January 2025: Top five banking technology stories of the month
With the rapid rate of technological change and shifting customer demands, financial institutions across the globe have been looking to modernise their tech.
Here is our pick of five of the top banking technology stories from January, featuring CEC Bank and Temenos, POECU and Sharetec, Accenture and Percipient, and more.
AlRayan Bank launches AlRayan Go mobile banking app in Qatar with Backbase
![AlRayan Bank - FinTech News](https://www.fintechfutures.com/files/2025/01/AlRayan-Bank-FinTech-News.png)
AlRayan Bank debuts mobile banking app with Backbase
AlRayan Bank has unveiled AlRayan Go, a new Sharia-compliant mobile banking app in Qatar, developed and launched in collaboration with banking tech provider Backbase.
Included in the launch are “a wide variety of banking services such as account services, transfer, card management, and many more”, according to an app store description.
In a LinkedIn post commending the launch, Backbase says the app is designed to “enhance digital experiences while staying true to Sharia-compliant principles”, offering “faster transfers” and “advanced security features”.
Accenture acquires digital twin technology from Percipient to “help banks decouple from legacy systems”
Singapore-based digital banking and data firm Percipient has sold its proprietary digital twin technology platform, Digital TWINN, to Accenture, which plans to leverage the tech to help financial services clients across the Asia Pacific “accelerate the reinvention of their core systems”.
The platform serves as a “virtual duplicate” of banks’ legacy and modern systems, according to Accenture, enabling banks to modernise cores without overhauling existing systems.
The integration of the platform into Accenture’s financial solutions suite will, according to the firm, “help banks decouple from legacy systems and embrace cloud and AI-led banking services”.
Romania’s CEC Bank set for retail and corporate banking tech overhaul with Temenos
![CEC Bank - FinTech News](https://www.fintechfutures.com/files/2025/01/CEC-Bank-FinTech-News.png)
CEC Bank taps Temenos for core banking overhaul
CEC Bank in Romania is set to deploy the cloud-based core banking platform of Swiss vendor Temenos as it looks to upgrade its legacy systems.
The modernisation project will apply to the state-owned bank’s retail and corporate banking systems, and will also include solutions for payments and data analytics.
Among these is Temenos Payments, which supports modules for real-time payments, automatic payments repair and payment order management, and which CEC Bank will use “for all domestic and cross-border payments”, according to the vendor.
Temenos will deliver CEC Bank’s tech overhaul in collaboration with SoftCentric and India’s Tech Mahindra.
Post Office Employees’ Credit Union picks Sharetec for core banking upgrade
Post Office Employees’ Credit Union (POECU) has selected US banking technology provider Sharetec to enhance its core banking software.
POECU, founded in 1924 by employees of the US Postal Service in New Orleans, has selected Sharetec’s web-based core processing solution to drive this enhancement.
The solution is expected to improve access to third-party vendors for the credit union, and “boost the efficiencies, capabilities, and experience of both POECU’s staff and membership”, the vendor states.
This experience will include the introduction of e-signatures, e-notifications, and according to POECU CEO Michelle Duhe, “shared branching and BSA and AML regulatory monitoring”.
Canada’s Central 1 to transfer digital banking operations to Intellect Design Arena
![Intellect Design Arena - fintech news](https://www.fintechfutures.com/files/2025/01/HoYJlprr_400x400.jpg)
Central 1 transfers digital banking ops to Intellect Design Arena
Central 1, a Canada-based service provider for financial institutions, and Indian banking tech firm Intellect Design Arena have agreed on a deal that will see Intellect assume responsibility for Central 1’s digital banking operations.
The agreement will see “Central 1’s Forge, MemberDirect, public website and mobile applications and product, along with digital banking engineering and service teams” transferred to Intellect, the companies say.
The move comes after Central 1 announced plans in October “to wind down its digital banking business and transition clients to one or more alternative digital banking providers”.
“Central 1 will continue to provide the technology infrastructure and related services under the agreement,” the two firms say.