Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has gone live with Temenos’ IslamicSuite package, a solution of mixed services including the vendor’s flagship core banking system T24. The transformation was completed “on schedule” and in a “record timeframe” according to the bank, which quotes two years of work.

The new IslamicSuite package will cover core banking, all business lines and a number of middle office and periphery systems. The majority of QIB’s infrastructure needed a refresh, says the bank, and it required the upgrading or implementation of a number of features

“The newly-implemented Temenos core banking system will allow us to improve our operations in a number of ways,” says Krishna Kumar, CEO at QIB. “We are already witnessing many efficiency gains, beneficial both to our customers and the bank. Many manual procedures have been automated, giving us more time to personally serve our customers.”

QIB has attempted a Temenos implementation in the past. In 2010 it selected T24 but “all attempts to implement the system failed”. The bank’s CIO, Ghazi Qarout, told IBS Intelligence that when he joined in 2013 he had a choice of keeping T24, replacing it or upgrading the legacy system. The improvements made to T24 between release version eight and release version 14 convinced him to stick with Temenos.

A new round of negotiations with the supplier took place, and decisions about module selection were taken again. One notable decision was for QIB to work directly with Temenos rather than a third party integrator.

“We are delighted by the successful implementation of our core banking solution at Qatar Islamic Bank,” adds Jean-Paul Mergeai, Head of Middle East and Africa at Temenos. “Built on the foundation of sound governance from day one, together, we have operated in an open and transparent relationship, with both sets of senior management highly committed to the programme objectives. QIB’s success has set new benchmarks in Islamic banking in the region and we are happy to be a part of it.