Our Intellectual
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At VakıfBank, we are adopting digital transformation as a sustainable culture and consider it an indispensable lever of sustainability. Therefore, we uninterruptedly develop new applications focused on digitalization. We are intensively using information technologies in digital transformation. We embed technology in our business processes and create value in this field.

We are aware that our innovations contribute both to the environment and social life. We are working vigorously to make our customers’ lives easier through the innovative solutions we develop. We take the guidance of relevant departments in our innovation efforts and strive to develop high-added value products by making use of innovative technologies.

We utilize big data, artificial intelligence, data analytics, open banking, and robotic process automation in our business processes. In addition to expanding the uninterrupted service we provide to our customers through our work, we also strengthen our competitive power in the sector by increasing our operational efficiency.

We closely follow technologies that facilitate people’s lives. With our customer-oriented and innovative approach, we aim to offer our customers “Conversational Banking” services. In this context, we launched our ViBi Logo branded Chatbot project, which is trained in banking topics, on our corporate website in July 2023. In this way, our users can instantly receive self-service responses to their questions regarding their transactions, perform their banking transactions instantly and provide feedback by participating in the evaluation survey at the end of the transaction. Chatbot ViBi is constantly learning and is constantly being trained, and it shall soon provide services in many other areas such as Trade Online, investment transactions, stock transactions, and VIOP transactions.

Within the scope of open banking services, we provided our commercial and retail customers with the Whole Account to view their accounts at other banks through our Internet and mobile banking channels. Since the beginning of the project, more than 100 thousand of our customers have started to view their accounts from other banks by adding them to our digital channels. In addition, with the “Get Money from Other Banks” feature we developed this year, we enabled our customers to easily transfer their deposits at other banks.

For our Commercial and Corporate Banking customers, we launched the Export Price Acceptance Certificate (İBKB) Transactions menu in Commercial Internet Banking. With this project, we carried out the İBKB Regulation transactions of our customers through Internet banking.

This year, we added innovative products such as Digital Check Discount Loan and Sky SME to products such as Vinov, Vinov Workplace, Digital Letter of Guarantee, which we have been offering to commercial customers in recent years. In this way, we have introduced innovative products to the sector in terms of speed, security and convenience through our leadership in digitalization, innovative products and services.

Through the Digital Cheque Discount Loan, we have made it possible for businesses to apply for a Discount Loan against cheques on a 24/7 basis in the digital environment without visiting a branch, and to easily access loans for their cash requirements, especially for their operating expenses, through digital channels in the shortest time possible. Within the scope of the product provided, businesses can instantly learn the amount of Discount Loan they can receive in return for a check by scanning the QR code of the check or entering the information of the check via Internet banking or VakıfBank Mobile and they can make their pre-applications for the loan completely through digital channels without any time and space constraints.

We have introduced our Sky SME product to enable commercially qualified enterprises to use Deposit, Foreign Trade and Cash Management products and services, especially loan utilization transactions, in an end-to-end digital way through Internet banking and mobile banking channels. In this regard, within the framework of the new generation of digitalization vision, Sky KOBİ allows our commercial customers to manage their banking products and services on a single platform in a compact manner and save time without visiting a branch.

In addition, in 2023, we continued to monitor operational processes, centralize transactions, automate manual checkpoints and integrate technological developments into our processes in order to ease the operational burden in our units and branches in order to increase the quality of service our customers receive from our Bank, to make the sales-oriented structure more operational and to save transaction and labor costs.

As part of our aim of digital and paperless banking, we promoted to carry out transactions rapidly, securely and digitally via tablets that can scan new generation ID cards with chips. We ensured that customer information is automatically updated with the systematic verification of chip ID cards and that the biometric photo is automatically saved in the Bank’s system. We have eliminated the operational risk by improving transaction security as a result of the systematic identification process. We increased our digital approval rates up to 80% Bank-wide as a result of the approval of transactions via tablets and mobile banking, reducing the number of receipts and paper printouts.

