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 take on a trailblazing role in transforming the most recent technologies into products and services. We take advantage of blockchain technology to ensure trust, speed, and convenience in foreign trade. Our aim here is to accelerate foreign trade processes through smart contracts; enhance data security and follow-up via encryption and distributed ledgers, boost cooperation among stakeholders, and eliminate repetitive data sharing. We take part in the Turkish Trade Chain, where all parties involved in foreign trade are stakeholders. In this respect, in 2022 we took important steps towards digitalization in foreign trade and completed Phase 1 of the project conducted to accelerate processes by keeping a record of import and export documentation with the blockchain network.

We continued to develop innovative services for commercial and corporate banking customers in 2022, as well. The Digital Letter of Guarantee has been a project that enabled customers to digitally forward their applications for an LG and transform application processes automatically into LG extensions. This has brought along convenience and speed to the preparation and extension of letters of guarantee. In terms of sustainability, the project has also helped us prevent paper/document waste, attain lean operational processes and speed in our activities, and save time.

We continue our end-to-end digital payment method services with Vinov, a VakıfBank innovation as a financial ecosystem that offers all the features of traditional payment and collection products. In 2022 we turned Vinov into a brand in a very short time. In a period as short as nine months following the launch, the number of active Vinov users has reached some 900 thousand. With Vinov Workplace we introduced this year, we created a digital ecosystem for enterprises and organizations of all sizes, primarily businesses in wholesale or retail and businesses with a dealership/store network, wishing to perform collections with VakıfBank's guarantee.

In the race for digitalization, we are driven to lead the sector in terms of products and services offered to commercial customers. We think that digitalization and open banking will transform the banking sector as an inseparable duo. As for open banking, in 2022 we revamped the infrastructure of our All Account product, which was only available for commercial customers, and rolled out it for retail customers, as well. This way, we enabled customers to view their accounts at other banks on our Internet and mobile channels and manage all their cash flows on a single platform.

We are meticulous when it comes to offering service channels that fit the digital age we are in. Therefore, it is a key principle for us to enable customers to make collections and payments 24/7, anytime, anywhere, and thus reduce the operational load on branches. Accordingly, our Practical Collection System, which allows collections on all digital channels with no additional software costs for the institution or the Bank drew considerable interest from our customers. The rich array of collection methods we offer to customers, service quality, as well as infrastructure enhancements resulted in a significant hike in the number of institutions for which we act as an intermediary in their collections in 2022.

We are also consolidating our strength in cash management services. 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 this period, we have considered customers' requests and expectations and introduced several online and offline enhancements to the 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 rapidly, practically, and securely. This way, we have almost doubled the transaction volume on TÖS year-on-year.

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 will 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.

Thanks to the "Counter Tablet/Digital Approval" project we ran to reduce the operational load on branches and shorten the transaction times, we made sure that documents requiring wet-ink signatures can be approved on in-branch tablets or through VakıfBank Mobile to minimize the waste of paper and prevent any harm to the environment. Along with the mobile approval option, on-tablet approval and on-card approval options, which we recently rolled out at pilot branches are aimed at shortening the time it takes for processes to be completed and improving customer experience.

In this process that we call the digital era, we design the future’s banking and take a pioneering role. With this approach, we make our customers’ lives easier. We focus on our customers’ financial comfort and provide 24/7 uninterrupted access to financial services through our online platforms. In this period, the share of transactions made through non-branch channels rose to 97.20%. Along with the non-branch channels, we continue our efforts to digitalize some branch transactions for facilitating our customers’ lives.

In this context, we simplify our service channels and continue to equip them with AI-assisted voice and face recognition capabilities to provide easier and more attractive services to our customers.

Today, while the change in customer habits goes in parallel with the sectoral change, we, as a part of the banking sector, adapt to these changes to the extent permitted by the regulations. Within this scope, we will introduce the facilities brought along by "Open Banking", which is a rising trend in financial technologies, in 2023. We will also continue with the popularization of the use of robotic process automation and artificial intelligence, as well as the development of hyper-automation models in 2023.

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 sector 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. In this period, we have acquired over 1.4 new digital customers, reaching some 11.5 million digital banking customers. By the end of 2022, we increased transaction volume through digital channels by 148.2% compared to the previous period.

We improve customer-oriented apps and services, and design products that change mobile banking usage habits. One project we developed to this end was "Benim Yerim" (My Place) which we rolled out on VakıfBank Mobile. With "Benim Yerim", we have become the first Bank offering the broadest scope of options for a mortgage, vehicle, and other personal payment transactions. The menu we created now enables customers to add details of their assets to the system, and monitor and make payments related to their houses and vehicles on a single screen. We are now also able to instantly retrieve the debt details regarding registered transactions to update users when a debt becomes due without them having to use the app. Sending smart reminders for all registered payments, our dynamic notification structure made life easier for customers.

In 2022, 4.3 million customers interacted with VİBİ 29.5 million times.

We equipped our AI-based digital assistant, "ViBi" with new features to make life easier for customers and help them save time. VakıfBank Mobile users now have the chance to see their up-and-coming payments on a single screen and monitor their bills, automatic fund transfers, credit card payments, and loan repayments thanks to the weekly updates we send to them. ViBi is an assistant for a financial planner since it shows users' regular cash transfers, incoming cash, bill payments of the previous months, and monthly changes, and follows up on the due dates for payments.

