Fintech
Iraqi FinTech ZainCash Goes Live with Temenos Core Banking and Payments to Expand Digital Payment Services
Temenos (SIX: TEMN) announced it today ZainCasha subsidiary of March Holding and a leading payment services provider in Iraq, has launched Temenos Core Banking and Payments to fuel the rapid growth and innovation of its digital payment services.
The successful implementation is in line with the strategic objectives of the Iraqi government and central bank to promote financial inclusion and accelerate the digital transformation of the national economy. Positions ZainCash to expand its operations more effectively, improve customer experience and rapidly introduce new products. As it progresses, ZainCash remains committed to providing cutting-edge digital payment solutions to a broader spectrum of Iraqi customers, merchants and SMEs.
Founded in 2015, ZainCash has rapidly expanded, reaching over 1.2 million app downloads and securing the sixth position in the Forbes Middle East Fintech Top 50 for 2024. ZainCash allows users to make easy local and international transfers and fast, pay local merchants and government services, manage funds with a convenient multi-currency card (physical or virtual), and enjoy a variety of bonus features like digital vouchers. ZainCash’s vast network of 10,000 agents ensures that these financial services are available everywhere in Iraq.
With Temenos, ZainCash has brought together its core banking and payments capabilities on Temenos’ flexible and composable banking platform, which allows for easy integration with existing internal systems, as well as with the Central Bank of Iraq. The robust and agile platform will allow the company to expand rapidly to meet growing consumer demand as it aims 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 a better user experience.
The increased capacity and flexibility of the Temenos platform will help ZainCash continue to broaden 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 to the United Nations, enabling ZainCash to provide greater volumes of funds to refugees with greater speed, stability and greater customization of services.
With core banking and payments running on Temenos’ unique platform, ZainCash will benefit from a higher and sustained level of investment in research and development, as well as faster and lower-cost upgrades and maintenance, meaning a lower total cost of ownership.
Yazen Altimimi, CEO of ZainCash, commented: “Temenos’ open and agile banking platform allows us to innovate and scale rapidly, delivering a world-class payments experience that meets the growing needs and expectations of our customers. 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 for Middle East and Africa, Temenos, said: “Congratulations to ZainCash on this successful go-live. We are pleased to support this pioneering fintech company in bringing innovative and convenient digital services to more Iraqis and continuing to broaden financial inclusion in the country. We continue to invest in our unique code base for core banking and payments, which is helping everyone from established banks to agile fintechs increase efficiency and improve the customer experience.”
Temenos is the global market leader in banking software, ranked first by IBS Intelligence in eight categories, including core banking and payments, in the ranking IBSi sales ranking 2023.