VakıfBank

VakıfBank is the third largest bank in Turkey in terms of asset size, established with an initial capital of TL 50 million on January 11, 1954 and later started operating on April 13, 1954. Abdi Serdar Üstünsalih has been selected as the CEO of the Bank.

Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası T.A.O.
TypeAnonim Şirket
BİST: VAKBN
IndustryFinance and Insurance
FoundedApril 13, 1954 (1954-04-13)
Headquarters
Ümraniye, Istanbul
Number of locations
939 Branches[1]
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Abdulkadir Aksu (Chairman)
Abdi Serdar Üstünsalih (CEO)
ProductsFinancial Services, credit cards, consumer banking, corporate banking, investment banking, mortgage loans, private banking
Revenue ₺17.0 billion (2019)
₺3.6 billion (2019)
₺2.8 billion (2019)
Total assets ₺419.4 billion (2019)
Total equity ₺33.0 billion (2019)
Number of employees
16,835 (2019)
Subsidiaries
Websitewww.VakıfBank.com

VakıfBank has 938 branches, 4,268 ATMs and 402,267 units of POS that constitute its distribution channels as of September 30, 2020. VakıfBank has three international branches located in New York, Bahrain and Arbil. In addition, VakıfBank operates in Austria with a subsidiary, VakıfBank International AG, which has branches in Vienna and Cologne. [2]

History

1950s to 1980s

In 1956, after conducting extensive studies and surveys in the major economic centers across Turkey, VakıfBank continued its growth by opening an additional 10 branches. In 1957, VakıfBank made its first venture towards broadening its services with the establishment of Güneş Insurance. Over the next 20 years, VakıfBank continued to expand and widen its geographic presence in Turkey by opening new branches throughout Turkey, including in other important commercial and industrial regions. By 1977, VakıfBank had 206 branch offices.

1980s

During the 1980s, VakıfBank sought to keep pace with technological advances and placed special emphasis on improving its operations through investment in technology. VakıfBank improved automation and became fully integrated through a centralized mainframe computer system. In 1982, in an effort to conduct banking operations in a more dynamic manner and serve the particular needs of various regions, VakıfBank established regional directorates in Istanbul, the Aegean and the Çukurova regions.

1990s

In the early 1990s, VakıfBank increased the scope of its consumer lending and diversified its loan portfolio by broadening its lending practices to include equipment financing, enterprise loans, auto loans, housing loans as well as loans for marriage, vacation and education. It began to expand its credit card business by adopting principles of reputation credit and increasing its base of merchant customers, students and working class employees as well as by automating and centralizing its point of sale authorization system. VakıfBank also laid the groundwork to become a leader in alternative distribution channels by introducing self-service banking, telephone banking, and a mobile bank branch office – a full-service branch office on wheels Autobank. VakıfBank was the first in Turkey to offer payment services by credit card over the telephone. In 1993, VakıfBank obtained its first syndicated loan in an amount of US$ 38.5 million and established Vakıf Offshore in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

In 1995, VakıfBank overhauled its management structure in order to modernize and conform with contemporary bank management practices. VakıfBank also established its New York branch in order to increase its exposure to international markets. The New York branch conducts international operations, including trade finance and corporate banking. In 1996, VakıfBank established Vakıf Gayrimenkul, a real estate investment trust, and Vakıf Risk Sermayesi Yatirim Ortakligi A.Ş., the first venture capital company in Turkey. In 1997, VakıfBank conducted its first securitization for US$ 130 million in relation to credit and debit card receivables.

In 1998, VakıfBank established its first home banking platform for customers with substantial business volume. VakıfBank also installed new computer systems to automate import and export transactions within the branch network for those branches conducting trade finance activities. VakıfBank became the first in Turkey to offer long-term home loans with maturities of up to 20 years. VakıfBank also introduced the VakifBank Primary Schools program, a scheme designed to turn former branch offices into schools for homeless children.

2000s

In 2000, VakıfBank completed its first Eurobond issue for €200 million with a term of three years. In addition, VakıfBank’s subsidiaries, Güneş Insurance, Vakıf Financial Leasing, Vakıf Investment Trust Company, Vakıf Real Estate Investment Trust Company and Vakıf Venture Capital Company all offered their shares to the public and listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange.

