Core and digital banking provider Temenos announced last week that it will expand its partnership with cloud computing service Microsoft Azure to shore up its digital software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering.

The Geneva-based Temenos will work with the tech giant to enhance its flagship Temenos Banking Cloud product, easing cloud adoption for clients by reducing their time to market while also addressing the industry’s security and regulatory demands.

The core solution provider aims to help clients reduce complexity and easily scale by combining its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology with Azure, Temenos Head of Cloud Andrew Reeves told Bank Automation News, adding that the partnership is pivotal to its long-term SaaS strategy.

“Banks are not fully leveraging their data,” Reeves said. “The data is duplicated, stored in silos, and without a data lake, banks are only accessing structured data such as filled-out forms while leaving unstructured data such as chatbot conversations and customer services calls completely unmined.”

The partnership will provide value to Temenos’ open banking platform, which is built on an application programming interface (API)-accessible microservice architecture. Azure will allow Temenos’ clients to take advantage of its open banking capabilities with “more certainty, predictability and a lower cost,” according to the Dec. 15 announcement from Temenos.

“Open banking might be seen as a buzzword in the States, but in Europe it is a regulatory-driven concept that breaks down barriers between banks, fintechs and non-banks,” Reeves told BAN.

Open banking is indicative of the shift toward an “ecosystem model,” he said, which connects client services through open APIs to complement traditional banking products. This affords valuable opportunities for cross-network service integration, including retail rewards programs and insurance products.

“We launched the Temenos Banking Cloud back in May — with that we delivered access to an innovation sandbox and built-in integration to our fintech marketplace, Temenos Exchange,” Reeves said. “Our explainable AI technology is embedded across all of that.”

Meanwhile, the partnership will help Temenos meet the 2015 Paris Agreement benchmarks for environmental sustainability as its emissions are projected to decrease 46% by 2030 — aided by automation and cloud-supplemented technology. The company has aligned its targets with “the most ambitious aims” of the Paris Agreement, according to Reeves.

Microsoft Azure also was selected as the cloud provider of choice for Canadian digital payments processor Interac in November.

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