Cater Allen, a London-based private bank and a subsidiary of Santander, has completed “the discovery phase” of the project with Temenos to overhaul its core banking software.

The project commenced earlier this year, as Banking Technology exclusively reported on at the time. The bank was known to be recruiting Temenos’ T24 specialists and project managers to help it with system customisation and implementation, and migration from the legacy core.

However, it is understood that the recruited specialists have now been let go, and there have been talks of the project being mothballed.

The bank has provided Banking Technology with the following statement: “Cater Allen continues to work constructively with Temenos. The discovery phase of the project is completed and we are assessing requirements for the next phase.

“As with any project of this nature, we will seek contractor support to meet the work load demands.”

Cater Allen is a long-standing user of the Ovation system, which currently resides with Fiserv. Ovation (also known as Wealthview) is a sunsetted product that is no longer developed.

Cater Allen has a history dating back to 1816, although its name – Cater Allen – came about quite late in the bank’s history, in the 1980s, as a result of an M&A. The bank was an independent entity until Abbey National acquired it in 1997. Abbey National was taken over by Santander in 2004.