Abu Dhabi Global Market, ADGM, and Temenos, the software specialist for banking and finance, have announced their intention to collaborate and strengthen FinTech ecosystem in Abu Dhabi, following the unveiling of ADGM’s Innovation Centre at the FinTech Abu Dhabi Summit on 23rd October.

A key aspect of the collaboration will see Temenos provide a sandbox service to the start-ups residing at the Innovation Centre. This sandbox, a non-production cloud-based version of the Temenos core banking system, will enable start-ups to integrate their solutions with banking data and functionality, as well as to test them for scalability and robustness.

Temenos and ADGM will also collaborate on events and other community-building activities. It is envisaged that ADGM would play host to Temenos events, such as the Middle East leg of its global Innovation Jam, while Temenos would provide technical assistance and a sandbox environment to support ADGM events, such as hackathons.

The successful start-ups could join the 'Temenos MarketPlace', its award-winning app store connecting banks and FinTechs.

Commenting on the announcement, Jean-Paul Mergeai, Temenos Managing Director for Middle East and Africa, said, "We are excited to be working with ADGM on its Innovation Centre. We passionately believe in supporting communities around us, in promoting innovation and fintech. The Temenos MarketPlace is founded on the notion that bringing together banks and Fintechs, is a win-win situation and we hope that by working with ADGM we can foster fintech scene in UAE as well as offer a route to market to the most successful start-ups."

Richard Teng, CEO of ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority, said, "We are thrilled to partner with Temenos in the development of the FinTech ecosystem in the region. As one of the top software specialists in core banking systems serving a rich client network of banks and financial institutions, Temenos brings along a wealth of expertise and an extensive access to banking APIs through its digital sandbox platform. This will enable our RegLab and FinTech firms to collaborate with banks to test and develop innovation in a wide spectrum of financial services that would benefit UAE and the region."