Three Irish credit unions sign for Temenos’ banking tech

Three new clients for Temenos in Ireland

Three credit unions in Ireland have signed for Temenos’ front-to-back office banking solution, delivered on a hosted basis.

These are Capital Credit Union, Credit Union Plus and Tullamore Credit Union.

All three are moving to the new platform, dubbed Community Banking, from their legacy, on-premise systems. The new tech is anticipated to add further 10% per annum to their loan growth rates, Temenos says, as well as increase membership uptake. Capital Credit Union, for example, is predicting an additional 10,000 members over the next three years.

Also, the Community Banking platform “will fast-track the delivery of a number of new products, including revolving credit, a wider range of home loans, SME loans and a suite of green, or climate-related, loans”, the vendor adds.

Irish credit union assets have been growing over the last decade – from €14 billion in 2011 to €18.3 billion today. There are 241 credit unions in Ireland, which provide services to over 3.4 million customers.

Temenos says its Community Banking offering is perfect for the credit unions that rely on technology to gain a competitive edge, as it “offers pre-packaged front-to-back credit union products, processes and channels, built on modern cloud-native, cloud-agnostic and API-first technology”.

John Grogan, CEO of Credit Union Plus, observes that Ireland’s credit unions “are going through momentous change” both via M&S and organic growth, and Credit Union plus is keen to be “at the forefront of these exciting developments”.

“Our aim in this collaborative initiative is to reciprocate member loyalty and trust with the convenient, scalable and secure delivery of a range of contemporary financial services,” Grogan explains.

“People often ask us how we compete with the banks, but we see the fintechs as our future competition,” comments Gerry McConville, CEO of Capital Credit Union.

“Our strong community presence is one of our key differentiators – if we couple a strong digital presence with this existing community presence, we will have a winning formula for community banking, and one that our members will appreciate and support.”

Dennis Daly, CEO of Tullamore Credit Union, says: “Once the Temenos Community Banking system is fully operational, all our members will benefit from reduced paperwork, increased transaction speeds and an expanded services offering.

“While members are incredibly loyal to their community credit unions, many also feel the need to have accounts with a large bank and/or new fintech entity. This new system is intended to satisfy members’ full range of banking services needs, thereby negating the need to have accounts elsewhere.”

The deal with Temenos was facilitated by the Credit Union Development Association (CUDA), a credit union-owned body that enables credit unions to collaborate on beneficial activities and projects, which may not be possible as single standalone entities.

Temenos already has an established presence in Ireland, with clients such as Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, KBC, and St Raphael’s Garda Credit Union.