COOP Bank and Huawei Join Forces for Secure, High-Speed Financial Connectivity with Xinghe AI Unified SASE

As the global financial industry undergoes rapid digital transformation, Africa is emerging as a dynamic hub for mobile payments and inclusive finance. The Cooperative Bank of Oromia (COOP Bank), one of Ethiopia's top five private banks, serves over 15 million customers through more than 700 branches and thousands of ATMs. It also maintains active partnerships with several international financial institutions.

Accelerating Financial Digitalization in Africa: Network Security Becomes a Strategic Imperative

As banking operations expand and digital transformation accelerates, Cooperative Bank of Oromia (COOP Bank) is embracing cloud-based services and hybrid work models. However, its existing MPLS-based network architecture is increasingly strained by high costs, low bandwidth utilization, and complex maintenance. These limitations have made it difficult to ensure reliable business operations, exposing COOP Bank's branch network and cybersecurity posture to three major challenges:

Weak Security at Branches, Rising Risk Exposure

The financial sector demands stringent network security standards. With over 700 branches, COOP Bank relies on traditional MPLS connections, yet most branches lack dedicated security appliances. To safeguard inter-branch connectivity, the bank urgently requires advanced protections such as web filtering and DNS filtering.

Growing Non-Transactional Traffic, Higher Performance Demands

As digital banking evolves, COOP Bank faces increasing volumes of non-transactional traffic—including video conferencing, video security, and ATM data—which places greater performance and security demands on branch network devices.

Fragmented Device Management, Diverse Connectivity Paths

Branches currently connect to headquarters via traditional MPLS links, but the variety of networking devices makes centralized management difficult. COOP Bank plans to deploy wireless backup links at each branch to ensure uninterrupted connectivity, making intelligent uplink selection a critical need.

Huawei Xinghe AI Unified SASE Solution Builds an Intelligent Security System to Strengthen COOP Bank's Network Security Foundation

To address the challenges outlined above, Huawei has partnered with COOP Bank to deploy the innovative Xinghe AI Unified SASE Solution, creating a next-generation intelligent security framework. Centered around the USG6600F and USG6700F series secure gateways and the iMaster NCE management platform, the solution integrates SD-WAN networking, security, and remote access into a unified network security architecture. It enables seamless monitoring, analysis, and operations, while AI-driven capabilities deliver ultra-fast deployment, exceptional reliability, and intelligent operations—ensuring robust and resilient connectivity for COOP Bank's financial services.

ASE + CDE for Maximum Protection

The Adaptive Security Engine (ASE) dynamically allocates processes based on CPU resources and traffic patterns, decoupling content security services from each other and providing advanced protection for branch-level Internet access. Huawei's USG series gateways also feature the proprietary Content-based Detection Engine (CDE), enhanced by the Emulator microkernel unpacking engine, covering billions of virus samples. With AI-powered threat detection and millisecond-level decryption, the system achieves a 95% detection rate for unknown threats, safeguarding branch operations with precision.

Three Dedicated Hardware Engines: Accelerated Performance

Huawei's security gateways are equipped with three specialized acceleration engines:

• NP Engine for ultra-low latency forwarding

• Encryption/Decryption Engine for secure and efficient data transmission

• Pattern Matching Engine for enhanced IPS and application identification

Together, these engines deliver fast and secure interconnectivity tailored to the needs of COOP Bank's headquarters and branches.

Unified Management of Network and Security Devices: Streamlined Operations

For operations and maintenance, Huawei provides the NCE-Campus unified controller, enabling centralized management of both network services and security devices. Compared with traditional siloed platforms, the Xinghe AI Unified SASE Solution significantly improves operational efficiency. By integrating network and security orchestration, it reduces OPEX by 80%. Intelligent uplink selection based on quality, application, and bandwidth ensures optimal utilization of WAN/LTE resources.

Navigating the Intelligent and Secure Financial Era with Xinghe

The partnership between COOP Bank and Huawei not only resolves the pressing challenges facing branch network infrastructure, but also sets a new benchmark for digital transformation in the financial sector. Powered by AI, Huawei's Xinghe AI Unified SASE Solution enhances full-scenario capabilities to deliver ultra-fast deployment, exceptional reliability, and intelligent operations—providing a solid foundation for COOP Bank's ongoing innovation and business growth.