Largest Irish Credit Union embarks on major IT investment program with Temenos

Temenos (SIX: TEMN), the banking software company, today announced that St. Raphael’s Garda Credit Union, the largest Credit Union in Ireland, has signed up for Temenos T24 Core Banking and digital Channels, as the catalyst for a front-to-back IT investment program. Temenos’ platform will support the credit union’s growth, helping to deliver a range of benefits to its members, including a greater range of enhanced digital services available through online and mobile technologies designed to improve the customer experience.

St Raphael’s Garda Credit Union – the largest credit union in Ireland, with assets exceeding €400m and 35,000 members – serves members of Ireland’s police force and their families. The members own the credit union, which is a non-profit organization. In addition to offering share and loan accounts, St Raphael’s Garda Credit Union entered the mortgage market in 2017.

The credit union has been a Temenos client since 2008. It decided to extend the partnership and add the Temenos digital channels solution for its front office, to create a front-to-back fully integrated technology stack that will support true straight-through-processing and drive down its cost base. The upgrade of its IT systems, which will take nine months, is aimed at improving members’ borrowing experience, offering for example automated loan processing and approval.

Claire Byrne, CEO, St. Raphael’s Garda Credit Union, commented: “Our credit union allows people in the Garda community to come together to save and borrow money at highly competitive rates. We strive to return surpluses to our members and always act with the best interest of our members at heart. We selected Temenos as our trusted technology partner to help us improve our IT systems, enhance our digital offering, and most importantly provide our members with easy mobile and online access to our services and an even faster response to loan applications.”

Steen Jensen, Regional Director, Europe, Temenos, stated: “We are excited to be the strategic technology provider of choice for St. Raphael’s Garda Credit Union. With our technology, the credit union will become digital front-to-back and will offer best-in-class services that will compete with tier one banks. We are delighted with our continued momentum in Ireland. We have invested in our skillset in the country and in our product with the Irish model bank and we have flagship clients such as Bank of Ireland, KBC and now St. Raphael’s Garda Credit Union. Temenos is proving its ability to cater for the needs of all market segments from the tier ones to the huge credit union market in Ireland.”