Sombank, a privately owned Islamic bank in Somalia, has selected the Temenos Islamic Banking solution in the cloud to accelerate its digital transformation and create innovative products to increase access to financial services in Somalia
Temenos Infinity and Temenos Transact will enable Sombank to design and launch customised digital products more quickly while also reducing its operating costs.
Temenos’ cloud-native technology is expected to allow Sombank to create innovative digital products and offer lower cost services that are more accessible to all Somalians via a mobile device, including current and savings accounts for individuals and small businesses as well as the latest mobile money products.
A report produced for Temenos by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that governments across the Middle East and Africa regions are increasingly embracing digital agendas to encourage financial inclusion and accelerate digital banking and a cashless economy. According to the report, smart phone use expected to hit 74 per cent in the region by 2025 and the affordability of smartphones is a major driver in the development of mobile-only and mobile-first banks.
Currently, Sombank serves customers via branch and online network and representative offices throughout Somalia. Sombank will use the Temenos Infinity digital front office to create a unified customer experience for all financial and non-financial services across all channels, helping its staff serve customers faster in branch and online.
Garad Khalif Nor, CEO, SomBank, stated, “Sombank has big ambitions to play a significant role in rebuilding the country’s financial infrastructure by improving access to financial services throughout Somalia and beyond. Implementing the Temenos banking platform in the cloud will allow us to achieve rapid time to value for new digital products and the cost savings to fulfil this vision.”
