For too long, the banking sector of Asia Pacific has been navigating the digital age with one hand tied behind its back. Most of it is through being held down by the weight of legacy infrastructure.

However, the game has now changed.  

The rapid convergence of digitalisation, soaring customer expectations for seamless, digital-first experiences, and evolving regulatory landscapes have created an urgent need for transformation.  

Traditional financial institutions are facing mounting pressure from agile fintech disruptors, which all begs one big question not on if they need to evolve, but rather how quickly. The answer, however, is simple. It lies increasingly, in the strategic embrace of Temenos SaaS.  

To better understand why SaaS is no longer just a cloud delivery model but a strategic enabler of next-generation banking, Fintech News Network spoke with Suresh Raman, Head of SaaS APAC at Temenos.   

The company has been a long-standing provider of core banking software from the time of its inception in 1993. Since then, they have been serving almost 1000 financial institutions in over 150 countries.  

SaaS Is No Longer Optional, It’s Business-Critical  

Zooming out from Asia Pacific, banks often face a perfect storm of market pressures. Most, are on the heightened customer expectations, increasing regulatory demands, and intense competition from digital-native challengers.   

Suresh said that Temenos SaaS is perfect for navigating these problems. It is all due to how it is increasingly seen by banks as a strategic enabler rather than merely a deployment model.  

Gartner projects that the global public cloud spending to reach USD $723.4 billion in 2025, up from USD $595.7 billion in 2024—with SaaS making up the largest share. Closer to home, Asia Pacific is leading the global finance cloud market in growth, with a forecast CAGR of 17.5% between 2021 and 2030, according to IBS Intelligence.   

This growth trajectory is echoed by Goldman Sachs, which forecasts cloud revenues to hit USD $2 trillion by 2030, with SaaS representing a dominant 41% share.  

Financial institutions in the region are increasingly bypassing traditional on-premise deployments and heading straight to SaaS-native models. The benefits are compelling. Customers can expect faster time to market, lower total cost of ownership, and greater agility.  

Breaking Free from Legacy Systems  

One of the biggest roadblocks to innovation remains the ageing core banking infrastructure still in place at many institutions. These legacy systems are rigid, costly to maintain and slow to adapt to change.  

“SaaS enables banks to break free from that legacy burden,” Suresh explained. “It supports continuous delivery models that allow for rapid iteration and deployment.”

Temenos supports this transition with a flexible banking platform and modular services designed to help institutions modernise at their own pace. Its tools are built to support operational reliability while enabling banks to explore more agile, customer-centric models.  

Such an approach is particularly relevant in APAC, where institutions vary widely in digital maturity. SaaS can help to level the playing field by allowing both incumbents and challengers to align their operations with market demands.  

Delivering Innovation and Personalisation at Scale 

As digital transformation accelerates, delivering meaningful, data-driven services has become a key differentiator for banks.

While often perceived as a backend upgrade, Temenos SaaS is also influencing how financial institutions reimagine customer engagement, especially in terms of scalability, speed, and personalisation.

Through embedded AI and real-time analytics, the platform enables banks to offer hyper-personalised financial services that are responsive and relevant.  

“Think about hyper-personalised financial wellness journeys, predictive product recommendations, and automated fraud detection—these are no longer aspirational,” said Suresh.

He mentioned that these are the real-live use cases powered by the Temenos SaaS platform.

Whether it’s a retail bank launching a new savings product or a corporate bank streamlining loan approvals, Temenos enables banks to analyse customer behaviour continuously and respond with tailored offerings.   

Advanced capabilities such as machine learning and embedded finance come pre-integrated, making them accessible even to smaller institutions. 

Maintaining Trust through Security and Compliance  

In a region as diverse as Asia Pacific, regulatory compliance is a moving target. That’s why security and compliance are built into every layer of the Temenos SaaS platform.  

To meet the region’s diverse regulatory demands, Temenos SaaS aligns with globally recognised standards like SOC 2 and ISO 27001, while supporting compliance with more than 30 regulatory authorities worldwide.   

“The delivery model also simplifies updates,” added Suresh.   

Suresh mentioned that rather than managing patches across fragmented systems, financial institutions receive automatic, pre-tested updates directly from Temenos. This can further ensure security and compliance with ease.  

Temenos has also earned the Trusted Cloud Provider status from the Cloud Security Alliance, becoming one of only 30 providers globally to achieve STAR Level 1, STAR Level 2, and the Trusted Cloud Provider mark, joining the ranks of AWS, Microsoft, and IBM.  

A Clear Path to Cloud Maturity  

Suresh highlighted that the journey to becoming a cloud-native bank typically follows four key stages. They are Initiation, Migration, Optimisation, and Maturity. Institutions must first begin by assessing how best to integrate cloud solutions into their operations.   

They then move core banking systems to the cloud, followed by optimisation, using cloud-native tools to enhance performance. Full cloud maturity is then marked by the complete transition away from legacy systems. It allows users to unlock the highest levels of agility and innovation.  

“Temenos SaaS accelerates the transition to cloud maturity by providing a secure, integrated, and compliant platform that minimises reliance on outdated infrastructure,” said Suresh.   

He believes that such a move allows banks to focus on what matters most. These banks can now deliver value to their customers, fostering innovation, and driving growth.  

All Roads Lead to Manila  

All of these themes mentioned earlier will come into focus at the Temenos Regional Forum APAC 2025, taking place June 4–5 in Manila. Positioned as a key milestone in the region’s digital banking journey, the forum will bring together more than 250 senior banking executives and technology leaders from across the Asia Pacific.

Suresh even said that it is going to be more than just a tech event.

“It’s a platform for strategic conversations about the future of banking in Asia Pacific,” Suresh mentioned.

Attendees can expect customer success stories, deep dives into SaaS transformation journeys, live demos of next-gen capabilities including GenAI, and collaboration opportunities with Temenos Exchange ecosystem partners.   

For many banks, the forum represents a launching pad. It will give attendees a chance to reimagine how they can better serve customers, manage risk, and compete in a digitally native world.  

A Call to Action for Banks in APAC  

According to Suresh, the trajectory of banking in APAC is clearly moving toward cloud-native, open, and scalable systems. He believes truthfully that SaaS models can offer banks the flexibility and responsiveness they increasingly require.  

SaaS is no longer a differentiator. Plus, as organisations across APAC and beyond increasingly adopt hybrid cloud models (with 90% expected to do so by 2027), it’s becoming a necessity.  

Temenos aims to support institutions of varying sizes by providing the underlying tools and technology needed to strengthen operational agility and adapt to evolving customer expectations.  

To explore these ideas further, Temenos invites banking leaders to the upcoming forum in Manila. It is going to be a place for dialogue, discovery, and collaboration around the future of digital finance in the Asia Pacific.  

Learn more or register for the Temenos Regional Forum APAC 2025  

Featured image: Edited from Freepik.