Bank ABC’s ila Bank Goes Live with Temenos Core on AWS, Implemented by Systems Limited

WHY THIS MATTERS: This successful migration transcends a simple vendor/client announcement; it provides a template for legacy financial institutions tackling large-scale digital transformation. For Bank ABC, transitioning its flagship digital entity, ila Bank, onto a cloud-native core platform hosted by AWS significantly de-risks the entire group’s modernization roadmap. The industry significance lies in the proving of scalability and agility for mobile-only banks in the high-growth MENA region, a market segment increasingly driven by customer expectation for instant, personalized service. By consolidating retail accounts and lending onto an API-first stack, Bank ABC is positioning itself to rapidly launch features and integrate third-party services, essential elements of true open banking. This initial phase demonstrates the operational feasibility of replacing entrenched, disparate back-end systems—a crucial step for any international bank aiming for streamlined, centralized operations across multiple countries

Temenos (SIX: TEMN), a global leader in banking technology, today announced that Bank ABC, one of MENA’s leading international banks, has successfully migrated its digital mobile-only ila Bank onto Temenos’ Core Banking platform hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The migration, which also included Temenos Payments and Data Hub, was delivered by Systems Limited, a global system integrator and Temenos Delivery Partner. This completes the first phase of Bank ABC’s wider core banking transformation program with Temenos.

Launched in 2019, ila Bank is a multi-award-winning mobile-only bank committed to delivering innovative and personalized banking experiences that enrich customers’ lifestyles, while driving financial inclusion across Bahrain and the wider region. With this go-live, the Bank has successfully migrated its retail account and lending operations to Temenos’ core banking platform, reinforcing its position as a digital banking leader in the region.

Temenos’ core banking and payments solutions on AWS give ila Bank the speed, agility and scalability required to drive customer growth and launch new products and services faster. Temenos’ Cloud-native, API-first architecture also enables rapid integration of new capabilities and open banking services to further enhance customer experience.

The migration was executed in collaboration with Systems Limited, which also provides end-to-end managed services for the Temenos solution. This marks a key milestone in Bank ABC’s digital transformation roadmap, which will see the bank consolidate multiple back-end systems from across fifteen countries onto Temenos’ core banking platform. This transition will enable Bank ABC to enhance operational efficiency and gain from a 360-degree customer view across business lines and geographies.

 Ismail Mokhtar, Group Chief Operating Officer at Bank ABC, commented: “The go-live of ila Bank on Temenos’ Cloud-native core banking system marks a significant milestone in our strategic transformation as MENA’s international bank of the future. This achievement strengthens the bank’s ability to accelerate digital innovation and respond even more swiftly to customers’ needs. It also provides a robust foundation for Bank ABC’s broader transformation as we continue to drive efficiency and enhance our international operations.” 

Mohamed Al Maraj, Group Chief Retail & Digital Banking Officer and CEO of ila Bank, said: “At ila Bank, we offer a distinctive digital banking experience that empowers customers with innovative solutions designed to enrich their lifestyle and meet their evolving financial needs. ila’s migration onto Temenos’ Cloud-native core banking platform on AWS underscores our commitment to sustaining our promise of delivering ‘banking that reflects you’. This transition enhances our ability to launch new products faster, scale with confidence, and continue redefining consumer banking in the region.”

Santhosh Rao, Managing Director, MEA, Temenos, added: “Congratulations to Bank ABC on the successful go-live at ila Bank. We’re proud to support the growth of one of the region’s most dynamic digital banks with our cloud-native core banking and payments technology, and we look forward to bringing this agility and advanced functionality to more of Bank ABC.”

FF NEWS TAKE: This move absolutely moves the needle, not for ila Bank itself, but as a critical technical proof point for the broader Bank ABC group. The real story here is the future Banking-as-a-Service potential unlocked by the Temenos migration. We should be watching closely for the next phases of Bank ABC’s ambitious roadmap: specifically, how quickly they can consolidate the remaining back-end systems across their fifteen countries and the resulting impact on group-wide operational costs and product parity.