and services that delight their customers.”