In 2022, we also launched Vibox, a mobile app that helps children aged 0-18 save money. Our goal with Vibox is to contribute to the financial literacy of children as they will be the grown-ups of the future. We also intend to raise their awareness for savings, enabling them to save the allowances sent to their wallets from all over the world with our gamified banking application. We also contribute to children's sense of responsibility by allowing parents to assign tasks to their children. ViBi is also part of this moneybox as a virtual assistant. As we touch the lives of children for banking literacy thanks to this app, we hope to be a "familiar face" for them when they grow up.

We equipped our AI-based digital assistant, "ViBi" with new features to make life easier for customers and help them save time.

We launched new investment screens that we designed by placing customer experience at the center of what we do. Customers were provided with a chance to view their credit cards' advance point details and activity on VakıfBank Mobile and perform transactions in English on all VakıfBank retail and commercial Internet and Mobile channels.

We revamped the screens of Cepte Kazan (Win in Mobile App) by focusing on customer experience. In addition to our work on screens, we expanded the customer base with the potential to use Cepte Kazan and the list of products for which campaigns are conducted.

We strengthened our mobile and internet banking areas by expanding the transaction sets of our time deposit products and campaigns. Releasing targeted campaigns, we offered tailored customer-focused activities. We made sure customers benefited from all the advantages of digital channels, without having to visit brick-and-mortar branches. We will stand by our customers with apps that offer convenience and easier access to deposit products in the coming period.

Money transfers are among the most frequent transactions performed on our mobile app. Our intention with “Smart Transfer” was to further improve the experience of money transfers. Used for the first time on VakıfBank Mobile, our new product Smart Transfer will entirely transform money transfer habits and pioneer the steps to be taken in this direction in the sector. Under this project, we renewed mobile banking money transfer screens and unified the wire transfer, EFT, FAST, and KOLAS screens that would otherwise run separately. This way, we intended to have customers feel the convenience and intelligibility that simplicity offers. In 2023, we will further increase our speed and efficiency with our technological infrastructure, products, and applications, and continue to lead innovation and achieve the firsts in this field.

We are aware that the services we provide through digitalization also reduce our customers’ carbon footprint and indirectly contribute to the combat against climate change. In addition, we believe that the digital migration of customers will accelerate and alternative distribution channels will be used more actively. Therefore, in 2023, we will further increase our speed and efficiency with our technological infrastructure, products, and applications and lead innovation and break ground in this field.

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 place efficiency at the core of our activities thanks to our projects where the most recent technology tools such as AI, machine learning, and big data analysis are used in day-to-day operations.

As a bank that performs millions of banking transactions every day, we know that today’s most valuable asset of institutions 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 continue 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 deployed V-Link, a reporting tool we designed with AI that allows all operational processes conducted in our Bank to be displayed in real-time on a single screen in a holistic manner. This way, we made sure human resources were used efficiently. We tapped into the power of gamification for the first time in 2022. We added momentum to operational efficiency by boosting employee performance and motivation at the Operations Center.

To reduce operational burdens and transaction risks in our branches and Headquarters units, we are operating to bring our processes to digital environments and centralize operational transactions.

In 2022, 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.

It is essential to formulate accurate strategies to manage cyber security risks. At VakıfBank, we set our security strategies by taking risks, threats, and regulations into account.

In an increasingly digitalized world, we constantly review our security controls and continuously improve our monitoring capability with new tools for the identification of vulnerabilities. To establish a modern Security Operation Center infrastructure, we deployed our security incident management tool (SIEM) to support artificial intelligence algorithms. We have introduced new features for user behavior analytics and improved the visibility of all operations. In parallel with all these tools, we strive to automate all security operations with the Safety Orchestration and Automation (SOAR) solution.

Especially to address the risks posed by suppliers, which is one of our most fundamental risks today, we use static and dynamic code review tools to ensure security for applications developed by supplier companies. This way, we make one of the core risks facing us today more manageable.

We are aware of how important business continuity is in an age marked by digitalization, and take measures in this area. Running all our critical systems on active architecture is our primary goal. We also regularly validate this through regular emergency status plan tests every year.

We take necessary measures to address security threats that may arise from working remotely. In this respect, we continue reviewing several products as part of ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) architecture.

We race against time to prevent vulnerabilities that arise as a result of changing threats. With our vulnerability management tool, we periodically scan all vulnerabilities every week and automatically report them to relevant asset managers through the service management tool. When a critical vulnerability occurs, we take action as soon as possible. We are making a concerted effort to ensure that preventive patches, specifically for vulnerabilities, are rapidly applied to all assets.

To take measures more swiftly and effectively, we define necessary rules for our security tools in parallel with the cyber threat intelligence solutions and notifications from regulatory authorities.

We are constantly scanning threats daily with the attack simulation tool, which is another tool we use for detecting threats. With this product, we measure our security maturity in cases of physical attacks from the outside world and ensure that the relevant results are reported to the senior management regularly. With this product, we also guarantee the accuracy of the rules that run at the security operations center.

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.

In this direction, 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.

The privacy of our customers is crucial to us. Regarding the Law on the Protection of Personal Data, 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 have documented the Personal Data Processing Policy and other necessary processes. 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 Law on the Protection of Personal Data. In 2022, 7,415 people completed the e-learning training that was prepared in this context.

Due to the rising number of fraud incidents, we have assessed AI-based corporate fraud solutions and introduced them to our Bank. We are currently working on the migration of all scenarios to the new system.

We continue with our rigorous efforts driven by people, processes, and technology to ensure information security and customer privacy, as well as to establish an effective security architecture.

You can access our Bank’s Privacy Policy on our website at https://www.vakifbank.com.tr/Default.aspx?pageID=4005