Our Intellectual
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As VakıfBank, we closely follow technological developments and take significant steps in our VakıfBank Mobile, internet banking, and open banking channels, developing customer-focused and innovative solutions to be a pioneer in the sector. To respond to ever-changing needs, we adopt an approach that centers on the user experience, maintains the highest level of security, and continuously updates our technological infrastructure.

Thanks to our user-friendly interface, regular innovations, and continuous improvements, we continue to increase the number of customers who prefer our digital channels. Thanks to our services that focus on customer satisfaction and ease of transaction, our number of digital banking customers approached 16 million in 2025.

In 2025, we enabled 71 million interactions with ViBi.

We continued to provide access to our financial advisor ViBi, a focal point of our digital transformation strategy, on the VakıfBank Mobile login screen for both our customers and users who are not yet our customers. In 2025, we launched a proactive recommendation period by diversifying the personalized suggestions offered by ViBi to our customers through our advanced data analytics capabilities. With smart reminders that create awareness about financial processes and prompt users to take action, we have made digital financial management much easier and more efficient for our customers. As a result, we enabled 71 million interactions with ViBi in 2025.

With the projects we implemented in line with our marketing and sales-oriented approach, we further strengthened our strategy centered on digitalization in 2025. In this context, with an approach aimed at reaching all companies, whether they are our customers or not, we added the Commercial Loan Application function to the VakıfBank Mobile main menu. With this development, we aim to facilitate customer acquisition through digital channels and respond much more quickly to the financial needs of companies in the commercial segment.

We are successfully maintaining our infrastructure that enables our customers with delinquent debts to make installment payments, early repayments, and partial payments, and to easily access their payment plans via VakıfBank Mobile. With the “Other Transactions” menu we created to simplify the user experience and facilitate access to various services, we continue to offer, in one place, the services that our customers frequently need, such as finding the nearest ATM/branch, scheduling appointments, and accessing market information.

In addition, to ensure efficiency in the Bank’s operational processes, we converted a significant portion of SMS notifications sent to our customers into push notifications. With this transformation, we aimed to reduce communication costs and manage processes more effectively. The project, initiated in the last quarter of 2025, is planned to be completed by the end of the year in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.

In 2025, we launched the Digital Profile menu on VakıfBank Mobile to enable our retail customers to more closely monitor their digitalization processes. Thanks to this new feature, we have enabled our users to transparently view their usage rates of digitally focused products. Additionally, with the “Suggested Searches” function we implemented to enhance the in-app search experience, we increased the speed at which users find the information they are looking for by highlighting their most frequent transactions as well as their past searches. We also resolutely continued our enhancements that elevate the user experience for our corporate customers in 2025. In this regard, we redesigned the screens in the “Accounts” menu of our commercial internet banking with a user-centric approach. With the newly added advanced filtering and sorting capabilities, we made it much faster and easier for our corporate customers to access their financial data. As VakıfBank, we will continue to produce innovative solutions that digitize processes end-to-end and are supported by user-friendly interfaces in both the retail and commercial segments.

As part of our open banking services, we continue to operate our “Request Payment” (Ödeme İste) application, which allows customers to create a payment request in the app, notifies the payer via the relevant bank or fintech, and, with the payer’s approval, enables the payment to be completed quickly and securely; and our “Share Payment” (Ödeme Paylaş) application, which allows expenses such as money transfers (EFT/FAST) and bill payments made from account or credit card transactions to be flexibly shared in amounts determined by users. In addition, in line with our pioneering role in the digital payment ecosystem, we launched the second phase of the “Request Payment” project in compliance with the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) standards and in collaboration with the Interbank Card Center (BKM). Within the scope of this new phase, which was launched in January 2025, we added Partial Payment, Early Payment, and Payment Deferral features to our banking infrastructure. Thanks to these new functions that increase flexibility in payment services, we have enabled our customers to manage their cash flows much more efficiently while elevating the user experience to a more dynamic and personalized level.

With our Vibox application, which we developed and launched for our customers in 2022, we help our customers’ children, who receive allowances in their wallets from anywhere in the world, develop a savings mindset. We enable our customers’ children to grow their savings through TL-denominated term deposit accounts, precious metals, and foreign currencies. Additionally, we continue to offer our customers great convenience in their daily financial transactions with the “My Place” menu. We enable our customers to manage all expenses related to their homes and vehicles from a single screen and to easily track payments such as bills, rent, maintenance fees, taxes, and HGS (Fast Pass System). In addition, we strategically expanded our remote customer acquisition process in 2025 to include users engaged in agricultural activities, alongside the retail and commercial segments. With the improvements we made in our processes, we achieved an increase in the rate of customers acquired through VakıfBank Mobile, in line with our targets.