In order to increase operational efficiency, we promoted to use such technologies as hyperautomation, robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, OCR - Barcode - QR reading in our Operations Center in our jobs that are carried out manually. In this regard, we have fully systematized the foreclosure requests received from the Ministry of Justice and Enforcement Offices, as well as check clearing transactions sent from other banks to our Bank and from our Bank to other banks through hyperautomation technology. We also started to perform DBS Dealer definitions through robots.

We also started to use artificial intelligence for sending the e-invoices received on behalf of our Bank to the relevant Branches/Units.

In this period, we promoted to offer an end-to-end digital payment method service via Vinov, our financial ecosystem that encompasses all features of traditional payment and collection products, an innovation of VakıfBank. We increased the collection volume of our Vinov product by approximately 72% compared to last year. With Vinov Workplace, we created a digital ecosystem for businesses and organizations of all sizes, especially those involved in wholesale and retail sales and those with a dealership/store network, that wish to carry out collections with VakıfBank guarantee. With Vinov Workplace, we were awarded both the “New Product and Service Innovation” silver award at the Sardis Awards and the second prize in the “Best Industry Ecosystem” category at the IDC DX Awards in 2023. We were also awarded the strong with our Vinov Workplace product at the 6th CX Awards Türkiye, where the most successful customer experience projects are rewarded. With our Vinov Campus product, which we developed in 2023 within the scope of our Vinov product’s operations in different fields, we shall provide the payments of private schools in a quick and easy way in the upcoming periods.

Nakit yönetimi hizmetleri noktasında da gücümüzü pekiştiriyoruz. 2023 yılında vergi, SGK, fatura tahsilatları gibi kamu tahsilatları başta olmak üzere müşterilerimizin tüm resmi ödemelerini kapsayan taksitlendirme ve opsiyonlama imkanları da bulunan “VaNa” (VakıfBank Nakit Yönetim hesabı) ürünümüzü geliştirdik. Yeni geliştirdiğimiz ürünümüzü 2024 yılında tüm ticari müşterilerimizin kullanımına sunmayı hedefliyoruz.

We are also consolidating our strength in cash management services. In 2023, we developed our “VaNa” (VakıfBank Cash Management account) product, which also has installment and option opportunities covering all official payments of our customers, especially public collections such as tax, SSI, and invoice collections. We aim to make our newly developed product accessible to all our commercial customers in 2024.

We have turned digitalization into a transformation philosophy within ourselves, with works in the scope of improving our bank’s operational processes. In addition to increasing speed and accessibility with our digital banking applications, we also provide efficiency in processes and savings in the use of resources. With this awareness, we continue to implement practices that shall facilitate the lives of our employees. Thanks to the digitalization of our business processes and the applications developed for centralization, we achieve continuous improvement in many processes and measure all process steps by defining them within the scope of service level agreements. We also improve our operational efficiency by integrating robotic process automation and using technologies such as QR barcode reading. With the launch of our “Cash Management System Robot Project” during the last quarter of the year, we started to review and finalize “Invoice Payment Limit Increase Requests” by a system robot. Thanks to this project, we achieved customer satisfaction by concluding incoming inquiries faster and increased the number and volume of invoice collections.

We continue to serve customers with products enabling them to perform transactions via web services and APIs more flexibly. These include Online Bulk Payment System, Online Account Activity, Online Tax Payments, and Online Direct Lending System. In order to enable our customers to make SSI payments quickly and practically via VakıfBank Mobile app, we completed the “Fast SSI Payment” menu development and introduced it to the use of all our retail and commercial customers as of 2023.

In this period, we have made many enhancements in both online and offline channels in line with the requests and expectations of our customers in our Bulk Payment System (TÖS), which enables customers with frequent transfer and EFT transactions to run the operational process digitally, end-to-end, and securely. With patterns compliant with all ERP systems, we have ensured transactions can be carried out in a rapid, practical and secure way. This way, we have almost doubled the transaction volume on TÖS year-on-year.

