Arab Tunisian Bank Goes Live on Temenos Core Banking

In June 2022, Arab Tunisian Bank (ATB) completed the first phase of moving its core banking onto Temenos, the Swiss banking software vendor. Retail and corporate customer accounts were migrated to the new system, with digital banking and payments planned for a second phase. It is one of the clearest examples of a Tunisian bank replacing the old systems at the centre of its operations.

ATB's Temenos core banking go-live: what was announced

Temenos announced the go-live on 21 June 2022. According to its press release:

• The project covers the core banking systems for ATB's retail and corporate business lines.
• Phase one went live on Temenos banking capabilities for Accounts, Lending, Deposits and Financial Crime Mitigation.
• Retail and corporate customer accounts were migrated to the new platform.
• The work was carried out by implementation partner Information Technology Solutions and Services (ITSS).

FinTech Futures, which reported the news on 22 June 2022, added that the project had started in 2019, when ATB signed with Temenos for a broad range of front-to-back-office software.

Temenos describes the system as its "open platform for composable banking", built on microservices and APIs. In practice, the bank can add or replace individual modules, such as lending or payments, without rebuilding the whole system. Neither Temenos nor ATB said publicly whether ATB runs the platform in the cloud or in its own data centres.

Phase two: digital banking, payments and risk

A second phase was planned to add Temenos capabilities and pre-built services for:

• Digital banking
• Payments
• Enterprise risk management

FinTech Futures reported that Temenos software would eventually underpin the bank's entire operations. We could not find a public update on whether phase two has been completed since 2022.

Who is ATB?

ATB is a mid-sized universal bank serving retail, SME and corporate customers. At the time of the announcement it had about 1,300 staff and 134 branches across Tunisia. It is part of Arab Bank Group, which Temenos describes as one of the largest financial institutions in the Middle East. According to Temenos, ATB was founded in 1982 and ranks among Tunisia's top five banks.

What the executives said

ATB chief executive Ahmed Rjiba called the go-live "a major step forward" in the bank's strategic roadmap. "A modern, agile banking platform is vital for developing distinctive products and services," he said, adding that Temenos gave the bank the agility it needed.

William Moroney, Temenos' managing director for the Middle East and Africa, said ATB could now use the "unmatched breadth of the Temenos platform's composable banking capabilities". He also said Temenos had experience working with ten banks in Tunisia.

Why core banking matters for Tunisian fintech

Core banking is the system that holds customer accounts, records every transaction and calculates interest. Many banks still run decades-old systems that make launching a new product, or connecting to an outside partner, slow and expensive.

A modern core matters for the wider ecosystem in three ways:

• Faster products. Banks can launch digital accounts, instant loans and new payment features more quickly. See digital banking in Tunisia.
• APIs for partners. A system built on APIs makes it technically easier to connect fintechs, a precondition for open banking.
• Better data. Clean, centralised data is the basis for credit scoring, fraud detection and other AI uses in banking.

Part of a wider shift

ATB's migration came at a time when Tunisia was also building its fintech framework. The Central Bank of Tunisia launched its regulatory sandbox in 2020. As banks modernise their core systems, the technical gap between incumbent banks and fintech startups narrows. That gives banks more room to compete, and also more room to partner with fintechs.

Note that this go-live dates from 2022. Tunisia's banking technology has continued to evolve since then, and ATB's current setup may differ from what was announced at the time.