Sacombank put its upgraded core-banking platform into production on hybrid-cloud infrastructure, with the system processing 13 million transactions daily and delivering improvements in performance and infrastructure. ANZ also reported measurable results, with customer scam losses falling 24% despite continued scam activity.

Deutsche Bank advanced a major core-system consolidation, while CIMB completed a regulated tokenised-settlement pilot. Scalable Capital opened its investment functions to external artificial intelligence (AI) assistants, and QNB completed an international-card payment cycle in Syria. Maybank and the Bank of Japan reported new outcomes  in digital adoption, AI deployment and governance.                            

Read more on the week's key developments:

1. Sacombank reports performance gains from hybrid-cloud core upgrade

Sacombank completed an upgrade of its Temenos core-banking platform, moving from an on-premises deployment to a hybrid-cloud environment using Red Hat OpenShift and IBM Power. The production system serves millions of retail and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers and processes 13 million transactions daily. Temenos reported a 200% improvement in application performance, deployment cycles that are three-times faster and a 50% reduction in the server footprint. Sacombank also selected Temenos Payments Hub for cross-border payments.

The completed production migration, operating scale and quantified infrastructure gains provide stronger evidence of implementation than a typical technology-partnership announcement. However, the performance figures were disclosed by the bank’s vendor without details on the baseline, measurement period or methodology. The payments-hub decision is also a selection rather than a completed implementation, leaving live payment volumes, resilience and processing costs as key indicators of its eventual impact.

2. ANZ cuts customer scam losses by 24%

ANZ reported that customer scam losses in Australia fell approximately 24% year-on-year between October 2025 and June 2026. The bank prevented or recovered more than AUD 100 million ($72 million) in scam and fraud-related funds, resolved 94% of nearly 170,000 scam-related calls at first contact and recorded more than 476,000 payments abandoned after customers received a Confirmation of Payee mismatch warning.

The reduction in realised customer losses is a more meaningful control outcome than counts of alerts or technology deployments alone. The supporting indicators suggest that payment warnings and specialist response operations contributed to the result, but ANZ did not separate prevented funds from recovered funds or disclose total attempted losses.  Payments abandoned after a mismatch warning also cannot all be classified as scams, leaving the extent of confirmed loss prevention unquantified.

3. Deutsche Bank selects target core for 15-to-two consolidation

Deutsche Bank’s Private Bank selected Thought Machine’s Vault Core as the first of two target platforms in a programme to reduce its global core-banking systems from 15 to two. Vault Core is intended to support banking and lending products in Germany across Personal Banking and Wealth Management. Development is under way, with testing planned by the end of 2026 and phased migration is scheduled to begin in 2027. The Private Bank plans to invest about EUR 600 million ($699 million) in technology, operations and AI by the end of 2028, targeting EUR 300 million ($349 million) in annual run-rate savings by 2028.

Reducing 15 cores to two would materially simplify Deutsche Bank’s architecture and concentrate product development, data and operational processes on fewer platforms. The current milestone, however, remains a platform selection and development programme, rather than a completed migration. The second target platform has not been identified, while the investment, savings and client-experience benefits remain forward-looking. Migration volumes, decommissioning progress and service stability will provide stronger evidence of execution.

4. CIMB completes tokenised-deposit settlement of sukuk

CIMB Group, through CIMB Islamic Bank, completed a controlled pilot settling tokenised sukuk with tokenised deposits. The test related to a MYR 1.68 billion ($417.1 million) sukuk issuance, of which MYR 1.38 billion ($342.6 million) was tokenised form and subscribed by 12 institutional investors. It was conducted through Bank Negara Malaysia’s Digital Asset Innovation Hub, with CIMB also engaging the Securities Commission Malaysia on tokenised capital-market products.

The settlement moves CIMB’s tokenisation programme from an earlier development roadmap into an executed institutional test using commercial-bank money. It also preserved the sukuk’s underlying economic and Sharia structure. However, the controlled environment does not establish production readiness, and CIMB did not disclose settlement time, cost reduction, liquidity effects or capital-efficiency outcomes. Coupon payments, secondary transfers and redemption remain prospective lifecycle applications.

5. Scalable Capital opens investment platform to external AI assistants

On 25 August, Scalable Capital made its Agentic Investing interface available to clients, allowing them to connect their accounts to external AI assistants including ChatGPT, Claude and Grok. The interface supports securities searches, portfolio analysis, watchlists, alerts, savings-plan preparation and trading. Connections use a command-line application or Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. Two-factor authentication and explicit confirmation remain required, while deposits and withdrawals can only be completed through Scalable’s own application or website.

