Financial Inclusion
SDG 5, 8, 9, 10
We guarantee easy access to financial products and services for all segments of society through the digital products we develop, while contributing to the heightening of financial inclusion levels in the banking industry.
We offer financial solutions in line with the needs of our customers from all walks of life with our efficiency-oriented policies, modern banking products, and services, including retail and private banking areas as well as Corporate, Commercial, Agricultural, Retail, Local Administrations, and SME Banking through our IT system infrastructure that is compatible with the requirements of the era and our widespread branch network and alternative distribution channels.
We are endeavoring to facilitate access to finance with our branches, of which 26% are rural, and 18% are in the regions with development priority in our field settlement consisting of 959 branches and 33 regions. We provide banking services to reach more people with our digital banking applications that enable use regardless of location and time. We carry out 97.59% of the transactions in our bank through our non-branch channels
We continue to provide services abroad to our customers through branches in Vienna, and Cologne of our subsidiary VakıfBank International AG, which was established to carry out banking operations abroad, the Budapest representation office, and our 4 branches in New York, Bahrain, Erbil, and Qatar as well as the representation office opened in Dubai in 2024. With the license approval we received from the Qatar Financial Center on May 10, 2020, we became the first and only Turkish Bank with a banking license in Qatar, which is progressing toward becoming an even more powerful financial center. We are increasing our overseas activities by standing alongside the Turkish entrepreneurs and business people operating abroad.
In 2024, we sustained our efforts via digital channels in order to increase the widespread saving deposits. We enabled SKY Limit customers to open the “SKY Deposit Account,” which offers them special advantageous interest rates, through digital channels. Thanks to the widespread use of the introductory interest campaign, the ARI account, and special campaigns offered to certain customer groups, we contributed to the increase in the number of deposit accounts opened through digital channels and customers.
Additionally, through the Stock Exchange Introductory Campaign -in which we offered lower brokerage commissions on capital market transactions to eligible customers trading on the stock exchange- we achieved grassroots customer acquisition and increased the volume of time savings deposits.
We guarantee easy access to financial products and services for all segments of society through the digital products we develop, while contributing to the heightening of financial inclusion levels in the banking industry.
We use our technological power to make it easier for our citizens with disabilities to benefit from financial products and services, and we are making the necessary arrangements on both our branch and non-branch channels.
As VakıfBank, in line with our goal of standing by all segments of society, we continue to offer solutions tailored to our customers’ requirements and enable them to make savings with the products and services we developed in this period.
Extensive ATM Network
Thanks to our network of 4,100 ATMs dispersed across a wide area in Türkiye, we enable our customers to realize more than 70 banking transactions more quickly on a 24/7 basis, without waiting in the queue inside our branches. Approximately 23% of our ATMs are located in rural areas while 23% are in regions with development priority. However, 100% of our ATMs consist of Barrier-Free Life ATMs.
We increased the number of Recycle ATMs to 2,348 by installing 900 of the 2,000 new generation ATMs with Recycle feature, the procurement of which was completed in 2024. Therefore, while reducing the frequency of cash replenishment and the probability of malfunctions, we decreased carbon emissions from replenishment and maintenance operations. In addition, with the increase in the number of Recycle ATMs, we enhanced the efficiency of our ATMs and contributed to the process of reducing the operational workload. We aim to take delivery and install 1,100 new ATMs in 2025. Upon completion of the renovation works, 90% of our network will consist of new generation ATMs with recycle feature. In 2025, we shall develop the QR code cash withdrawals from other banks’ ATMs, a first in Türkiye, for which we completed work in 2022, and add cash deposit transactions to our menu. In this way, we aim to enable our customers to make their transactions faster and easier.
In 2024, we continued to work on the Public Common ATMs, which are the focal point of the service that we started to offer our customers as public banks in April 2018 to benefit from ATMs belonging to public banks free of charge. In parallel with this effort, we deployed our common software, which enables our customers to make transactions with the menus of their own bank, at more than 3,000 ATMs. It is planned to extend the software, which works on 8,000 ATMs together with other public banks included in the platform, to 19,000 ATMs by the end of 2025. With the completion of the expansion, we shall offer our customers the ability to make their transactions through our own ATM menus not only at our Bank’s ATMs but also at 19,000 ATMs.
GRI 3-3
Our efforts for the comfort our disabled customers are not limited to our branches. However, we also try to facilitate our disabled customers’ access to our other channels’ financial services.
Banking without Barriers
We aim to remove barriers in access to banking services, and we are trying to find solutions to make life easier for disabled people by being involved in the Banking Services Working Group for Disabled Citizens of the Banks Association of Türkiye (BAT).
While designing our branches’ entrances and interior designs to make them eligible for the use of our physically disabled customers, we are working to provide palpable surfaces, call buttons, emergency voice, and light guiding devices, and Braille embossed handles and disabled desks.
Based on our vision to remove barriers to access to banking services, we prepared the “Accessible Banking Sign Language Dictionary” in 2024. With this dictionary, which we have prepared to serve as a source of Turkish sign language banking terms, we will open the doors of accessible service not only for our customers and staff but also for everyone. We aim to facilitate the access of hearing impaired individuals to financial services, enable them to perform banking services more comfortably and independently, and provide equal and accessible services for all. In our dictionary, we provide sign language representation of banking terms, their explanations, and access to videos via barcodes.
Our efforts for the comfort our disabled customers are not limited to our branches. However, we also try to facilitate our disabled customers’ access to our other channels’ financial services. We offer our basic contracts for our customers with disabilities in Braille Alphabet and audio format. We have also reached the final stage of our project to translate contracts into sign language and convert them into audio files by using artificial intelligence for our visually impaired and hearing-impaired customers. We aim to increase our efforts in 2025 and offer a better barrier-free banking experience.
At VakıfBank, we develop innovative solutions to ensure that everyone has access to financial services under equal conditions by acting with a barrier-free banking approach. Accordingly, we made our services compatible with screen reader programs used by visually impaired customers so that our disabled customers can use internet banking and VakıfBank Mobile more effectively. In addition, we facilitate banking transactions for the hearing impaired through our “Video Service” application and provide services to VakıfBank customers whose disability status is registered with the bank through our video call center using sign language.
We make the screen and keyboard height and physical location of our ATMs suitable for wheelchair access. 40 percent of all of our ATMs have been customized for the use of our customers with physical disabilities. We have made 100% of our ATMs suitable to be used by visually impaired customers. At all of our 4,100 ATMs, we ensure that visually impaired people, whether they are customers of our Bank or not, can perform their transactions audibly with the help of a headset.
Number of ATMs Suitable for the Use of Visually Impaired People
Number of ATMs Suitable for the Use of Physically Disabled People
Number of ATMs for Barrier-free Life
GRI 3-3