Judo Launches As Australia’s Newest Challenger Bank

Switzerland-based Temenos AG has announced that Judo Bank, an Australian SME challenger bank, has gone live with the help of Temenos T24 Transact, Analytics, Financial Crime Mitigation and Channels.

Last year, Judo Bank achieved the second largest pre-revenue fundraising round in Australian startup history, raising $140 million (AUD). The announcement comes after Judo Bank recently received its full banking license from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), with Temenos able to assist via its Australian Model Bank approach.

“We selected Temenos as our strategic technology partner to help us with our goal to become the most trusted business bank in Australia. Temenos worked closely with us from the beginning, and with its cloud-native digital front and back office products, enabled us to launch fast and with a low-risk implementation. This allows us to cut through traditional bureaucracies and the sales-driven and property-secured status quo to transform the SME banking in Australia through a focus on close customer relationships,” Alex Twigg, co-founder and CIO of Judo Bank, said in a press release.

Judo Bank runs on Temenos Cloud hosted on Microsoft Azure. Temenos T24 Transact integrated with Judo’s existing systems via its zero-trust-network and identity management system, allowing third-parties to connect easily and creating an open banking ecosystem.

“We worked closely with Judo Bank’s agile and passionate team to go live in record time. The pace of regulatory change in Australia combined with transformational cloud-native banking software – Temenos Infinity and Temenos Transact – has made new business models possible, and Judo’s customers are the ultimate winners,” said Max Chuard, CEO of Temenos. “We are proud to be partnering with Judo to re-shape the Australian banking landscape.”

“Through our relationship with Temenos – which was the first banking software company to launch a core banking offering on Microsoft Azure in 2011 – Judo Bank is challenging the conventional SME banking experience. Judo is benefiting from high levels of performance and scalability along with the security, privacy and compliance offered by operating in the cloud,” added Janet Lewis, vice president, Worldwide Financial Services at Microsoft Corp.