Hong Kong challenger WeLab Bank goes live with Temenos Transact

By Sunniva Kolostyak

WeLab Bank, Hong Kong’s first homegrown challenger bank, has gone live with Temenos, utilising the cloud-agnostic Temenos Transact alongside Analytics and Financial Crime Mitigation.

The bank – which reported 10,000 account openings within ten days of launching – designed, built and launched its platform in less than ten months, and aims to provide a range of digital services for the 7.5 million people in Hong Kong.

WeLab Bank is the first multi-cloud digital bank in Hong Kong, powered by Temenos Transact for core banking along with Temenos Analytics and Financial Crime Mitigation, implemented on Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.

By using multiple clouds at the same time, the FinTech has increased its operational resilience and disaster recovery capability while meeting regulatory requirements of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority for new digital banks.

With Temenos partner NuoDB, WeLa also has access to a distributed SQL database that allows for continuous availability across multiple cloud providers.

At the annual Temenos Community Forum (TCF), Eddie Tse, CTO at WeLab, said: “Running Temenos Transact on NuoDB’s cloud-agnostic distributed SQL database deployed across multiple clouds is enabling us to focus on building revolutionary banking experience in Hong Kong. Working closely with our technical teams, NuoDB & Temenos have partnered with us to deliver next-generation technology to meet new & future demands expected from digital banks.”

WeLab chose Temenos for its cost-effective and scalable core options, alongside API-first DevOps principles and its microservices. As Temenos Transact is a preconfigured system, WeLab was able to bring its service to market faster and extend its innovation with more than 400 out-of-the-box APIs.

In as fast as 5 minutes, customers can remotely open a WeLab Bank account with $0 monthly fees and start enjoying differentiated services such as time deposits with competitive rates, an interest-bearing deposit account with an instant virtual Debit Card, and real-time payments powered by Faster Payment System (FPS). Everything can be done on a mobile phone, simply and effortlessly.

Adrian Tse, CEO at WeLab Bank, commented: “WeLab Bank was born from an initiative to reimagine the banking experience for the 7.5 million people of Hong Kong. From the start, we knew this vision needed the most advanced cloud-native technology and a partner that shared our vision for digital transformation. With Temenos we have efficiently built WeLab Bank from scratch, free from any legacies, with innovative features that proactively help customers to take control of their money and their financial journey.”

Max Chuard, Chief Executive Officer, Temenos, said: “Congratulations to WeLab Bank on the launch of their trailblazing new digital bank. Building and launching a licensed bank in such a rapid timeframe is a fantastic achievement and we are proud to have supported them in becoming the first multi-cloud digital bank in Hong Kong. Temenos cloud-native, cloud-agnostic strategy means we can satisfy the needs of the most innovative and ambitious neobanks like WeLab Bank to run on multiple cloud providers. We know this is just the beginning for WeLab and we are excited to be part of their story as they revolutionize banking for people in Hong Kong.”