Baiduri Bank, a leading financial institution in Brunei, has embarked on a transformative journey to replace its legacy core banking system with Temenos’ cutting-edge Transact solution. This move is driven by the bank’s aim to enhance digital capabilities, streamline operations, and deliver superior customer experiences.

Simon Hansman, head of group information and technology at the bank explained: “We are running a core banking system that’s 17 years old. It’s based on old technology; it’s very hard to integrate, we had to innovate with it.”

Formally kicked off in February 2022, the project has progressed through the analysis and design stages and is now in the build phase. The bank has chosen Temenos’ software-as-a-service solution, hosted on Microsoft Azure, to streamline the implementation and leverage the expertise of Temenos’ professionals in managing the system.

The implementation of Temenos Transact is expected to bring numerous benefits to the bank. Firstly, it will enable straight-through processing (STP) for a wide range of transactions, reducing manual interventions and increasing operational efficiency. “I think it starts with our way out of the box with Temenos; a lot of our transactions will be,” Hansman noted.

One of the significant advantages of the Temenos system is its ability to facilitate seamless customer onboarding and origination processes. Hansman stated: “Bank workflows to enable customer onboarding, and origination will make a huge difference for the bank’s digital journey and really leapfrog us ahead of our competition in terms of what we can do digitally.”

Recognising the importance of regulatory compliance, Baiduri Bank has taken a proactive approach in collaborating with the central bank and Temenos to ensure adherence to IT risk management guidelines. “We did a lot of work internally and with Temenos to provide a very comprehensive review against the IT risk management guidelines that the central bank issues,” Hansman explained.

While the implementation is currently on track, Hansman acknowledges the potential challenges and complexities inherent in such a significant undertaking. He quipped: “There’ll be ups and downs for sure. We’ll probably have a few shouting matches from time to time but so far, so good.”

The bank plans to leverage the Temenos platform to drive further innovations. Hansman said: “It gives us a platform from which we can then really start to innovate. We’ve gotten a roadmap for what we want to do, and we can’t do it without Temenos in place.”