In 2001, VakıfBank also introduced internet banking with the launch of its internet site. VakıfBank currently has over 751,869 internet banking customers, an increase of almost 50% since 2003. In 2001, VakıfBank completed the first long-term borrowing following the Turkish economic crisis through the securitization of diversified payment rights for an amount of US$ 200 million and a term of five years. VakıfBank also became the first Turkish commercial bank to launch a syndicated loan facility following the economic crisis for an amount of US$ 110 million. Also in 2001, VakıfBank established a senior risk committee as well as a bank-wide risk committee, an internal control department and a new data processing center.

In 2002, VakıfBank had the largest number of credit cards issued in Turkey and ranked first in Europe in terms of the number of Maestro cards issued by a banking institution, according to Mastercard.

In 2003, VakıfBank continued its strategy to expand its customer base by effectively promoting both existing and new services to a larger segment of the population, including the upper middle class, middle-aged individuals with a steady source of income. VakıfBank borrowed US$ 200 million in a syndicated deal in which 36 banks participated, including 14 arrangers. In July 2005, VakıfBank increased this syndicated loan to US$ 750 million with 62 banks, including 34 arrangers. In September 2005, VakıfBank closed the 2005‑A Tranche of its new diversified payment rights securitization program which amounted to US$ 750 million. The securitization resulted in the sale of the diversified payment rights to the SPC. Also in 2005, VakıfBank and VakıfBank Pension Fund sold, respectively, 27,900 million and 4,300 million Class D common shares of VakıfBank in the IPO, representing 21.8% and 3.37%, respectively, of VakıfBank’s total shares.

Since 2003, VakıfBank has initiated the following projects: a marketing and sales oriented new branch organization to promote customer satisfaction; the Remote Access (EXAPI System) enabling VakıfBank’s customers to trade directly on the Istanbul Stock Exchange; the First Step Mutual Fund for parents wanting to invest for their children; and a branded credit card program for groups such as students, teachers and soldiers as well as the Supporter Credit Card for the fans of the three most popular football clubs in Turkey Super League.

Present

In September 2004, VakıfBank mandated an international consultancy firm to review the financial and operational performance of VakıfBank. VakıfBank continues to improve operating efficiencies and overall performance through a number of initiatives including: organizational restructuring, including the reorganization of VakıfBank’s head office and the consolidation of certain business units to create increased operating efficiencies; increasing its focus on customers, including expanding its customer base, cross-selling to existing customers and improving customer service by utilizing both its extensive branch network as well as its continually expanding range of alternative distribution channels; remodeling nearly all of its existing branches and exploring opportunities for new branch openings, particularly in the Marmara region; focusing on sales at the branch level by shifting staff to sales functions; increasing its investment in human resources and optimizing personnel utilization; upgrading and overhauling the capacity and quality of its information technology systems, hardware and applications throughout both VakıfBank’s headquarters and its branch network; and developing its internal control functions, including the implementation of regional portfolio managers in its commercial banking operations and increasing responsibility at the branch level. VakıfBank intends to complete implementation of a majority of these initiatives during 2007.

in Brief

VakıfBank is one of the "multi-specialist" banks in Turkey. The modern banking products and services that it offers cover not only corporate, commercial and small-scale enterprise banking, but also the retail and private banking sectors. Being engaged in investment banking and capital market activities in addition to the basic banking products and services, VakıfBank offers the full range of financial products required in this era via state of the art technology including, but not limited to underwriting, financial leasing and factoring services, etc. by means of its financial participations.

VakıfBank has been reaching out its corporate and individual customers through its internet branches, telephone banking branch, 2.220 ATM’s and 87.581 units of POS that constitute its alternative distribution channels as well as 610 branches spread throughout the country and undertaking a leading role in the financing of domestic and foreign trade. VakifBank has two international offices located in New York and Bahrain and it also has participation in Austria named VakifBank International AG which has branches in Vienna, Cologne and Frankfurt.

Ownership Structure

Following the public offering in 2005, 74.76% share of the General Directorate of Foundations in the Bank decreased to 58.45% and 24.89% share of the VakıfBank Pension Fund decreased to 16.10% and the publicly traded shares constituted 25.18% of the Bank’s capital.