In 2025, we combined our customers’ financial summaries of their transactions throughout the year related to our Bank’s products and services with product recommendations tailored to their needs, creating an entertaining experience. We aim to make this work available in our mobile application.

We are aware that the services we provide through digitalization reduce our customers’ carbon footprints. With the digital solutions we offer, we indirectly contribute to combating climate change. Throughout 2025, we focused on leveraging new technologies while centering on the user experience. With the innovative solutions we implemented during this process, we continuously improved the digital banking experience, elevating the user experience to a more dynamic and customizable structure. The services we developed also significantly lightened the operational workload in our branches. As a result, we achieved an increase in efficiency in both our digital and physical channels.

In the upcoming period, we will continue to lead innovation with our technological infrastructure, products, and applications. Keeping our customers at the center, we will continue to take steps to offer more accessible, faster, and need-oriented services; we will remain committed to creating solutions that add value to our customers’ lives through our digital channels.

Operating with the motto “Digital makes it easier,” we continuously research methods to make our products and services more efficient, accessible, useful, better at meeting needs, and of higher quality by evaluating our customers’ needs, expectations, and experiences in conjunction with technological advancements. In this regard, we aim to establish an innovation ecosystem that will lead the sector. Thus, by contributing to our competitiveness, we enable the application of innovative solutions across all areas in response to changing conditions, rather than relying on traditional methods.

With our qualified human resources and innovative vision, we closely follow developments in information technology, strengthening our commitment to the technologies that are shaping the future of banking. Using advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data, we are undertaking projects focused on operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Thanks to our competent human resources and innovative approach, we closely monitor the transformation in information technologies and develop products and solutions that add value to the sector. Our commitment to the technologies shaping the future of banking forms the foundation of our sustainable success. Focusing on advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data, we implement innovative projects that increase efficiency and enhance the customer experience.

By integrating R&D data specially prepared using artificial intelligence for our Bank’s insurance sales calls into our operational processes, we adopted a data-driven approach to our sales. As a result of the effective use of this data set, we increased our conversion rate on insurance sales calls from 5% to 8%. This performance improvement has made a measurable and meaningful contribution to our insurance production results. Through this study, we aimed to analyze our customers’ needs more accurately, increase the effectiveness of our sales processes, and enhance operational efficiency. At the same time, we made a significant contribution to promoting a data-driven decision-making culture at our Bank.

We are modernizing our banking practices to meet contemporary requirements. We raised the prediction threshold for our artificial intelligence forecasting automation from 40% to 60%. This has increased the automation success rate for requests routed for forecasting.

We are modernizing our banking practices to meet contemporary requirements. We are transforming our core banking applications into modern, web-based structures, prioritizing the user experience. With this transformation, we are responding to our customers’ needs more quickly and effectively, maximizing customer satisfaction by offering all the advantages of digital banking.

Aware of the strategic importance of data, we not only see it as a resource but also effectively analyze it to transform it into valuable information. By placing importance on data analytics, information security, and data management, we ensure that data is used accurately, securely, and efficiently. We prioritize improving data quality and, to this end, aim to enhance self-service reporting, decision support tools, and data analyst roles in business units, increase data governance and architectural maturity, and facilitate data access and discovery. By doing so, we strengthen our banking services by making smarter, faster, and more reliable decisions at every step.

To enhance competition-oriented technology adoption, we are increasing our competencies and applications related to technologies that support mobile, contactless, and self-service products, as well as business intelligence, data analytics, artificial intelligence, open banking, cloud, DevOps, smart automation, and blockchain-based digital currencies. We support and accelerate initiatives that improve the customer experience, reduce and/or simplify customer effort, and support passwordless and biometric transactions.

Through our efforts to improve our Bank’s operational processes, we have made digitalization an internal transformation philosophy. In 2025, we continued to monitor operational processes, centralize transactions, incorporate manual control points into our systems, and integrate the latest technologies into our processes to improve the quality of service our customers receive from our Bank, increase the efficiency of our sales-oriented structure, reduce transaction and labor costs, and lighten the operational burden on our units and branches. We closely follow technological developments and use big data, artificial intelligence, data analytics, open banking, and robotic process automation in our business processes. Furthermore, through our efforts, we not only expand the uninterrupted service we provide to our customers but also increase our operational efficiency, thereby solidifying our competitive strength in the sector. In 2025, we launched the virtual assistant that we had begun developing earlier, enabling our branch employees to communicate digitally with and obtain information from operational units. Thanks to C-Bot, which is integrated with the Bilio Support application, our branches can not only obtain information but also submit priority requests regarding their transactions to the operations center and receive real-time responses. As a result, we reduced phone traffic for our operations center employees, increasing their productivity in transaction-focused tasks. We continue to develop the Virtual Assistant, which we are currently piloting in our Bank’s units, Regional Directorates, and 30 branches, based on feedback, and we aim to roll it out across the Bank shortly.