In 2023, due to reasons such as the mandatory transition of customers’ financial processes to digital platforms by the Revenue Administration Presidency (RAP), the increasing variety of electronic documents, and the growing number of taxpayers required to comply with e-document regulations, we have decided to offer this service to our customers in the most comprehensive manner possible. To facilitate the provision of this service, we have entered into an agreement with a new integrator firm and redesigned the infrastructure under the e-Transformation System. With the new regulation, we have expanded the e-Document product range by starting to offer e-Ledger Storage, e-Delivery Note, e-Self-Employed Receipt and e-Producer Receipt products to taxpayers who will be included in the system. We have also launched the e-Transformation Call Center, through which our customers can access professional support in their instant operational transactions.

In addition to these, with our Title Deed Trusted Account (TGH) system, we enabled the secure exchange of the transfer price between the buyer and the seller through our Bank in land registry transactions carried out by the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre.

In 2024, we shall promote to offer “Open Banking” opportunities, a growing trend in financial technologies, for the service of businesses. We shall also expand the use of robotic process automation and artificial intelligence, and accelerate the development and integration of hyperautomation models into our processes.

In addition to our existing banking services and products, we offer the best banking practices in and outside Türkiye as we act as a guiding light for the future of the banking industry tapping into our strong technology infrastructure.

At VakıfBank, we are constantly striving for change and development with our digital capacity, digital intelligence, and knowledge. We strive to offer the best experience to users, promptly adapt ourselves to changing conditions and the era of speed, and even pioneer innovations ourselves. This is why we have established “Ecosystem Banking” where our branch, mobile, Internet channels, and applications can interoperate with one another as we mobilize our digital maturity for the best customer experience. Thanks to the fast, easy and secure banking services we offer through digital banking, we reached nearly 13 million digital customers. While 1.92 billion logins were made on internet banking and VakıfBank Mobile in 2022, this number increased by 34.38% to 2.58 billion in 2023.

We recognize the increasing use and importance of data science in banking. The data analytics industry is growing steadily. We use artificial intelligence and data analytics technologies both to understand our customers’ requirements more clearly and to personalize the customer experience by gaining insights into customer behavior. In addition, we also map the customers’ transaction journeys and identify the challenges they experience during the transaction process. We are proactively addressing these challenges. In this way, we are able to improve both our work efficiency and customer experience.

We are improving our customer-oriented applications and services, making life easier and personalizing VakıfBank Mobile by enabling our customers to track their invoices, rent, dues, loans, money transfers, MTV, traffic fines, HGS expenses associated with their houses or vehicles on a single platform and creating a dynamic notification structure with smart reminders through the Benim Yerim (My Place) menu, where we design products that change mobile banking usage habits. By the end of 2023, we facilitated the monitoring of payments for 70 thousand houses and 550 thousand vehicles that our customers added to Benim Yerim.

In 2023, 5.3 million of our customers interacted with ViBi 53 million times.

Our digital assistant “ViBi” on VakıfBank Mobile transformed into a financial assistant that users frequently used in 2023 thanks to its smart suggestions and financial analyses. While 4.3 million customers used ViBi in 2022, this number increased by 23% to 5.3 million in 2023. In 2023, the number of transactions our customers made through ViBi increased by 80% compared to last year, reaching 53 million.

In our ongoing efforts to fostering a sense of savings awareness among our children, who represent our future, through our Vibox platform. Introduced in 2022 for our customers, Vibox allows children to save their allowances from anywhere in the world directly into their wallets. In addition to fostering a sense of responsibility through the tasks assigned by parents to their children in the app, the improvements we made in 2023 enabled our children to invest their savings in time deposit and gold accounts. We intend to be a “familiar” face for the children, the customers of the future, whose lives we touch in terms of financial literacy.

