Raya Financing Picks Temenos Core to Run Shariah-Compliant Products on a Saudi Private Cloud

Raya Financing has chosen Temenos Core as the core banking platform for its next stage of growth in Saudi Arabia, with the software running in a private cloud inside the country.

The platform consolidates the company's product and transaction processing onto one system. Raya picked it for both core banking and Islamic finance capability, since Temenos Core handles Shariah-compliant products. The company weighed Temenos' track record and the localisation work it has done for the Saudi market.

What the system will carry

Temenos Core will sit under Raya's retail finance, leasing and auto finance lines. The pipeline goes further: personal finance, SME finance, buy now pay later and home finance are all slated to run on the same platform.

According to Temenos, the platform's configurability lets several products share one system without heavy custom build work. The aim is leaner operations and faster product launches as market requirements shift.

Mohammed Makkawi, chief information officer at Raya Financing, said the platform gives the company room to carry a wider set of financing products, simplify its operations and bring offerings to market faster, while keeping pace with what Saudi customers will need.

Santhosh Rao, managing director for the Middle East and Africa at Temenos, said the company expects to support Raya as it expands auto, retail and business financing and pursues its growth plans.

The wider push

The investment comes as Saudi Arabia's finance company sector widens under the Financial Sector Development Program, part of Vision 2030, which targets a more diversified and efficient financial sector.

For non-bank lenders, that policy push raises the bar on product range and launch speed alike. Building on one core system hosted inside the kingdom, rather than abroad, also keeps the processing footprint local as the product set grows.