Appointed as chief product and technology officer in late 2024, Barb Morgan entered Temenos at a moment of inflection for the banking technology provider. “When Jean-Pierre (Brulard) joined as CEO, he began a listening tour. I embraced the same approach when I came on board,” said Morgan, reflecting on her first nine months in the role. What she heard from clients globally—especially in Asia Pacific—was a desire for deeper collaboration, ongoing innovation, and most importantly, faster delivery of relevant capabilities. “I kept hearing the same thing: continue innovating, but deliver faster, and make sure what you build really matters,” she shared. Morgan’s leadership marks a strategic pivot from launching numerous new features toward prioritising client-centric outcomes. “We are going to build less but build better—and we will do it side by side with our customers,” she said. Asia Pacific as a growth and innovation engine Morgan singled out Asia Pacific as a standout region. “The mindset here is bolder. Clients say, ‘Let’s come up with a big idea first and figure out the blockers later.’ That is quite magical,” she noted. This appetite for ambitious innovation, combined with a young and techsavvy demographic, has led Temenos to expand its presence in the region. “We are bringing new roles to Manila this year,” Morgan announced, describing plans to develop a full-stack SaaS product team in the Philippines. While Temenos’ US innovation hub focuses on modularity and hyper-scaler partnerships, the Asia team will be tasked with building and delivering solutions end-to-end. “With that innovative mindset here, it becomes a superpower we did not have before,” she added. Delivering on promises: R25 and product predictability Morgan’s philosophy of delivering fewer but more impactful innovations is being put into practice. “We used to announce a lot of ideas, but few made it to market,” she admitted. Under her new approach, only products that are live, in private preview, or within six months of general availability will be announced. The most prominent example is Temenos’ R25 core banking release. “I told the team I wanted R25 to be our best release ever. We defined that as flawless execution, fast enablement, and client-relevant features,” she said. The result: the release was live on the software-as-aservice (SaaS) platform within 48 hours—versus a previous lag of six months—and within a month, 50 clients had downloaded and begun testing it. “Some have already scheduled their upgrades. That predictability is new for us,” Morgan noted. A scaled agile delivery model, where Temenos' SaaS teams work in parallel with core product teams, was key to this acceleration. “Clients can now pick their upgrade date— 1 July, 1 August, tomorrow. That flexibility is vital,” she explained. Strategic application of AI in product management and compliance Temenos is also actively embedding artificial intelligence to address specific client challenges. Morgan detailed two initiatives: the FCM (Financial Crime Mitigation) AI Agent and the Temenos Product Manager Copilot. The FCM AI Agent was developed with a Tier 1 bank that wanted to use AI to augment—not replace—its compliance staff. “They began by routing just 10% of alerts through the AI agent while keeping 90% in the traditional system. Over time, they’ve been able to increase the ratio as they gain confidence,” Morgan explained. The goal is to free up human analysts to focus on complex cases while automating simpler ones. The Product Manager Copilot, meanwhile, was born from a co-innovation process involving design partners across different geographies. “Despite being on different continents, their challenges were strikingly similar,” Morgan said. They wanted faster onboarding, better understanding of existing product capabilities, and faster regulatory clearance for new offerings. Originally conceived as three separate copilots, the solution was integrated into a single tool that helps banks: Explore and simulate new product ideas, understand historical and demographic impact, and validate compliance and generate documentation “What used to take six to nine months—developing, modelling, testing, and getting through compliance—can now be done in weeks,” Morgan said. “It is about hyper-personalised products delivered faster.” Modernising core banking with optionality and pragmatism Temenos continues to evolve its approach to core banking modernisation by offering flexible implementation models. “The era of full core replacement for large banks is fading. It is too disruptive, especially with markets evolving so quickly,” said Morgan. Instead, Temenos supports progressive migration—allowing banks to upgrade only the parts of their stack that are ready. “Maybe you want to upgrade just retail lending or deposits, without waiting for ten other departments to align,” she noted. While smaller banks often adopt Temenos’ full-stack core, the same technology is now being adapted to serve more complex Tier 1 scenarios, including in Asia. Formalising co-creation through the Design Partner Programme A key initiative under Morgan’s leadership is the formalisation of Temenos’ Design Partner Programme. “We have done co-innovation before, but never with this level of structure and transparency,” she said. Announced at the Temenos Community Forum (TCF), the programme invites banks to participate in the development of specific use cases across domains like payments, AI, and cloud. Clients are matched to relevant product areas based on their interests, and involved teams span operations, risk, and legal—not just technology. “We want them at the table, not just to validate but to shape the product,” she said. Already, 180 banks have expressed interest. “Sometimes we start with their use cases. Sometimes they join one of ours. Either way, it is an embedded journey,” Morgan added. Looking ahead: Deepening regional engagement With the curtains closing on the Temenos Regional Forum in Manila, Morgan reflected on her experience. “It has been a classy event. The innovation and engagement here in Asia Pacific is invigorating,” she said. Energised by the forum, she’s planning her return visits, with a leadership offsite in Athens next and regional forums in Australia and other parts of Asia on the horizon. “I am just starting to scratch the surface in this region,” she said. “With the talent we are adding and the bold ideas coming from our clients, this is where the future of banking innovation will be shaped.”