We continue our efforts in data analytics and our investments in competent human resources in this field. We are taking steps to retain our qualified human capital and enhance their competencies. We are making improvements that reduce process and tool complexity to increase agility and productivity.

We continued our agile transformation journey in 2025 as well. In this context, we discussed the Bank’s agile transformation process—including its goals, history, global trends, past efforts, and future plans—in meetings that brought together our senior management and agile teams. Additionally, we conducted an Agile Maturity Survey across 73 teams. Based on the results, we identified our teams’ maturity levels and areas for development, prepared training sets accordingly, and submitted reports on the process to our senior management. In addition, we launched pilot projects with business units to establish a collaborative work culture and ensure alignment between processes.

We also procured solutions to perform the bank’s data analytics, modeling, and decision-tree processes using more effective and up-to-date technologies.

In connection with our R&D activities, we filed one patent application in 2025. The application processes for all three are still ongoing. Additionally, by managing the subsequent processes of our applications from previous years, we registered one of them during the year. To share the outputs of our R&D activities, we prepared the article titled “A Hybrid EfficientNet–OCR Framework for Robust Document Orientation Detection in Banking Systems” in collaboration with Sakarya University’s Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences and brought it to the journal submission stage. Furthermore, in 2025, we made a total of six applications under the R&D Center Award and Incentive System Regulation: five for the Education Incentive and one for the Patent Incentive.

As part of the “Science for Stronger Societies (SCIENCE&FUTURE)” project, supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) program—a component of Horizon Europe (2021–2027), the European Union’s key funding program for research and innovation—we participated in the “European Researchers’ Night” event held at Sakarya University on September 26, 2025, on behalf of the VakıfBank R&D and Innovation Center, and delivered presentations on “Sustainability and Finance.”

Through the TÜBİTAK BİGG Program, we aimed to support entrepreneurs from the idea stage to market entry, helping them transform their technology- and innovation-focused business ideas into enterprises with high potential to create added value and skilled employment. In this three-stage program, entrepreneurs will complete each stage sequentially and, if deemed eligible, will advance to the next stage. In the first stage of the program, Implementing Organizations designated by TÜBİTAK will ensure that entrepreneurial business ideas they deem suitable are developed into robust business plans through acceleration programs they will carry out using original, effective, and implementable mechanisms. In this context, the application submitted as the Implementing Organization to the TÜBİTAK 1601 Program 2026–2028 BiGG Stage 1 Acceleration Program Call, together with Sakarya Teknokent, Kocaeli University, and Bartın University, was accepted by TÜBİTAK.

As in previous years, we engaged in innovative activities in 2025 by holding Meetup training sessions and various workshops within the Bank. In this context, we provided Prompt Engineering Training in two separate sessions for analysts with three or more years of experience at EBİS. In line with our adopted Artificial Intelligence Approach, the R&D and Innovation Directorate held a workshop for EBİS employees on key considerations during the idea generation, application development, and implementation stages of artificial intelligence. Additionally, this meetup on innovative technologies expected to become trends in the upcoming period, facilitated by R&D and Gartner, was organized by our R&D and Innovation Directorate. We also organized workshops with various units of our Bank, such as the Cash Management Department, Field Management Department, Digital Banking Department, Customer Contact Center Department, Customer Satisfaction and Solution Center Department, Credit Allocation Management and Coordination Department, Bancassurance Department, and Human Resources Department, to discuss the applications of artificial intelligence and design thinking.

With the goal of becoming the leading bank of a strong Türkiye, we continuously offer customer-focused, innovative products and services. While making the most of the opportunities offered by digital banking, we are also aware of the risks that this transformation entails. We are developing robust defense mechanisms against cyber attacks, ensuring the security of all data, and implementing strong security measures for personal data protection. The steps we take to ensure data security not only enhance the reliability of our services but also improve customer satisfaction and the quality of the digital experience. In the upcoming period, we will continue to offer a more secure banking experience by prioritizing technology, security, and customer focus.

Three key factors stand out when determining our security strategies. The first and most important is our Bank’s strategies, the second is risk areas and attack surfaces, and the third is regulations.

We strive to effectively combat threats by considering regulations, digitalization, and increasing data volumes. We turn regulations into opportunities to create security strategies that are aligned with our Bank’s strategies and support our business practices.

We closely monitor legislation published by regulatory authorities and carry out the necessary compliance work. We have completed the necessary work to comply with the Regulation on Information Systems of Banks and Electronic Banking Services and the Information and Communication Security Guide published by the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Digital Transformation Office.

