Jointly owned by Dogus Holding and GE Capital, Garanti Bank is Turkey’s second largest private bank in terms of asset size with total assets exceeding USD 76bn in 3Q 09. 46 percent year on year earnings growth and 26 percent ROAE underscore the robustness of Garanti’s business model.
Garanti is Turkey’s largest lender providing USD 48bn of cash and non-cash loans with its market shares of 15 percent in total cash loans, 12 percent in TL loans, and 22 percent in FC loans. Its total deposits reached USD 44bn, reflecting 11 percent increase since the end of 2008. It is the leader in mortgage products with a market share of 15 percent. Its number of credit cards reached 7.8 million, and including debit cards, the size of its portfolio totaled 13 million cards.
As a universal bank with strong presence in all business lines, Garanti has customers in corporate, commercial, SME, and retail segments, and offers integrated and tailor-made financial services with the help of its subsidiaries operating in Mortgage, Pension & Life Insurance, Leasing, Factoring, Asset Management and Securities businesses. Its subsidiaries abroad, Garanti Bank International NV and Garanti Bank Moscow, complement this vision of offering integrated financial services.
Garanti is also distinguished with its sound asset quality, which is maintained through advanced risk management systems, well-established risk culture and strong collection capability; its NPL ratio is well below sector averages.
With its prudent management and risk approach, Garanti earned strong brand recognition and received awards such as the “Best Bank in Turkey” and “Best Managed Bank in Central and Eastern Europe” from reputable international institutions.
Committed to its customers, Garanti operates an expanding distribution network comprised of more than 750 branches including five foreign branches and four international representative offices, over 2,650 ATMs, an award winning call centre and internet and mobile branches utilising its state-of-the-art technology. Extensive branch network is supported with centralised operations, exceptional data warehousing and management reporting systems and effective use of alternative delivery channels; when per branch productivity is considered, Garanti is the leader amongst top-tier Turkish banks.
Breakthrough products and services
Over its 62 year history, Garanti became acknowledged in Turkey and worldwide for its tradition of providing high quality offerings. Through its dynamic business approach and commitment to technological innovation, it has developed groundbreaking products and services creating value for its customers and increasing bank’s operational efficiency.
To name just a few of these: Garanti is the first bank in the world to offer “Cepbank” a mobile-based money transfer service. It is the first bank in the world to offer securitisation of export receivables. It launched “Bonus Card”, Turkey’s first multi-branded and chip-based credit card. Turkey’s first web-based supplier financing system and first e-commerce web site were also developed by Garanti.
Investing in people
The greatest factor behind Garanti’s success is its belief in investing in its employees. As the first company in Turkey to receive certification from Investors in People (IIP) who certifies the quality of companies’ HR practices, Garanti is now proud to be awarded “silver” status as an additional recognition level for further achievement, which is held by only 0.36 percent of the 35,000 IIP certified companies around the world.
Customers’ visions
To help its customers take advantage of its infrastructure and experience in exploring new opportunities, Garanti conducts a variety of activities and meetings so that its customers can develop their foresight and experience. One of most important of these activities is the “Garanti Anatolia Meetings”, which are conducted in several cities in Turkey. In these meetings, Garanti comes together with entrepreneurs and representatives of regional institutions, discussing ideas that will pave the way for further development of the province and region. Since 2002, a total of 62 meetings have been conducted in 47 Turkish provinces, with participation of nearly 20,000 small and medium sized businesses and commercial entities. In the Basel II informational meetings, where opportunities for change and advantages the Basel II criteria would bring to small and medium sized businesses are discussed, an additional 5,000 entrepreneurs were met in 15 provincial capitals.
Corporate responsibility
Believing that its corporate mission involves more than banking, Garanti is dedicated to sustainable banking practices and to a long-term strategy for creating value to the communities in which it operates. Garanti strives to create the maximum added value to all its stakeholders. It conducts long-term projects or provides sponsorships in different areas such as arts, environmental issues, education and sports to enrich the vision of individuals and society.
Taking its mission one step forward, Garanti aims to improve the life quality of individuals and society with the projects that it supports and the cultural institutions that it has founded.
Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Centre aims at supporting contemporary arts and architecture, and provides its visitors with the opportunity to discover contemporary art exhibitions from all over the world. With its library containing 6,500 publications, the institution serves as a source to introduce artists in Turkey to the international arena. It also enables international artists, art critics and curators who are interested in contemporary art to produce their works and conduct research in Istanbul. Garanti Galeri (GG) undertakes the mission to discuss concepts of architecture and design through exhibitions and other activities since 2003. Priorities of GG consist of city planning, architecture, industrial product design and graphic design.
Garanti founded the Ottoman Bank Museum in 2002 to attract attention to the history of the Ottoman Bank’s rich archive. The historical building in Istanbul, which served as headquarters of the bank for 108 years, now serves as a centre composed of a museum, a library, cinema, exhibition hall and an archive. The museum, where 3,500 objects are being exhibited, does not only tell the story of an institution, but also serves as an exposition itself, and contributes to social memory refreshment with its comprehensive program of activities such as exhibitions, seminars, documentary releases and gatherings.
In the near future, Platform’s historical building and OBM’s historical building will be restored to serve Istanbul as new culture centres. They will be restored by 2010, when Istanbul will host European Capital of Culture events. While these two important buildings will contribute to the cultural heritage of the city by maintaining its architectural identity, GG, Platform and OBM will find the opportunity to expand the depth of their up-to-date projects.
Another important example in the area of corporate responsibility is the Teachers Academy Foundation founded by Garanti, a project initiated to create an exemplary civil initiative for enhancing the personal and professional capacity of Turkish teachers nationwide. Within the scope of the project named “No Limits in Teaching”, the Teachers Academy Foundation has provided training to more than 5,200 teachers in 13 provinces. It targets to increase this number to 20,000 in 2010.
Moving into 2010
During the global crisis which has caused contraction in the Turkish economy and adversely affected the demand for credit, Garanti was prepared for fluctuations and positioned its balance sheet at the right time and in the optimal fashion, thanks to its liquid balance sheet structure. During this period, Garanti continued to be the leading Turkish lender, restructured customers’ loans to relieve adverse effects of economic downturn, and quickly adapted to the changing environment. Starting 2009 with its liquid and sound balance sheet structure and strong capital base, Garanti got through the year at peak performance.
Though the global crisis has subsided somewhat, its effects are expected to continue in 2010. During this period, strategic priorities for Garanti will be to strengthen powerful positions held in core banking products, to remain Turkey’s most productive bank, to maintain sustainable growth and to be the leader in all the profitable areas of the sector. These strategies form the basis for Garanti’s planning in 2010.
