Al Rajhi Bank in Saudi Arabia has chosen Temenos for a digital overhaul and to improve its Islamic lending and financing products, reports Antony Peyton of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

Al Rajhi, which is described as the nation’s second largest bank and the world’s largest Islamic bank, has total assets of over $97 billion.

It plans a “complete renovation” using Temenos T24 Transact and additional digital solutions including Temenos Infinity and Temenos Loan Origination product.

Waleed Al Mogbel, deputy CEO, Al Rajhi Bank, said the Temenos platform will “enable us to transform faster, drive out complexity and lower our overall total cost of ownership”.

Jean-Paul Mergeai, managing director Middle East and Africa at Temenos, added that the vendor has 19 clients in Saudi Arabia and this “new signing further cements our presence in the country where we have been operating since the late nineties”.

The bank will use the Temenos Islamic Banking Suite, coupled with its “Saudi Model Bank” application which includes pre-configured local functions, to cater for the specific Saudi regulatory requirements.

Al Rajhi operates in more than 570 branches across Saudi Arabia as well as in Kuwait, Jordan and Malaysia. It was founded in 1957.

As noted above, Temenos is well established in Saudi Arabia. Customers include Alawwal Bank, Amlak International, Alinma Bank, Bank Albilad, Banque Saudi Fransi and Samba Financial Group.

Back in October 2018, treasury and capital markets (TCM) tech specialist Murex signed up Al Rajhi for its flagship MX.3 platform.

Temenos demonstrated its Connect Mobile Banking solution at FinovateEurope 2015. The company is also an alum of our developers conference, presenting a discussion on its B2B Financial Apps Marketplace at FinDEVrSilicon Valley in 2015.

Founded in 1993, Temenos is based in Geneva, Switzerland.