VAKIFBANK
ANNUAL REPORT 2015
22
MESSAGE FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER
Esteemed stakeholders,
In 2015, the global markets were focused
on the Fed’s decision to raise its policy rate.
The Fed raised its rates in december, for the
first time since 2006, to the interval of 0.25-
0.50%, becoming the very first developed
country central bank to do so in the period
after the global crisis. On the other hand, the
ECB announced its decision to implement a
bond-buying program of EUR 60 billion per
month, planned to last until September 2016.
These decisions by the Fed and the ECB were
accompanied by important resolutions from
the central banks of Japan and China. Seeing
four consecutive quarters of contraction in the
Japanese economy, Bank of Japan decided
to maintain its quantitative easing program,
whereas the People’s Bank of China opted for
devaluation due to the weak performance of the
national economy.
The Central Bank of Turkey lowered its policy
rate, the one-week repo rate, by a cumulative
75 basis points, to 7.5%. In august, Central Bank
of Turkey announced that it planned to simplify
its monetary policy, and that it awaited the
Fed’s rate decision before taking action. After
which, Central Bank of Turkey left its policy
rate unchanged at 7.50%, the upper limit of
the interest rate corridor -the marginal lending
rate- at 10.75% and its lower limit at 7.25% at
the december meeting of its Monetary Policy
Board (PPK). At the same meeting it was also
announced that Central Bank of Turkey could
start to implement simplification measures from
January 2016 onwards, in case the Fed’s rate
rise is followed by a permanent reduction of
market volatility.
As is known, the Turkish economy grew in the
third quarter of 2015 by 4% year-on-year, at
fixed prices. It had grown by 2.5% in the first
quarter and 3.8% in the second, the Turkish
economy, bringing the nine-monthly year-on-
year growth rate to 3.4% in real terms. As such,
growth was seen to have gained momentum
in the first nine months of 2015, when
compared to the same period of the prior year.
Furthermore, the Turkish economy once again
proved its sustainable growth drive, having
posted positive growth in 24 quarters in a row.
As Turkey once again showcased its political and
economic stability, we at VakıfBank, powered by
the national economy, brought our total assets
up by 15.63% over the prior year to TL 182,947
million and continued our contribution to the
Turkish economy. Loans increased by 17.86% to
reach a total of TL 122,974 million.
In 2015, we met the financing needs of over
2 million customers under convenient terms.
Buoyed by this customer-focused approach,
we expanded the volume of our general
purpose consumer loans by 14.86% to
TL 17,191 million, mortgage loans by 5.59%
to TL 15,117 million, auto loans by 7.24% to
TL 467 million. As such, our total retail loans
grew by 11.45% to reach TL 36,611 million.
By correctly analyzing the needs of SMEs, the
driving force of our economy, we provided
financial and non-financial products and services
to SMEs, continuing to stand by them in the
year 2015. The result was a consistent growth
in our SME banking business, which translated
into a 19.47% growth in SME loans to
TL 33,035 million.
In 2015, we continued to meet commercial customers’
financing needs arising from investments and projects,
thanks to our vast know-how and experience in the field,
increasing our project loans by 54.71%.
WHILE CONSIDERING ITS COUNTRY
THE THRIVING BANK