We made the necessary plans and, in line with those plans, completed the related work to ensure compliance with the Communiqué on the criteria to be met for identity verification and transaction security in electronic banking services and when establishing contractual relations in the electronic environment, published by the BRSA.

We also successfully completed audits such as the SWIFT Customer Security Framework and the Revenue Administration’s Private Integrator Audit. Additionally, we successfully completed surveillance audits for the ISO 27001 Information Security Management System and the ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management System, ensuring the continuity of the respective certifications.

By obtaining the ISO 27701 certification, we have demonstrated the compliance of our personal data management systems with international standards and the importance we place on data privacy for our customers, business partners, and stakeholders, while also integrating our privacy policy system into group-wide risk and compliance management. In this context, “The privacy policy is applied to all operations, including suppliers.”

In accordance with the Personal Data Protection Law, we ensure that necessary disclosures are made and that explicit consents are obtained across all our channels as part of our obligation to inform. We also provide our customers with a transparent reporting environment in this regard. Each customer may view their contracts related to Personal Data Protection by directly contacting our branches and requesting them. In this context, we periodically destroy customer information for customers who no longer have a relationship with our Bank. Accordingly, we carry out the necessary work to ensure the security of our customers across all our channels and manage processes effectively through a designated person or unit responsible for privacy matters. In this context, both internal and third-party (external) audits regarding privacy policy compliance are conducted regularly. Furthermore, we adopt a zero-tolerance approach to privacy breaches and apply disciplinary sanctions in case of violations. At the same time, we provide informational training to our employees under Personal Data Protection and ensure that all employees receive mandatory privacy training at least once a year. We have taken proactive measures in data security through data discovery, data classification, secure file sharing, and data loss prevention programs. In 2025, 926 of our employees received “In-class Information Security Training,” while 17,321 people benefited from the “PDPL E-Learning Training on Personal Data Protection.”

We conducted the penetration tests required by applicable legislation in full and completed our management reporting on a regular basis. By increasing penetration testing activities with internal resources as part of internal projects, we significantly enhanced our security maturity levels and reduced our dependence on external firms.

We have systematized our proactive approaches to detecting and preventing malicious software by leveraging artificial intelligence methods and technologies. Thus, we have established significant levels of protection against potential internal and external attacks on the Bank’s systems.

We developed our own training programs using the Bank’s internal resources and artificial intelligence models and assigned them to employees. We have noticeably increased awareness among our personnel and their families regarding both Information Security and Business Continuity.

Our business practices, valuable assets, and the sectors we operate in are among the main factors shaping threats and risks. We view the financial sector as a whole, not only as banks but also as the suppliers and infrastructure contractors that serve them.

We are carrying out significant work to manage business continuity risks. We have completed the necessary investments to address DDoS threats arising from increased data processing volumes and heavy traffic. We are collaborating with operators on this issue. Additionally, during this period, as part of disaster management, we increased the capacity of our mobile branches and completed work to establish backup support for our branch network.

We are a target for cyber attackers, especially considering our country’s geopolitical location. Although significant efforts have been made under European Union harmonization legislation, we have come to accept that the situation has escalated to the level of a cyberterrorism risk, and we are taking a holistic approach. Cyber intelligence sharing between countries is crucial in this regard. Accordingly, we have made significant investments in cyber threat intelligence. Within this scope, we have also completed the necessary work to block malicious traffic originating from abroad.

We are undertaking additional initiatives to protect brand value, which is among the most critical risks in the financial sector. Issues related to data breaches, particularly when customers’ awareness is taken into account, have started to affect reputation and brand value more than ever. Unlike other sectors, we operate with the awareness that even the smallest mistake can have significant financial consequences.

When considering risk areas, another important topic that stands out is mobile banking. With the introduction of legislation supporting remote customer acquisition, the increase in customer numbers is becoming more apparent day by day. This, in turn, leads to a variety of fraud incidents. We are making considerable efforts to raise our customers’ awareness. Due to the increase in fraud during this period, we evaluated and implemented AI-based corporate fraud solutions for our Bank.

During the previous period, one of our most important topics was the use of artificial intelligence. Especially since ChatGPT became available to end users, we have begun to observe cases of the tool being used for harmful purposes. As VakıfBank, we have also taken the necessary precautions against these.

Additionally, the increasing volume of data processing and the emphasis on sustainability have driven remarkable developments in cloud technologies. In this context, many security vendors have started to move their solutions to the cloud. We are creating strategies to the extent permitted by regulations, in line with sustainability, scalability, and operational costs, especially considering security software.

In the upcoming period, it appears that cyber risks, along with environmental and climate risks, will continue to increase and remain a top-level concern in our lives. We are aware that we can overcome all these risks by tackling them with a holistic 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.

You can access our Bank’s Privacy Policy on our website here.