Akbank AG Completes Core Banking Transformation with Mambu and Innovance

Akbank AG, the German subsidiary of Turkey's leading bank Akbank TAS, has announced the successful completion of Phase 1 of its core banking transformation. This significant milestone was achieved in close collaboration with Innovance, Mambu's strategic technology partner, and Mambu, a leading SaaS cloud banking platform. The migration involved the Retail and Private segments, with all customers and accounts in these business lines now operating on Mambu's composable, API-first, cloud-native core banking platform.

This operation represents a notable example of how a regulated European bank can modernize its core banking infrastructure through a structured, phased migration strategy. Akbank AG operates under the supervision of Germany's financial regulatory authority, BaFin, underscoring the complexity and importance of such an initiative in a stringent regulatory environment.

Technical Details of the Architecture and Migration

The new architecture implemented by Akbank AG, hosted on Microsoft Azure, integrates several key components. Mambu serves as the core banking foundation, leveraging its API-first architecture to facilitate easy integration with external partners and reduce operational complexity. This approach has led to lower maintenance efforts and improved overall system resilience.

A crucial element of the implementation is the “Core+” layer, a custom implementation that communicates with Mambu and other integration services. This layer acts as the central orchestration and business logic hub, managing interactions and validations independently. Innovance played a key role in integrating the Core+ architecture with Mambu, enabling scalable product modeling, transaction validation, and limit management, all aligned with Akbank AG's target architecture. A notable achievement was the delivery of the Limit Proposal Application in 2022, which allowed Akbank AG to launch a digital corporate credit approval process in just four months. The integrated ecosystem now includes core banking, accounting, payments, digital channels (web and mobile), wealth management back office, document management, and enterprise financial crime detection components. The modular approach enabled Akbank AG to adjust parameters such as pricing, fees, and interest settings directly through configuration rather than code, significantly reducing implementation time.

Context and Implications for the Banking Sector

The digital transformation of the banking sector is a priority for many financial institutions, driven by the need to offer agile and seamless user experiences. Akbank AG's migration highlights the growing adoption of cloud-native platforms to modernize legacy systems, even in highly regulated sectors like European banking. The choice of an API-first platform like Mambu allows banks to build flexible ecosystems and respond rapidly to changing market needs and customer expectations.

Osman Kara, Core Banking Technologies Vice President at Akbank AG, emphasized how the industry is undergoing rapid transformation, and customers increasingly expect agility and seamless digital experiences. The collaboration with Innovance and the successful completion of Phase 1 on Mambu have enabled the modernization of the core banking foundation and established a scalable architecture to support the next phase of growth. Mark Geneste, Chief Revenue Officer at Mambu, reiterated the project's importance as a demonstration of Mambu's strength in the DACH region and its partnership with Innovance, anticipating a transformation of the region's banking capabilities and Akbank AG's offerings. For those evaluating on-premise deployment for data sovereignty or TCO reasons, it is crucial to analyze the trade-offs between self-hosted solutions and cloud platforms, considering specific compliance requirements and internal infrastructure capabilities.

Future Outlook and Next Steps

With the Retail and Private Banking segments now live, the next phase of the transformation is already underway, covering Corporate Banking and Lending. This stage will focus on complex lending requirements and the integration of several new systems, utilizing Mambu's modular service structure. Yusuf Ürey, Founder & CEO of Innovance, highlighted how his company approaches core banking transformation as a long-term capability shift rather than a mere system replacement. Together with Mambu, Innovance has established a modern technology backbone for Akbank AG that enables continuous evolution, allowing the bank to respond faster to changing customer expectations and market dynamics. Mehmet Ali Özcan, Managing Director of Innovance Germany, added that the end-to-end development of the Core+ layer allowed for independent management of business logic, integrations, and validations, while ensuring seamless interaction with the Mambu platform. This approach simplified system interactions and created a more adaptable and scalable foundation for future banking services. The successful migration strengthens Mambu's footprint in the DACH region and, together with Innovance's engineering and delivery capabilities, demonstrates the viability of replacing legacy core systems within regulated European banking environments.