The banking environment is experiencing tremendous change in the Caribbean. Mergers and acquisitions along with more sophisticated clients and their needs means that core banking systems are required to process greater volumes and produce more information than ever before. Technology must not only keep pace with these higher expectations from both banks and their customers alike but at the same time must adhere to new international regulations compelling financial institutions in the Caribbean and indeed throughout the world to conform to strict new standards.
With this rapidly-changing environment has come an increased demand for best-of-breed technologies. Solutions must be able to account for the particular local conditions of the Caribbean and the stringent demands of financial institutions.
For instance, Caribbean banks often operate in multiple jurisdictions, numerous currencies circulate daily, and a range of different languages are used.
There is one provider that has taken into account all of these circumstances to provide Caribbean banks with world-class technology that can handle their toughest challenges: TEMENOS. "Financial institutions are looking to attract and satisfy clients by providing greater sophistication and flexibility while improving their efficiency and risk management" says Alex Groenendyk, President of the Americas for TEMENOS.
TEMENOS offers Caribbean institutions TEMENOS T24TM, a fully customizable core banking solution. This functionally rich, scalable, integrated modular banking system is built on an open architecture which incorporates established industry standards such as HTTP, XML and J2EE. It is also the only system available today with no end-of-day batch processing and can genuinely claim to provide real-time, 24/7 non-stop banking.
"People in the Caribbean need real-time information throughout the day - and they don't want to wait for 'batch' processing to finish before a report can be produced," explains Russell Taylor, Senior Sales Executive for the Caribbean of TEMENOS for the Caribbean.
TEMENOS also enables institutions to quickly comply with new regulations. "We take the latest legal and regulatory requirements along with specific product needs from any client and we incorporate those changes into our core technology," said Taylor. "This ensures that our clients can comply with and satisfy internal and external auditors with regards to accounting conventions, risk and reporting needs."
TEMENOS, which has more than 400 customers worldwide and 19 in Latin America, has been serving financial services clients in the Caribbean since 1995. Today it has customers throughout the region, including St. Kitts & Nevis, the Bahamas, Cuba, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Haiti. The majority of the clients have installed and use the "flagship" Temenos T24 product, while a growing number of smaller financial institutions use the Temenos eMerge application, a pre-packaged T24 system ideally suited and quickly installed at smaller community-type banks.
TEMENOS has continued to see success in the Caribbean with a series of recent deals with influential banks. These include RBTT Financial Group, the largest financial services provider in the Caribbean, and the Capital and Credit Merchant Bank in Jamaica.
RBTT turned to TEMENOS to replace its legacy core banking systems and it will implement the system in all 80 branches in 12 Caribbean jurisdictions.
"RBTT's rapid expansion over the last few years and our goal to be the leading regional financial institution demands that we maintain a dynamic evolutionary philosophy," says Jerome Sooklal, Group Chief Executive Officer for RBTT. "We will begin upgrading our technology throughout the region to enhance service delivery to our clients. We note that the literal translation of TEMENOS-'Something of value'-is in congruence with RBTT's strategic objective of enhancing both customer and shareholder value. 'Value' is thus a shared mantra for both RBTT and TEMENOS."
TEMENOS is expanding in the Caribbean at a brisk pace and will complement its offices in Miami, Mexico and Ecuador with staff deployed at various client sites and as work continues with local staff and business partners within the region.
Contact:
Russell Taylor, Senior Sales Executive for the Caribbean
Tel: +1 305 704 5100
Email: infoamericas
www.temenos.com
