TONIK selects Finastra’s core banking solution to power Southeast Asia’s first pure-play licensed digital bank

Singapore - January 21, 2020  - Finastra announced today that TONIK, the first licensed digital-only bank in Southeast Asia, has selected Fusion Essence in the cloud to power its end-to-end core banking capabilities. The move will support TONIK as it launches its retail deposit and customer loans services in the Philippines, giving it agility and the ability to scale quickly.

Greg Krasnov, Founder & CEO at TONIK, said, “The banking sector in the Philippines is ripe for digital disruption. The country has high internet usage, the majority of Filipinos are unbanked and research shows half of the people who do have bank accounts would be interested in switching to a neobank.

“We want to create a hyper-compelling consumer proposition that will revolutionize the way money works in the region. Finastra’s Fusion Essence Cloud - powered by Microsoft Azure - will give us the agility to get these services to market quickly and efficiently. We are also impressed by the modern, open and scalable capabilities of the solution, particularly the in-built analytics, which will help us to better understand our customers’ smart digital banking needs.”

The key proposition for digital banks is providing a customer experience that traditional banks struggle to offer. This requires modern, cloud-native technology that facilitates innovation whilst future-proofing investment. For TONIK, Fusion Essence Cloud will be deployed out of the Microsoft Azure Southeast Asia Region (Singapore Data Center), which will allow for both low latency and data residency. TONIK will benefit from a low cost of entry into the market, ease and speed of deployment, and the ability to increase business volumes and diversify its product set cost-effectively. It will also benefit from ongoing software updates and, in time, access to further innovation via FusionFabric.cloud, Finastra’s platform for open innovation and the development of applications.

European neobanks, including revverbank and Gravity, are already being powered by Fusion Essence Cloud, and this deployment in Southeast Asia will help bring the benefits of innovative digital banking to the Philippines.

Anand Subbaraman, General Manager, Retail Banking at Finastra, said, “TONIK is well positioned to replicate the disruption that has taken place in Europe, where digital banks have quickly attracted millions of customers and billions of dollars in investor funding. Using digital technologies and a lower-cost operating model, TONIK will be able to offer customers the products and services they need, delivered in a convenient way, as well as increasing opportunities for financial inclusion in Asia. Fusion Essence Cloud is ideally suited to help TONIK achieve these goals, as well as see a fast return on its investment. We are extremely proud to be TONIK’s partner in bringing digital banking to the Philippines for the first time.”

Local perspective

Wissam Khoury, Senior Vice President and General Manager for MEA and APAC at Finastra, commented, “Research shows that over 70% of people across Southeast Asia are underbanked or unbanked, but almost 90% of industry experts agree that digital financial services will improve financial access. At the same time, while more than 70% of SME merchants currently accept only cash, seven in 10 of those say they are likely to accept digital payments in the next five years. The opportunity for digital-only banking has therefore never been more ripe in the region and we’re thrilled TONIK has chosen Finastra’s Fusion Essence in the cloud to propel its mission to revolutionise money. As the region’s first licensed digital-only bank, we’re excited to be partnering with TONIK at such an important time and look forward to tapping the power of platforms and the cloud to help TONIK bring cutting-edge, customer-centric solutions to market together in the Philippines.”

For further information please contact:

Caroline Duff
Global Head of PR
T: +44 (0)20 3320 5892
E: caroline.duff@finastra.com
www.finastra.com

Benjamin Jun Tai
Senior PR Manager, APAC
T: +65 9058 1160
E: benjamin.juntai@finastra.com
www.finastra.com

About TONIK

TONIK Financial Pte Ltd (www.tonikbank.com) is the first licensed digital-only bank in Southeast Asia, on a mission to revolutionize the way money works in the region.  It provides retail financial products, including deposits, loans, current accounts, payments, and cards on a highly secure digital banking platform.  TONIK is led by a senior team who have previously built and scaled multiple digital and retail banks and fintechs across Global Emerging Markets.  Founded in 2018, TONIK is launching operationally in 2020 in the Philippines through its own bank license, with support and R&D functions based in Singapore and Chennai, India.  TONIK was seeded and built by FORUM (www.forum-cap.com), the top fintech venture builder in Southeast Asia.

About Finastra

Finastra unlocks the potential of people and businesses in finance, creating a platform for open innovation. Formed in 2017 by the combination of Misys and D+H, we provide the broadest portfolio of financial services software in the world today—spanning retail banking, transaction banking, lending, and treasury and capital markets. Our solutions enable customers to deploy mission critical technology on premises or in the cloud. Our scale and geographical reach means that we can serve customers effectively, regardless of their size or geographic location—from global financial institutions, to community banks and credit unions. Through our open, secure and reliable solutions, customers are empowered to accelerate growth, optimize cost, mitigate risk and continually evolve to meet the changing needs of their customers. 90 of the world’s top 100 banks use Finastra technology.
Please visit www.finastra.com.

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