8 İşbank
Annual Report 2015
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
channel to perform any banking transaction
conveniently, quickly and reliably, 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week.
İşbank, which closely monitors rapidly
changing customer behaviors and
preferences, initiated the Digital
Transformation Program in 2015 in order to
become the closest bank to the customers
on digital platforms and better define its
digital transformation journey on its business
models. Under the new program, the Bank’s
former target of becoming “Turkey’s Best
Multi Channel Bank” has been revised to
becoming “Turkey’s Best Digital Bank”.
İşbank implemented its Sustainability
Management System in 2015 and joined
the Borsa İstanbul (BIST) Sustainability
Index, demonstrating once again the
Bank’s sensitivities toward its customers,
employees and the environment.
İşbank Since 1924
Since its establishment, İşbank has played a key role in
Turkey’s economic development.
Bankamatik
İşbank, the first bank to introduce
ATMs in Turkey in 1982, turned the
name “Bankamatik” (ATM in Turkish)
into a true brand.
