London Mutual Credit Union live with new core banking and debit card systems
Image source: London Mutual Credit Union
India-based core banking tech provider TCS Financial Solutions has gained its third live site among the UK credit unions for its Bancs core banking system. London Mutual Credit Union has gone live with the new cloud-based system.
The credit union embarked on this major technology overhaul in 2015. Bancs replaced the legacy Curtains system from domestic vendor Kesho Systems, Banking Technology understands.
TCS has confirmed to Banking Technology that London Mutual has completed the migration of its business operations to run on TCS Bancs in the cloud.
“With this landmark, London Mutual has become the first credit union in the UK to offer current accounts services to its customers,” a spokesperson from TCS states.
London Mutual has also launched a new debit card programme, powered by Optimus Card Group. London Mutual says the new debit card scheme – in partnership with Mastercard – “brings true, fully functional debit cards to credit union members across the country for the first time”.
London Mutual offers a range of savings accounts, loans (including payday loans) and current accounts.
It follows in the footsteps of two Scottish entities, Capital Credit Union and Scotwest, who were the first amongst UK credit unions to sign for the Bancs platform (this was back in 2010).
Birmingham-based Citysave Credit Union signed for Bancs in 2012, but the project did not go ahead, Banking Technology understands. Citysave continues to use Kesho Systems’ Curtains.
Modernise or perish
There is a lot of activity going on in the UK’s credit union space, as the participants realise they have no choice but to modernise.
Some have been faster than others. 6Towns Credit Union implemented Temenos’ T24 core banking system a couple of years ago. My Community Bank opted for Mambu’s cloud-based core three years ago.
Meanwhile, the Association of British Credit Unions (Abcul) is yet to go live with its new shared core platform for its members – Fiserv’s Agiliti – a project it has been working on for nearly three years.
There is also a new core system on the block, developed by local vendor Perception. Perception has built a new platform for credit unions, community development financial institutions (CDFIs), loan companies and start-up banks.
