Temenos (SIX: TEMN) today announced that ZainCash, a subsidiary of March Holding and a leading payment service provider in Iraq, has gone live with Temenos core banking and payments to power the rapid growth and innovation of its digital payment services.
The successful implementation aligns with the strategic goals of the Iraqi government and the central bank to boost financial inclusion and expedite the digital transformation of the national economy. It positions ZainCash to expand its operations more effectively, elevate the customer experience, and swiftly introduce new products. As it progresses, ZainCash remains committed to delivering cutting-edge digital payment solutions to a broader spectrum of Iraqi customers, merchants, and SMEs.
Established in 2015, ZainCash has rapidly expanded, achieving over 1.2 million app downloads and securing the sixth position in the Forbes Middle East Fintech Top 50 for 2024. ZainCash enables users to make quick and easy local and international transfers, pay local merchants and government services, manage funds with a convenient multicurrency card (physical or virtual), as well as enjoy a variety of bonus features like digital vouchers. ZainCash’s vast network of 10,000 agents ensures these financial services are available everywhere in Iraq.
With Temenos, ZainCash has brought together its core banking and payments capabilities on Temenos’ flexible, composable banking platform, which enables easy integration with existing internal systems, as well as with the Central Bank of Iraq. The robust, agile platform will enable the company to scale quickly to meet growing consumer demand as it seeks to reach 3 million users by the end of the year.
ZainCash will use Temenos’ modern technology architecture with open APIs, to quickly launch a range of new services, including instant lending, and provide customized products for specific groups, such as families and students. It will also offer a digital and seamless onboarding process resulting in an improved user experience.
The increased capacity and flexibility of the Temenos platform will help ZainCash to continue widening financial inclusion by extending convenient digital financial services to more communities, including Iraq’s large unbanked population. The system will also play a key role in the company’s humanitarian support for the United Nations by allowing ZainCash to deliver larger volumes of funds to refugees with increased speed, stability, and greater customization of services.
With its core banking and payments running on Temenos’ single platform, ZainCash will benefit from a higher, sustained level of investment in R&D, as well as faster and lower-cost updating and maintenance, which means a lower total cost of ownership.
Yazen Altimimi, CEO, ZainCash, commented: “Temenos’ open and agile banking platform allows us to innovate and scale at speed, delivering a world-class payment experience that meets our customers’ growing needs and expectations. With Temenos, we can more easily expand our product range and provide more personalized services as we continue to lead the way in making payments safer, simpler and more convenient for all Iraqis.”
Lee Allcorn, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa, Temenos, said: “Congratulations to ZainCash on this successful go-live. We’re delighted to support this pioneering fintech company in bringing innovative and convenient digital services to more Iraqis and continuing to widen financial inclusion in the country. We continue to invest in our single code base across core banking and payments, which is helping everyone from established banks to nimble fintechs to increase efficiency and improve customer experience.”