Swiss core banking vendor Temenos has announced a large deal with HSBC, raising hopes of a sea change in strategic technology thinking at Tier 1 banks worldwide.
Under the agreement, the bank and Temenos will "combine their technology resources" to build HSBC's new international banking platform, based on the onward development of the Java version of Temenos CoreBanking.
Ken Harvey, group CIO of HSBC says the partnership will realise the core banking technology component of a much broader initiative to reengineer the bank's existing HSBC Universal Banking system currently deployed in 63 countries.
"HSBC is very selective about partnerships with external suppliers. Only those that can complement our global reach and that are at the leading edge of software development are chosen," he says. "After an extensive review, we believe that the next generation of core banking software is yet to be developed and that Temenos is well positioned to lead this market."
Temenos has not put a value on the contract, but it is believed to be worth between $20 and $25 million over a five year period, with '05 value estimated at anywhere between $5 and $8 million.
The capture of HSBC not only represents a prize scalp for Temenos, it also has significance for the industry at large, indicating that the world's largest banks are ready to partner with third party suppliers as they seek to re-build their legacy technology platforms.