Upgrading its platform to maintain innovation
HQ Argentina
At a Glance
• Needed to upgrade 10yr old Temenos platform to support expansion
• Moving platform from on-premises to AWS cloud
• Agnostic architecture makes migration to new platform easier
• Expected operational efficiencies from automation of new platform
Ualá is an Argentine fintech, with a mission to improve financial inclusion across Latin America. Through a mobile application linked to an international Mastercard card, users can carry out a wide variety of financial transactions in an easy, secure, and transparent way. This includes money transfers, payments, credit and investment options, and access to a loyalty program. It also offers a range of solutions for businesses, such as payment terminals, payment links, and payment integration with online stores.
Ualá has more than seven million users in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico. In 2021 it was valued at $2.45 billion, following the largest investment round ever secured by an Argentine company. It followed this up in 2023 by securing a full banking licence. Consequently, it wants to move away from a partnership model (where it licensed third-party products) to develop and launch its own banking services.
Plan for growth
For Ezequiel Mina, Chief Technology Officer at Ualá’s Mexican business, this progress mirrors the marketing strategy they are now employing. “A large portion of the Mexican population still can’t access a bank account or credit products. Our aim is to introduce these people to modern finance through a debit card or investment product first. They will then be able to build a credit history, and so unlock credit options.”
Innovation at the heart
While innovation is key to this vision, it does not represent a challenge in the way it would for traditional banks.
Ualá was born digitally and in the cloud, because from the start we wanted to do things better, faster, differently. So innovation is in our DNA. We are constantly trying to understand what our clients are looking for and solve it.”
Ezequiel Mina, Chief Technology Officer at Ualá’s Mexican business
Ualá’s track record speaks for itself. It was one of the first financial companies in Latin America to offer fully automated onboarding and a digital debit card, and to understand the benefits of building native mobile applications. “It’s all about simplicity,” says Ezequiel. “How can we make things as easy as possible for people? There are always improvements to be made. That’s why we are always innovating.”
Time to move
In May 2023, Ualá signalled its ambition to grow by acquiring ABC Capital, at the time one of Mexico’s prominent retail banks. The opportunity also presented a challenge, recalls Ezequiel. “ABC had been running a 10-year version of Temenos Core (R13), which wasn’t going to handle the transaction volume that we expect to see in the next five years.”
Hence Ualá is now in the process of upgrading to the R24 version of Temenos core banking, and also extending the platform to its established business in Mexico. It is also moving from on-premises to a cloud deployment, with AWS providing the infrastructure. Go-live is expected in 2025. Key to that decision was the agnostic architecture of the Temenos platform.
It makes it much easier to go from one deployment option to another. We don’t have to rewrite any code or manage complex data transfers.”
Ezequiel Mina, Chief Technology Officer at Ualá’s Mexican business
Unleashing the new
As well as improving transactional volumes, the upgraded platform provides a range of features that are not available from the legacy version. Automation is also a key stepchange that Ezequiel is looking forward to embracing.
We are going to use these capabilities to improve the usability of our app, and also deliver efficiencies in the operational side. It will be much easier for our engineering team to develop and deploy new features and updates. This will make us much more efficient in our use of resources.”
Ezequiel Mina, Chief Technology Officer at Ualá’s Mexican business
A shared future
For all the excitement around the potential of the platform upgrade, Ezequiel equals Temenos’ people just as much. “At Ualá, we say we don’t have vendors, just strategic partners. And with the core platform at the heart of our bank, Temenos is and will be one of our most important partners for the foreseeable future. They are already proving this in their support of the upgrade project.”
With Temenos people and technology and a shared appetite for innovation, we are building a bright future together for Latin Americans.”
Ezequiel Mina, Chief Technology Officer at Ualá’s Mexican business