In 2023, we have developed many products and services with the approach of making our customers’ lives more convenient and enhancing their experiences with our digital products. In this regard, we put our Password-Free Login feature at the service of our customers in order to enable our users to log in to VakıfBank Mobile without a password. We enabled our customers to perform transactions such as Identity Update, Adding/Updating Phone Number, Sim Card Unblocking, Limit Update, etc. more practically and time-saving through NFC technology without the need to visit a branch.

We have become among the first banks in the sector to join the system with our All Account product, which we renewed as part of our Open Banking efforts. With All Account, we provide our commercial and individual customers with the opportunity to access their accounts at other banks through our Internet and mobile banking channels, as well as to easily transfer money from their accounts at other banks. With the Diğer Bankadan Para Getir (Get Money from Other Banks) feature we developed this year, we enable our customers to easily transfer their deposits at other banks. Since the first day of the project, more than 100 thousand customers have started to access their accounts at other banks by adding them to our digital channels. We are increasing our collaborations with payment and electronic money service providers as well as industry-leading firms. Through the development of our APIs, we move on to offer our customers shopping loans, digital personal loans, and digital installment accounts on various digital platforms.

To support sustainable banking and contribute to paper savings by preserving nature, we introduced the Digital Slip feature. This feature allows customers who prefer not to receive their expenditure, cash payment, and receivable documents in paper format to access them digitally, thus promoting sustainable banking practices. Additionally, as a result of our investments in wearable technology, we have launched our Smart Watch app. Through the application, our customers can access information about the nearest ATM/Branch to their location, and they can also track real-time currency exchange rates and stock market data directly through their smart watch.

In addition, we have introduced features such as QR code-based money transfer, QR code generation, and QR code-based payment cancellation on VakıfBank Mobil, aimed at facilitating transactions and saving time for our commercial customers. We have enabled access to portfolio manager information through Internet banking and VakıfBank Mobil. Thus, we were always there for them whenever they needed us.

We are well aware that the services we provide through digitalization also reduce the carbon footprint of our customers and indirectly contribute to the fight against climate change. In 2024, we shall carry over to lead innovation with our technological infrastructure, products and applications and we shall proceed to pursue the principles in this field and provide more accessible, fast and personalized services focused on the requirements of our customers through user-friendly mobile applications and online banking platforms.

Driven by our vision of becoming an entrepreneurial technology organization, we continuously improve our technological capabilities and skills for our service delivery. We roll out innovative transformations and consistently raise the value we add to customers in financial services.

We are a pioneering bank in the sector, which encodes and develops its own banking software with its own resources. With our qualified human resources and innovative vision in this field, we closely follow the developments in information technologies and offer products and services leading and making a difference in the sector.

We transform our core banking application interfaces into web-based structures focused on user experience in line with current trends, while constantly improving our technological capabilities and skills. We are focused on productivity through projects that utilize cutting-edge scientific fields such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analytics in our daily operations.

As a bank that performs millions of banking transactions every day, we know that today’s most valuable asset of organizations is “data.” Within the framework of our emphasis on data analytics, data security, and data management, we carefully monitor and implement developments for using data accurately and effectively, and increasing data quality.

Data analytics creates a competitive advantage in critical issues such as efficiency, profitability, and sustainability by enabling businesses to make faster and more accurate decisions in a rapidly changing and developing world. We carry over our studies on data analytics and investments incompetent human resources in this field with this perspective. In line with our goal of generating value from data, we improve our analytical processes and our talented human resources skills. We are expanding our data sources within the scope of studies on data infrastructure. We constantly renew our ability to access and analyze data with up-to-date technologies. We are developing new business intelligence tools through which our units can easily create their reports to further expand and facilitate the use of data in decision-making processes.

