Egypt’s Suez Canal Bank Appoints Temenos to Revolutionize Digital Banking in Egypt

One of Egypt’s top banks, Suez Canal Bank, has appointed Temenos, one of the world’s leaders in banking software to reimagine the digital customer experience for its retail, corporate and Islamic banking service.  Temenos’ digital banking platform will help Suez Canal Bank drive sustainable growth and financial inclusion in a country where more than 40 million are unbanked.

Temenos Infinity will also provide a complete digital platform for Suez Canal Bank, covering the entire customer lifecycle from customer onboarding, account opening, and digital servicing. With Temenos Infinity, the bank can bring new products to market faster, accelerate digital customer onboarding and increase front office efficiency to achieve a market-leading cost-income ratio.

By making more banking products and services accessible and optimized for mobile devices and leveraging advanced technologies like AI for example for a new Chabot service, Suez Canal Bank aims to accelerate the shift from serving customers in branch to its digital channels. This will help the bank achieve its strategic goals to grow sustainably while delivering more value to customers and shareholders.

Cairo-Based Suez Canal Bank is in the top 10 banks in Egypt with over EGP50 billion in assets and a network of 48 domestic branches. It offers personal, corporate, and Islamic banking products and services, including customized banking solutions to meet the needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Digital banking is a top priority for Suez Canal Bank concerning increasing financial inclusion. According to World Bank figures, Egypt’s population of 64.7 million people over the age of 15 is largely dependent on cash with only 32.8% holding bank accounts. With Temenos Infinity, Suez Canal Bank’s customers will enjoy a seamless and frictionless digital experience to manage their cards and accounts, pay bills and other payments, apply for new products and services and engage with the bank via chat – all from their mobile device.

Temenos Infinity also enables Suez Canal Bank to empower the decision-making of its customers with smart banking solutions such as relevant insights and suggestions using personalized data and AI capabilities. This helps to remove the complexity of business banking to enable SME owners to focus on running their business and assists individual customers with the day-to-day decisions that affect their personal and financial lives.

Suez Canal Bank is in the process to upgrade its Temenos Transact core banking system and together with Temenos Infinity is now able to achieve an end-to-end digital banking transformation.

Hussein Refaie, Chairman and Managing Director of Suez Canal Bank, commented: “We are delighted to partner with Temenos to take our digital banking to the next level. Temenos is the market-leader in digital banking technology and has a strong local presence and record of success with banks in Egypt and the MEA region. Enabling and building engagement with our customers via digital channels is a key growth driver that will help Suez Canal Bank to attract a new generation of customers. This is a priority to support our growth plans but also as a boost to financial inclusion in Egypt.”

Jean-Paul Mergeai, President of APAC and MEA, Temenos, said: “Suez Canal Bank has a long history with over 40 years of leadership in the banking sector in Egypt. The bank is undergoing an ambitious digital transformation and we are proud of the coordination between Temenos and the Information Technology division to finalize this phase in Suez Canal Bank’s development. The impact of Covid-19 has accelerated the need and opportunity for digital banking and with Temenos Infinity, Suez Canal Bank is primed to fast-track the digitization of products for its retail, corporate and Islamic banking customers and drive innovation in the market.”

Suez Canal Bank joins a growing list of the top in Egypt to choose Temenos Infinity to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives, including Arab Investment Bank (bit.ly/3qmu2yk), and Egyptian National Post Organization (ENPO) (bit.ly/3kJNXWw), and Banque du Caire (bit.ly/30bjqaL).