South Africa’s Barko Financial Services goes live on Temenos

By Pavithra R

Temenos, the banking software company, has announced that Barko Financial Services (BFS), a leading microfinance institution in South Africa, has gone live on Temenos Software-as-a-Service, making it faster and easier for South Africans to access finance remotely during the pandemic.

The Temenos solution combines Temenos Infinity digital banking platform and Temenos Transact next-generation core banking. The partnership enables BFS to originate loans for customers via mobile.

“While the pandemic has increased our service demand, it has impacted our physical operations and customer access to our branches. With Temenos Infinity, we can offer a personalized and digital lending service that gives our customers instant access to the funds they need when they need them without visiting a branch. Our ambition is to provide more banking products. With Temenos SaaS, we will be able to launch new capabilities faster and provide innovative products which are simple to use and tailored to add value to our target customers,” said Kobus de Wet, Chief Executive Officer, Barko Financial Services.

Through the collaboration, BFS will leverage Temenos Infinity to reimagine the customer experience, design and build a new lending service within 12 weeks, complete all customer trials and tests, and launch the final product 3 months later.  BFS processes more than 125,000 loans per month and with this alliance, its customers can apply securely via their mobile and receive loan funding instantly.

With its digital banking platform delivered by Temenos as a service, BFS will focus on its core business and devote capital and resources to better banking solutions

“Temenos is proud to partner with Barko Financial Services to make banking better for everyday South Africans. Our SaaS and cloud-native technology enable BFS to increase dramatically the speed, efficiency, and agility of its banking operations. This end-to-end platform modernization with Temenos will help BFS elevate customers’ experience and grow its business sustainably. Temenos is the world number one banking software company. With a strong presence in South Africa, we have been able to ensure a smooth implementation as well as provide valued expertise to support BFS in their journey to expand their banking proposition,” said Jean-Paul Mergeai, President – APAC and MEA, Temenos.

BFS is in the process of applying for a banking license and has ambitions to go beyond microfinance with a range of banking services aimed at the underserved and unbanked. The bank sees Temenos SaaS as the perfect launchpad for it to challenge the incumbent banks with new retail banking services.