Independent Assurance Statement

EY Building a better working world

To the Management of Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası Türk Anonim Ortaklığı

Istanbul, Turkey

This Assurance Statement (the “Statement”) has been prepared for the bank’s management in order to report Selected Sustainability Information contained 2021 Integrated Annual Report (the “2021 Integrated Annual Report”) of the Bank, prepared by the Board of Directors of Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası Türk Anonim Ortaklığı (the “Bank”) for the period starting on January 1, 2021, and ending on December 31, 2021, and listed below.

Subject and Suitable Criteria

In accordance with the Bank’s request, our responsibility is to provide limited assurance within the scope of the principles of the 2021 Integrated Annual Report of Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası Türk Anonim Ortaklığı - Reporting Guide (“Reporting Guide”) found on pages 504-509 of the 2021 Integrated Annual Report.

Scope of our Limited Assurance Service

The scope of our limited assurance service is limited to the review of the Selected Information on the operational indicators, social indicators, and environmental indicators listed below, found on pages 51, 65, 76, 103, 106, 110, 113, 119, 499, 502 and 503 of 2021 Integrated Annual Report, and marked with √.

Operational indicators

  • Total amount of loans extended to SMEs (TL),
  • The number of funded renewable energy projects and the amount of funds provided (TL),
  • Increase in the number of digital banking customers (people).

Social indicators

  • Female employee rate (%),
  • Number of Employees in managing bodies (Manager and Higher Level) (people),
  • Ratio of female employees that returned to work after parental leave
  • The ratio of filling top positions with in-Bank promotion √
  • Employee turnover rate (rate),
  • Average year of seniority (year),
  • Number of disabled employees (year),
  • Total training hours (hour),
  • Average training hours per employee (hour),
  • Share of Digital Trainings in Total Hours of Education (%),
  • Incident Rate (rate)
  • Occupational disease rate (rate)
  • Lost day rate in all facilities (%)
  • Absenteeism rate (%)

Environmental Indicators

  • Energy consumption (electricity, natural gas, lignite, gasoline, diesel, heating fuel) (GJ)
  • Water consumption (megaliter)
  • Recycled waste amount (ton)
  • Paper consumption (ton)
  • Total carbon emissions (Scope 1, Scope 2, Scope 3) (tons of CO2e)
  • Total carbon emission intensity (ratio of total carbon emission to spatial area) (kg CO2e/m2)

The Bank’s Responsibility

The bank’s management is responsible for the preparation, collection, and presentation of Selected Information. In addition, the Bank’s management is responsible for the completeness and accuracy of the documentation submitted to the auditor. The Bank’s management is also responsible for existence of an internal control mechanism that will reasonably ensure the provision of documentation and information that does not contain significant inaccuracies due to errors or fraud.

Our Responsibility

Our assurance work has been planned and carried out in accordance with the International Assurance Standards and especially the International Standard for Assurance Engagements Other than Auditing and Reviewing Historical Financial Information (ISAE 3000) and the International Assurance Standards (ISAE) 3410, Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reports Assurance Services. These regulations require us to comply with the ethical rules and to plan and carry out our assurance work with the aim of achieving limited assurance on Selected Information.

We comply with the independence and other ethical requirements of the IESBA (International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants) Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, which sets out the basic principles of integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality, and professional behavior.

We apply the International Standard on Quality Control (ISQC 1) and, in this respect, maintain a strong quality control system that includes documented policies and processes in accordance with the related ethical and professional standards and the requirements of laws or regulations.

The assurance work performed is limited assurance. The nature, timing, and scope of the procedures performed in a limited assurance work are limited compared to the requirements of a reasonable assurance work. Therefore, the level of assurance obtained is lower.

The procedures that have been chosen are subject to the auditor’s judgement. The procedures are, in particular, the questioning of the persons responsible for the collection and reporting of the Selected Information, analytical procedures, and additional procedures established to obtain evidence about the Selected Information.

Applied Procedures

The procedures we applied for the Selected Information mentioned above include the followings:

  1. We have met with the Bank’s senior staff in a key position to understand the processes currently in place to obtain the Selected Information for the reporting period;
  2. We reviewed the Selected Information against the evidence obtained from online interviews with employees at the Bank’s Turkey locations and on sample basis for other locations;
  3. We applied accuracy tests based on sampling on the Selected Information;
  4. We used the Bank’s internal documentation to evaluate and review the Selected Information;
  5. We evaluated the design and implementation of the basic processes and the controls on the Selected Information;
  6. On the sampling basis, we have re-performed the calculations used to prepare the Selected Information for the reporting period;
  7. We have evaluated the declaration and presentation of the Selected Information in the Report.

Conclusion

As a result of our procedures, there have been no findings indicating that the Selected Information reviewed for the year ended December 31, 2021 does not meet the relevant requirements of the Reporting Guide in terms of all significant considerations.

Restrictions on Use

We authorize the disclosure of this report in Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası T.A.O.’s Integrated Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2021, to the Board of Directors of Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası T.A.O. in order for them to demonstrate that they have fulfilled their management responsibilities by receiving an independent assurance report in connection with the Selected Information. We do not accept any responsibility for our work or for this statement, except for the cases when the conditions are clearly set out in writing among us, against anyone other than Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası T.A.O.

On behalf of Güney Bağımsız Denetim ve Serbest Muhasebeci Mali Müşavirlik A.Ş.

A member firm of Ernst & Young Global Limited

Zeynep Okuyan Özdemir, Independent Accountant and Financial Advisor

Responsible Partner

İstanbul, March 2, 2022