As of December 11, 2019, 43.00% shares and 15.51% shares of General Directorate of Foundations representing Group (A) and Group (B), respectively (58.51% in total) have been transferred to the Ministry of Treasury and Finance as per the Presidential Decree dated December 3, 2019.

As of May 20, 2020, the capital increase process of VakıfBank was completed with the sale of newly issued shares to Turkey Wealth Fund through private placement and without being offered to the public with a total sales proceeds amounting TL 7,000,000,000.  As a result of capital injection, VakıfBank’s paid-in capital of TL 2,500,000,000 was increased to TL 3,905,622,490. Thus, the current ownership structure of the Bank as follows: Republic of Turkey Ministry of Treasury and Finance: 37.45%; Turkey Wealth Fund: 35.99%; VakıfBank Pension Fund: 10.30%; other shareholders: 0.10% and free float: 16.15%.[3]

Management

VakifBank is managed by its board of directors and its general manager. The articles of association of VakifBank provide for the board of directors to have nine members appointed for a term of three years. Pursuant to recent changes made by Law No. 5387, the breakdown of the board of directors of VakifBank is determined according to its articles of association, except that one member of the board (who is also the general manager of VakifBank) is appointed by the prime minister to represent the GDF.

Pursuant to VakifBank’s articles of association, the Class A shareholders, Class B shareholders and Class C shareholders are entitled, respectively, to five, one and three representatives in the board of directors. Class D shareholders do not have direct board representation. In addition to the board member appointed by the prime minister, three representatives of the Class A shareholders are currently nominated by GDF as the only Class A shareholder. The remaining representative of the Class A shareholders in the board of directors is an independent member elected by the general assembly.

As the majority Class B shareholder, GDF further currently may appoint the representative of the Class B shareholders in the board of directors. The decision regarding the board members to be appointed by GDF is taken at a meeting of the board of directors of GDF, which is in turn composed of members appointed by the government. Two of the three representatives of the Class C shareholders in the board of directors are nominated by the majority of the Class C shareholders, currently VakifBank Pension Fund, while the other representative is an independent member elected by the general assembly. The independent director shall be elected by the general assembly from amongst the candidates nominated by the shareholders; however in nominating this candidate, choices of Class D Shareholders shall be given priority. Current board members were appointed by the general assembly dated March 31, 2006 and will remain as such until March 31, 2009, unless they are removed earlier by such general assembly.

Subsidiaries and Affiliates

VakıfBank has 10 subsidiaries which are Vakıf Faktoring A.Ş., Vakıf Finansal Kiralama A.Ş., Vakıf Gayrimenkul Yatırım Ortaklığı A.Ş., Vakıf Menkul Kıymet Yat. Ort. A.Ş., Vakıf Yatırım Menkul Değerler A.Ş., Vakıf Pazarlama San. ve Ticaret A.Ş., Taksim Otelcilik A.Ş., Vakıf Enerji ve Madencilik A.Ş., Vakıf Gayrimenkul Değerleme A.Ş. and VakıfBank International AG. Also VakıfBank has 15 affiliates operating in various sectors. [4]

The following are VakifBank’s principal subsidiaries and affiliates (with ownership percentages expressed in this section reflecting ownership by members of VakifBank’s group):

  • VakifBank International Wien AG.
  • Vakif Emeklilik A.S.
  • Vakif Finansal Kiralama A.S.
  • Vakif Deniz Finansal Kiralama A.S.
  • Günes Sigorta A.S.
  • Vakif Finans Faktoring Hizmetleri A.S.
  • World Vakif Offshore Banking Ltd.
  • Turkiye Sınai Kalkınma Bankasi
  • Vakıf Portfolio Management
  • Vakif Investment Corporation

See also

References
  1. "ANNUAL REPORT 2019" (PDF). Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası. Retrieved 2012-06-17.
  2. "VakıfBank Abroad". www.vakifbank.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved 2020-12-16.
  3. "Ownership Structure". www.vakifbank.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved 2020-12-16.
  4. "KAP". www.kap.org.tr. Retrieved 2020-12-16.
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