Building on the success of Pepper, Bank Leumi’s mobile-only bank, the three companies are collaborating to help drive the digital banking revolution 

Today at Money 20/20, Temenos (SIX: TEMN) and VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) announced a collaboration with Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI), Israel’s leading bank, to create an advanced digital banking platform for banks. The new solution available today to banks worldwide is based on the platform originally developed for Pepper, Bank Leumi’s fully-mobile bank. The new platform combines Pepper’s innovative product base with Temenos’ Core Banking platform, and is deployed on VMware’s cloud infrastructure, either on premises or in the public cloud. The solution will be on display at Money 20/20 USA, October 22-25, 2017 in booth #851 in The Venetian, The Palazzo and Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, NV.

Launched in February by Bank Leumi, Pepper offers an entirely mobile banking experience, from onboarding to performing transactions, and more. The process of opening an account takes just minutes, after which customers obtain current account facilities and an active credit line directly to their phone. Pepper requires no current account fees and is built on a unique technology that can help customers better manage their finances. This technology allows the Pepper service to get to know its users, customize relevant content, and offer a personalized banking experience that differs from person to person.

This new solution empowers banks with a digital model that can serve as the foundation to roll out an end-to-end mobile retail solution, from hosting to back office to front office. The solution leverages the technology structure behind Pepper, along with Bank Leumi’s developmental insight as a bank that has implemented the solution. The solution also includes an innovative mobile bank with payment and investment lines of business provided by Bank Leumi, running on top of Temenos’ Core Banking platform and VMware’s cloud infrastructure.

“When we set out on our journey to launch a new mobile-based digital bank, we wanted to revolutionize the banking industry in Israel and globally,” said RakefetRussak-Aminoach, Bank LeumiCEO. “Time was of the essence with this launch, and we were able to develop and deploy all mission-critical Temenos apps on VMware’s cloud infrastructure in less than 15 months. We’ve been very pleased with the solution’s performance thus far, and from the fast growth in customers who are extremely satisfied with this new innovative banking model that focuses on mobile, real-time banking with a unique customer experience. Nowadays, we see many incumbent banks and big retailers around the globe which are seeking to provide advanced mobile financial services. We can be their accelerator, with a very unique, attractive and innovative platform.”

Pepper’s core banking processes run on Temenos’ Core Banking platform. Pepper allows customers to manage all their banking activities entirely via mobile. Temenos drives the 24/7 real-time digital banking experience, serving as the engine for Pepper to provide personalized services along with immediate alerts about unusual activity. VMware provides maximum flexibility to select the best cloud environment to deploy and run Pepper while maintaining consistent operations that help with the integrity of their entire IT portfolio. VMware provides the essential software foundation that delivers a common operating environment spanning on-premises data centers and leading public/managed clouds for running Pepper.

“With legacy technology banks can’t keep up with the digital world. They don’t have the agility to respond to fast change, the analytics to offer real-time personalized experiences or the end-to-end processing to deliver instant fulfilment,” explains David Arnott, Chief Executive Officer, Temenos. “Temenos and VMware share a common goal of helping banks transform their business through the adoption of emerging technology. With this collaboration, we’re taking a step together toward achieving that goal. Our collaboration with VMware provides a secure infrastructure that allows banks to deploy our software either on-premises or in the public cloud.”

“Digital transformation is changing how financial organisations engage with customers and deliver financial services,” said Sanjay Poonen, Chief Operating Officer, Customer Operations, VMware. “We’ve had a great relationship with Bank Leumi in their use of VMware cloud infrastructure and AirWatch for mobile security. Now, together we will help banks accelerate their journey into the digital era while helping to disrupt the traditional business model for banking on a global basis. VMware’s cloud infrastructure gives financial services institutions the flexibility to innovate freely and run, manage, connect, and secure applications across clouds and devices in a common operating environment.”

The solution is made up of Bank Leumi’s innovative mobile-only bank with payment and investment lines of business, running on top of Temenos’ Core Banking platform and VMware’s cloud infrastructure. Financial institutions looking to take advantage of the solution will work with Bank Leumi, which will provide integration services and the companies IP. Customers will purchase Temenos and VMware cloud infrastructure components separately from the respective companies.