For too lengthy, the banking sector of Asia Pacific has been navigating the digital age with one hand tied behind its again. Most of it’s by means of being held down by the burden of legacy infrastructure.
Nevertheless, the sport has now modified.
The speedy convergence of digitalisation, hovering buyer expectations for seamless, digital-first experiences, and evolving regulatory landscapes have created an pressing want for transformation.
Conventional monetary establishments are going through mounting strain from agile fintech disruptors, which all begs one massive query not on if they should evolve, however quite how shortly. The reply, nevertheless, is straightforward. It lies more and more, within the strategic embrace of Temenos SaaS.
To raised perceive why SaaS is not only a cloud supply mannequin however a strategic enabler of next-generation banking, Fintech Information Community spoke with Suresh Raman, Head of SaaS APAC at Temenos.
The corporate has been a long-standing supplier of core banking software program from the time of its inception in 1993. Since then, they’ve been serving nearly 1000 monetary establishments in over 150 nations.
SaaS Is No Longer Non-compulsory, It’s Enterprise-Vital
Zooming out from Asia Pacific, banks typically face an ideal storm of market pressures. Most, are on the heightened buyer expectations, rising regulatory calls for, and intense competitors from digital-native challengers.
Suresh mentioned that Temenos SaaS is ideal for navigating these issues. It’s all attributable to how it’s more and more seen by banks as a strategic enabler quite than merely a deployment mannequin.
Gartner initiatives that the worldwide public cloud spending to achieve USD $723.4 billion in 2025, up from USD $595.7 billion in 2024—with SaaS making up the biggest share. Nearer to dwelling, Asia Pacific is main the worldwide finance cloud market in development, with a forecast CAGR of 17.5% between 2021 and 2030, based on IBS Intelligence.
This development trajectory is echoed by Goldman Sachs, which forecasts cloud revenues to hit USD $2 trillion by 2030, with SaaS representing a dominant 41% share.
Monetary establishments within the area are more and more bypassing conventional on-premise deployments and heading straight to SaaS-native fashions. The advantages are compelling. Prospects can count on sooner time to market, decrease complete value of possession, and better agility.
Breaking Free from Legacy Methods
One of many greatest roadblocks to innovation stays the ageing core banking infrastructure nonetheless in place at many establishments. These legacy techniques are inflexible, expensive to take care of and gradual to adapt to alter.
“SaaS permits banks to interrupt free from that legacy burden,” Suresh defined. “It helps steady supply fashions that permit for speedy iteration and deployment.”
Temenos helps this transition with a versatile banking platform and modular companies designed to assist establishments modernise at their very own tempo. Its instruments are constructed to assist operational reliability whereas enabling banks to discover extra agile, customer-centric fashions.
Such an strategy is especially related in APAC, the place establishments differ broadly in digital maturity. SaaS might help to degree the taking part in subject by permitting each incumbents and challengers to align their operations with market calls for.
Delivering Innovation and Personalisation at Scale
As digital transformation accelerates, delivering significant, data-driven companies has change into a key differentiator for banks.
Whereas typically perceived as a backend improve, Temenos SaaS can also be influencing how monetary establishments reimagine buyer engagement, particularly by way of scalability, velocity, and personalisation.
Via embedded AI and real-time analytics, the platform permits banks to supply hyper-personalised monetary companies which might be responsive and related.
“Take into consideration hyper-personalised monetary wellness journeys, predictive product suggestions, and automatic fraud detection—these are not aspirational,” mentioned Suresh.
He talked about that these are the real-live use circumstances powered by the Temenos SaaS platform.
Whether or not it’s a retail financial institution launching a brand new financial savings product or a company financial institution streamlining mortgage approvals, Temenos permits banks to analyse buyer behaviour constantly and reply with tailor-made choices.
Superior capabilities akin to machine studying and embedded finance come pre-integrated, making them accessible even to smaller establishments.
Sustaining Belief by means of Safety and Compliance
In a area as various as Asia Pacific, regulatory compliance is a shifting goal. That’s why safety and compliance are constructed into each layer of the Temenos SaaS platform.
To satisfy the area’s various regulatory calls for, Temenos SaaS aligns with globally recognised requirements like SOC 2 and ISO 27001, whereas supporting compliance with greater than 30 regulatory authorities worldwide.
“The supply mannequin additionally simplifies updates,” added Suresh.
Suresh talked about that quite than managing patches throughout fragmented techniques, monetary establishments obtain automated, pre-tested updates immediately from Temenos. This could additional guarantee safety and compliance with ease.
Temenos has additionally earned the Trusted Cloud Supplier standing from the Cloud Safety Alliance, changing into one in every of solely 30 suppliers globally to realize STAR Stage 1, STAR Stage 2, and the Trusted Cloud Supplier mark, becoming a member of the ranks of AWS, Microsoft, and IBM.
A Clear Path to Cloud Maturity
Suresh highlighted that the journey to changing into a cloud-native financial institution usually follows 4 key phases. They’re Initiation, Migration, Optimisation, and Maturity. Establishments should first start by assessing how greatest to combine cloud options into their operations.
They then transfer core banking techniques to the cloud, adopted by optimisation, utilizing cloud-native instruments to boost efficiency. Full cloud maturity is then marked by the whole transition away from legacy techniques. It permits customers to unlock the very best ranges of agility and innovation.
“Temenos SaaS accelerates the transition to cloud maturity by offering a safe, built-in, and compliant platform that minimises reliance on outdated infrastructure,” mentioned Suresh.
He believes that such a transfer permits banks to give attention to what issues most. These banks can now ship worth to their clients, fostering innovation, and driving development.
All Roads Result in Manila
All of those themes talked about earlier will come into focus on the Temenos Regional Discussion board APAC 2025, happening June 4–5 in Manila. Positioned as a key milestone within the area’s digital banking journey, the discussion board will deliver collectively greater than 250 senior banking executives and know-how leaders from throughout the Asia Pacific.
Suresh even mentioned that it’ll be greater than only a tech occasion.
“It’s a platform for strategic conversations about the way forward for banking in Asia Pacific,” Suresh talked about.
Attendees can count on buyer success tales, deep dives into SaaS transformation journeys, reside demos of next-gen capabilities together with GenAI, and collaboration alternatives with Temenos Trade ecosystem companions.
For a lot of banks, the discussion board represents a launching pad. It would give attendees an opportunity to reimagine how they will higher serve clients, handle danger, and compete in a digitally native world.
A Name to Motion for Banks in APAC
In line with Suresh, the trajectory of banking in APAC is clearly shifting towards cloud-native, open, and scalable techniques. He believes in truth that SaaS fashions can provide banks the flexibleness and responsiveness they more and more require.
SaaS is not a differentiator. Plus, as organisations throughout APAC and past more and more undertake hybrid cloud fashions (with 90% anticipated to take action by 2027), it’s changing into a necessity.
Temenos goals to assist establishments of various sizes by offering the underlying instruments and know-how wanted to strengthen operational agility and adapt to evolving buyer expectations.
To discover these concepts additional, Temenos invitations banking leaders to the upcoming discussion board in Manila. It’s going to be a spot for dialogue, discovery, and collaboration round the way forward for digital finance within the Asia Pacific.
Be taught extra or register for the Temenos Regional Discussion board APAC 2025
Featured picture: Edited from Freepik.