We reinforce our IT effectiveness with agile teams while keeping our motivation to develop trailblazing projects in the sector fresh with our motto of continuous development. We treat agility as a way of doing business that prioritizes the requirements of our customers and ensures coordination with all our stakeholders. In 2023, we continued our agile transformation journey with the addition of new agile coaches and scrum teams. As part of this initiative, we increased our Agile Coach number from 7 to 11.

In 2023, VakıfBank’s R&D center, V-LAB continued to conduct several idea generation and collaboration activities in such areas as AI, data analytics, customer experience, and security. We have commissioned the V-Lab Innovation Platform, aiming at fostering an innovation culture throughout the organization and maximizing benefits in the bank-employee-customer triangle through innovative ideas. We have introduced an idea collection program across five different categories, consisting of three for seasonal and two for permanent. Following an open innovation approach, the ideas entered by employees into the platform are visible in a transparent structure similar to social media, allowing all employees to see them. As a result, employees can enrich their own ideas by discussing them with other users and also develop their innovative thinking muscles by seeing different ideas.

In 2023, we organized workshops at our R&D Center to identify potential areas for collaboration and improvement within our business units’ existing processes. By conducting process analysis studies, we identified flows that could be automated. Additionally, we organized trainings and workshops on business model mentoring to increase the competence of employees. We organized Innovation-Oriented Meetup Seminars. We evaluated academic consultancy and cooperation opportunities with Universities and other R&D Centers. We continued our collaboration with FinTechs and startups to evaluate the applicability of new technologies in our bank and to facilitate the implementation of innovative solutions.

With our robust technological infrastructure, innovative perspective, and accumulated knowledge, we proceeded to lead the digital age in the financial world. In 2023, through the second edition of our Bootcamp event, we provided a significant opportunity for young individuals interested in working and building a career in the software field. The VakıfBank Fullstack Bootcamp, our free and online training program designed to equip young individuals with the most skills sought in the industry, saw a significant turnout, reflecting high levels of interest. In a program that attracted over 6000 applicants from various cities across Türkiye, 46 candidates were qualified to attend the Bootcamp after completing technical tests and interviews following the preliminary selection process. We provided basic training in .NET, SQL and Angular technologies for the candidates who were admitted to the Bootcamp in the 8-week training program between September 9 - October 28, 2023. With the completion project delivered at the end of the training, the candidates had the chance to put their knowledge into practice.

We initiated the Hackathon competition, which we have established as a tradition, with an opening event held in the metaverse environment from February 3rd to 5th, 2023. After teams competed online in the Hackathon, with over 100 participants from all over Türkiye, we invited the finalist teams to the VakıfBank Headquarters on April 28th for a physical event. We reviewed 10 finalists’ presentations based on team competence, genuineness, innovative technology, business model, design, commercialization/scaling, presentation, feasibility, social benefit, and prototype criteria. We presented our awards in the categories of “Best Minimum Viable Product,” “Best Social Enterprise,” “Most Innovative Technological Solution,” “Best User Experience Design” and “Most Global Solution.” We shall continue with the organization of this event, which we consider one of our social responsibilities, in the upcoming periods.

With our vision of becoming the Leading Bank of a Strong Türkiye, we carry over to offer our customer-oriented and innovative products. Simultaneously, we are aware that banking applications’ digital transformation brings risks too. Therefore, cyber-attack risks, security of all kinds of data, and personal data protection are essential topics. We continually improve ourselves in these areas and carry over our efforts to create a safer banking experience day by day. Our work in this area not only enhances our competitiveness in the industry but also contributes to increasing customer satisfaction and confidence in our Bank.

When determining our security strategies, three key factors come to the forefront. The first and foremost is our bank’s strategies, followed by identifying risk areas and threats, and finally, the regulations.

We are endeavoring to effectively tackle with threats, considering factors such as regulations, digitalization, and increasing data volume. We leverage regulations as opportunities to create security strategies that are aligned with our bank’s strategies and support our business practices.

