The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | Feb 6th

By Puja Sharma

The Weekly Wrap is published every Friday and recaps the week’s main stories and deals, as well as upcoming events and announcements for Prime subscribers only.

The Big Story

ila Bank, the digital mobile-only bank powered by Bank ABC, has migrated to Temenos’ cloud-native Core Banking and Payments platform to drive greater agility and scale.

Temenos, a global leader in banking technology, announced that Bank ABC, one of MENA’s leading international banks, had successfully migrated its digital mobile-only ila Bank onto Temenos’ Core Banking platform hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The migration, which also included Temenos Payments and Data Hub, was delivered by Systems Limited, a global system integrator and Temenos Delivery Partner. This marked the completion of the first phase of Bank ABC’s wider core banking transformation programme with Temenos.

Launched in 2019, ila Bank is a multi-award-winning mobile-only bank committed to delivering innovative and personalised banking experiences that enrich customers’ lifestyles, while driving financial inclusion across Bahrain and the wider region. With this go-live, the bank successfully migrated its retail account and lending operations to Temenos’ core banking platform, reinforcing its position as a digital banking leader in the region.

Temenos’ core banking and payments solutions on AWS provided ila Bank with the speed, agility and scalability required to drive customer growth and launch new products and services faster. Temenos’ cloud-native, API-first architecture also enabled rapid integration of new capabilities and open banking services to further enhance customer experience.

Deals of the week

• SGB blends fiat and crypto settlement on single platform
• Profile Software powers treasury upgrade at Co-op Bank Kenya
• Al Etihad Payments selects Montran to power cross-border instant payments integration
• Advance raises $8.55m seed to modernise insurance payments
• Qualco’s ProximaPlus secures Shariah compliance certification
• Mysa raises $3.4m to modernise finance operations with AI
• VEON partners with MindBridge on AI financial analytics
• Janata Sahakari Bank selects TCS BaNCS for core banking upgrade

Be on the lookout for

The RBI’s February 2026 MPC decision to keep the repo rate unchanged at 5.25% extends the current easing cycle pause after 125 bps of cuts since early 2025. By retaining a neutral stance, the central bank has reinforced confidence in domestic growth while keeping policy optionality intact amid global uncertainty. The message is one of continuity: growth is holding up, inflation risks are contained, and monetary support is calibrated rather than withdrawn.

For FinTechs and BFSI players, rate stability translates into planning certainty. Banks and NBFCs can sustain lending momentum, while digital lenders benefit from predictable cost of capital across consumer and SME credit. The RBI’s focus on liquidity conditions and transmission efficiency matters directly for digital-first banks, payments firms and platforms built on real-time settlement. With FY26 GDP growth projected at 7.4% and inflation expected to remain near 2%, the policy environment supports scale-up across digital banking, wealth and payments—while keeping an eye on global volatility rather than domestic tightening.