The launch moves Scalable’s AI proposition beyond its existing in-application information tool by allowing external assistants to interact with investment accounts. Requiring trade confirmation and restricting cash movements provide  control boundaries, but the external assistants operate outside Scalable’s direct control. Scalable has not disclosed the number of connected accounts, completed instructions, rejected actions, execution errors or customer complaints, leaving adoption and operational-risk performance untested.

6. QNB completes end-to-end international card payment in Syria

QNB Group and Mastercard completed an end-to-end international card payment in Syria, covering point-of-sale use, authorisation and the merchant’s receipt of funds. Eligible hotels, restaurants and government entities can accept internationally issued Mastercard credit cards through QNB terminals. QNB Syria plans to onboard merchants in phases, subject to regulatory approvals, while Mastercard described the transaction as Syria’s first international card payment in more than 15 years.

Completing the full transaction cycle is a new operating milestone following QNB’s earlier introduction of international-card acceptance capabilities. It demonstrates that the underlying acquiring and settlement infrastructure can function, but one transaction does not establish nationwide coverage, merchant adoption or sustainable payment volumes. Visa completed a separate live transaction during the same period, limiting QNB’s distinction to the completed Mastercard payment cycle rather than exclusivity across international-card networks.

7. Maybank reports higher digital volumes as mobile share declines

Maybank reported 10.99 million three-month active digital users across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cambodia. Malaysian mobile-application transaction value reached MYR 226.31 billion ($56.1 billion) in the second quarter, up 13.63% year-on-year, while QR Pay volume rose 54.73% to 312.85 million transactions. Maybank also reported that more than 20,000 employees had been equipped with Microsoft Copilot and about 1,600 developers had been onboarded to AI-assisted coding, testing and release processes.

The figures show digital activity and employee-level AI deployment at substantial scale, but they also expose a competitive tension. Maybank’s share of Malaysian mobile-banking transaction-volume share fell from 48.1% in June 2025 to 38.1% in June 2026, although the measure has excluded quick-response transactions since the second quarter of 2025. The bank disclosed the number of employees equipped with Copilot, but not active usage, time saved, software quality or process-level productivity outcomes.

8. Bank of Japan finds generative AI use or trials at over 90% of institutions

Bank of Japan published its third annual survey of AI use and risk management, covering 150 financial institutions. More than 90% were using or trialling generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), with applications expanding from administrative work into core operations involving customer information. Direct presentation of GenAI output to customers remained limited, while institutions identified governance, third-party risk, safety, security, human resources, infrastructure, data readiness and cybersecurity as continuing gaps.

The survey provides a system-wide benchmark showing that GenAI experimentation is approaching ubiquity in Japanese finance while customer-facing deployment remains cautious. Its headline adoption rate combines institutions in production with those still conducting trials, limiting comparisons of operational maturity. The report also does not quantify production use cases, usage volumes, productivity improvements, model failures or customer outcomes, making it difficult to treat the adoption rate as evidence of realised value.

9. CommBank launches PaidIt for complex organisational payouts

Commonwealth Bank launched PaidIt, an end-to-end platform for settlements, remediation payments and refunds where recipient information may be incomplete or outdated. It combines recipient matching, identity and account checks, communications and payment delivery using the New Payments Platform (NPP), PayID and ConnectID. The bank reported a median time of less than two minutes from a recipient starting a claim to receiving funds. PaidIt is already used in selected internal cases, with broader business-unit and corporate-client availability planned over the coming months.

Internal production use and a defined recipient journey distinguish PaidIt from a pre-launch proposition, while Australia’s planned cheque phase-out gives the platform a clear operational use case. The reported two-minute median covers the customer claim-to-payment process but does not reveal payment volumes, matching accuracy, exception rates, fraud outcomes or cost reductions. Availability to external Corporate and Institutional Banking clients also remains a future rollout rather than established market adoption.

10. FV Bank opens managed banking infrastructure to fintechs

FV Bank launched Global Managed Accounts, allowing approved fintech and payment-platform clients to embed direct FV Bank accounts in their own products. FV Bank manages account infrastructure, know-your-customer, know-your-business and know-your-transaction checks, transaction monitoring and continuing reviews. The live service supports US-dollar wires, automated clearing house payments, cross-border payments in more than 40 currencies and  USDC and USDT transfers. The bank said it was onboarding fintechs and claimed potential reach across more than 180 countries.

The service brings regulated accounts, payments and compliance into one bank-managed infrastructure, potentially reducing the nested provider arrangements used by some embedded-finance platforms. Its production availability gives it more weight than a capability announcement, but the geographical and currency figures describe potential reach rather than demonstrated usage. FV Bank did not identify onboarded partners or disclose active accounts, transaction volumes, compliance exceptions or settlement performance.

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