David Arnott, CEO Temenos. (photo: Temenos)
Geneva – Temenos, the market leading provider of banking software, today announced that its award-winning banking application T24 is being used as the platform for M-Shwari, the latest iteration of the hugely successful M-Pesa mobile money offering. Launched in 2007, M-Pesa’s basic mobile banking services have been a massive hit, attracting more than 17 million subscribers or more than 80% of the adult population in Kenya1. M-Shwari, which launched this week, takes the M-Pesa service to the next level, opening a broad range of banking services including interest bearing savings accounts and micro loans to M-Pesa subscribers.
M-Shwari is a partnership between Safaricom, Vodafone, and long standing Temenos client Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA). It uses the TEMENOS T24 R12 core banking solution to help support the processing of electronic loan and bank account transactions made through the M-Pesa platform. This is a crucial next step for the M-Pesa initiative, ensuring an increase in access to a wider range of financial services by providing customers with convenient and efficient access to savings accounts and small loans through their mobile phones.
Safaricom customers can sign up to the M-Shwari interest bearing savings account or apply for micro loans, provided by CBA, directly through the M-Pesa menu on their phone. There are no forms to complete or any need to visit a bank branch. If successful, the loan money is sent by CBA to the customer’s M-Pesa account immediately, highlighting the convenience and simplicity of M-Shwari. Based on its success in Kenya, the solution will now be considered for other African markets and beyond.
The M-Shwari system is connected to a Government of Kenya database to enable real-time Know Your Customer (KYC) verification during customer enrolment, and uses a credit score algorithm based on their credit history as well as usage of Safaricom products, to determine a customer’s loan eligibility and maximum loan amount.
David Arnott, CEO, Temenos, says: “Temenos is very proud to be involved with M-Shwari, the next phase in M-Pesa’s hugely successful journey. Our involvement advances two of our most important corporate objectives: firstly, to be at the forefront of technology innovation in the financial services industry and, secondly, to advance technology as a means of lowering costs and making banking services more accessible. Today, there are 5bn mobile phone subscribers compared to 2.2bn bank account holders and so mobile banking represents a big opportunity to bank the unbanked. We are delighted to be working with CBA and others to help realise this opportunity.”
1 Source: http://www.cck.go.ke/news/2012/sector_statistics.html
About Temenos
Founded in 1993 and listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX: TEMN), Temenos Group AG is the market leading provider of banking software systems to retail, corporate, universal, private, Islamic, microfinance and community banks, wealth managers, and financial institutions. Headquartered in Geneva with more than 55 offices worldwide, Temenos software is proven in over 1,500 customer deployments in more than 125 countries across the world. Temenos’ products provide advanced technology and rich functionality, incorporating best practice processes that leverage Temenos’ expertise around the globe. Temenos customers are proven to be more profitable than their peers: in the period 2008-2010, Temenos customers enjoyed on average a 30% higher return on assets, a 46% higher return on capital and an 8.5 percentage point lower cost/income ratio than banks running legacy applications.
For more information please visit www.temenos.com.