8
İŞBANK
ANNUAL REPORT 2014
İşbank has played a leading role in the economic
development of Turkey since the its establishment.
İŞBANK
SINCE 1924
In keeping with its founding mission, İşbank
has aimed to accept even the smallest
amount of savings and to put it toward
economic development.
Beginning to expand into a country-wide
branch network upon its foundation,
İşbank was also the first Turkish bank to
establish branches abroad, with the first
international branches opening in 1932 in
Hamburg, Germany and Alexandria, Egypt.
In the 1950s, İşbank focused on developing
its equity participations portfolio.
As İşbank’s equity participations became
drivers of Turkish industry, the Bank
supplied resources in the form of capital
and financing to a number of industries
with a focus on manufacturing. In the
1960s and 1970s, İşbank accelerated the
pace of the branch network expansion at
the national level. In the 1980s, the Bank
focused on increasing the number of
international branches.
At İşbank, the 1980s were characterized
by the growing importance of multichannel
banking and the Bank started offering
an even broader range of products and
services to customers.
In 1982, İşbank introduced the first ATMs
to the Turkish market. Its ATM, named
“Bankamatik,” became the generic name for
automatic teller machines in Turkey.
İşbank further solidified the Bank’s position
as the sector’s pioneer in alternative
distribution channels when it launched the
country’s first telephone banking service,
“Mavi Hat (Blueline)” in 1991, and Turkey’s
first online branch in 1997.
In subsequent years, İşbank continued to
move forward by improving service quality
and by developing products tailored to
customer expectations. In parallel with
these innovations, the Bank also focused
on R&D efforts and made maximum use of
new technology.
Maintaining strong and stable growth,
İşbank relocated the Bank’s headquarters
from Ankara to İstanbul in 2000.
In 2006, İşbank initiated the Customer-
Centric Transformation (MOD) program,
aimed at restructuring the Bank with a
customer-focused approach. Under this
program, many projects and initiatives that
resulted in truly revolutionary changes
were successfully completed.
In line with rapid advances in technology,
İşbank continued to improve the innovative
multi-channel banking network, allowing
customers to utilize the most suitable
alternative distribution channel to perform
any banking transaction conveniently,
quickly and reliably, 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week.
Aiming to strengthen its presence globally,
İşbank closely monitors markets having
significant economic and trade ties with
Turkey, especially countries in the near
region. The Bank also continued efforts to
improve the international service network
in 2014.