As for regulations, we closely follow the regulations published by the regulatory authorities and perform the necessary compliance studies. We have completed our efforts for compliance with the Regulation on Banks’ Information Systems and Electronic Banking Services as well as with the Information and Communication Security Guide published by the Digital Transformation Office of the Presidency.

We have made the necessary plans for compliance with the Circular on the Criteria to be Provided for Identity Verification and Transaction Security in Electronic Banking Services and Establishing Contractual Relationships in the Electronic Environment, published by BRSA this year, and we carry over to work within the relevant plan.

We have successfully carried out audits such as Swift Customer Security Framework, and GIB (Turkish Revenue Administration) Custom Integrator Audit. In parallel with all work, we have completed the follow-up audits concerning the ISO 27001 Information Security Management System and ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management System to ensure the continuity of relevant certifications.

Regarding the Personal Data Protection Law, we ensure that the necessary information is presented in all our channels as part of the disclosure obligation and that the required explicit consent is obtained. We regularly and periodically destroy the data of customers who have no longer ongoing affiliation with our Bank. In this regard, we conduct the necessary work in all our channels within this scope to ensure our customers’ safety. We also provide informative training to our employees in line with the Personal Data Protection Law. We have implemented proactive measures through data discovery, data classification, and data leakage prevention programs to ensure data security.

Our modus operandi, our valuable assets and the industries we operate in are among the main factors shaping threats and risks. We consider the financial sector as a whole, not just banks, but also the suppliers and infrastructure contractors who provide services to banks.

We sustain significant endeavors to manage business continuity risks. We have completed the required investments against increasing data processing volume, heavy traffic and DDOS threats. We act in collaboration with operators in this regard.

Especially considering the geopolitical position of our country, we are the target of cyber attackers. Although significant endeavors have been carried out within the scope of the European Union harmonization laws, we have to acknowledge that this has reached the level of a cyber terrorism risk and approach it holistically. Inter-country cyber intelligence sharing is crucial in this regard. In line with this, we have made significant investments in cyber threat intelligence. Furthermore, we have concluded the necessary efforts to block malicious traffic coming from abroad.

We carry out additional endeavors to protect the brand value, which is one of the most important threats to the financial sector. Especially with data leakage issues, customer awareness has begun to affect the image and brand value more than ever. We act with the awareness that even the smallest mistake can have significant financial consequences, distinguishing us from other sectors. We have reviewed the processes related to the management of social media accounts in terms of brand value.

Another significant issue that stands out when considering risky areas is the increased usage of mobile banking, especially with the pandemic. With the emergence of legislation supporting remote customer acquisition, we are witnessing a daily increase in number of customers. This has also led to a variety of fraud incidents. We are making great efforts to increase awareness of our customers. In this regard, operators have an important role to play in shutting down the counterfeit websites, with regulatory authorities taking the lead. Due to the increasing frauds in this period, we evaluated artificial intelligence-based corporate fraud solutions and introduced them to our Bank. We are currently working on the migration of all scenarios to the new system.

One of our key focus areas in the past period has been the use of artificial intelligence. Especially with the deployment of the ChatGPT application for the use of end-users, we have started to observe instances where it is misused in harmful ways. As VakıfBank, we have also taken the necessary measures for these issues.

Along with this, the increasing amount of data processing and sustainability has led to an incredible development in cloud technologies. In this regard, many security manufacturers have started to move their solutions to the cloud. Particularly when security software is taken into consideration, we formulate strategies in line with sustainability, scalability and operational costs as far as regulations allow.

In the upcoming period, it is likely that cyber risks shall carry over to be present in our lives at the highest level, especially with environmental and climate risks. We know that we can overcome all these risks by tackling them with a comprehensive approach. As in every field, our human resources are our biggest advantage in this regard. We also recognize that when it comes to managing cyber risks, human resources are at the center of the people, process and technology axis.

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