Key Performance Indicators on Material Clusters
Please find our key performance indicators on our material clusters by following the link below
And for more information on topics like
- Sustainable Finance
- Environmental Impact of Our Operations,
- Community Programs
- Corporate Sustainability Governance and many more please visit our Sustainability Website
Financial Health
Moving forward with its value ‘Customer comes first’, Garanti BBVA shapes its products and services around the customer positioned at the heart of its operations. Underlining the customer-centric approach of Garanti BBVA, this value identifies empathizing with the customer as the top priority of employees, describes the necessity to disclose all kinds of information when responding to customer needs within the frame of responsible business principles, and calls for a result oriented approach. When serving their customers, Garanti BBVA employees go beyond meeting their needs and offer solutions that amaze the clients.
As one of its strategic priorities, ‘Financial Health’ for Garanti BBVA means offering its customers solutions and suggestions that cater to their needs so as to help them attain their goals, financial advisory to help them make the right/healthy financial decisions, delivering an excellent customer experience by placing its customers at the center of all its activities and building long-lasting relationships with its customers and be their trusted partner.
In order to measure the performance in terms of fulfillment of customer expectations and to reveal improvement areas, Garanti BBVA conducts Net Promoter Score (NPS) studies and after-service questionnaires with customers receiving service from branches, Customer Contact Center, Customer Experience Support Team and digital channels.
One of the main design principles of Garanti BBVA is to be able to offer to customers the financial solutions that can be easily performed anytime, anywhere. To this end, Garanti BBVA conducts monthly usability surveys to better observe its users’ needs. Based on these surveys, solutions are devised for user experience problems associated with existing functions, and user experience is kept in the focal point in relation to new products to be launched.
With its responsible banking approach, Garanti BBVA discloses advantages and possible risks of products and services. In this context, the Bank communicates with its customers transparently in all sales and marketing activities, and provides all the information they need in a clear and easy to understand way. The Bank offers feasible solutions and aims to build long term and sustainable relations that are built on trust.
While offering solutions catering to the needs of its SME customers, Garanti BBVA also continues to offer advisory to help them make sound financial decisions. The Bank keeps them informed about the developments in their respective sectors and other matters that have implications for their business lives and supports their growth.
Making proposals that are aligned with customer needs in order to help them make healthy financial decisions, Garanti BBVA offers suggestion systems that help customers make the best financial decisions which are backed by smart solutions integrated with new generation payment technologies.
Garanti BBVA will continue to broaden the proposals designed to improve customers’ financial health and offer suggestions and solutions to help them easily manage their daily financial lives and reach their life goals.
Garanti BBVA’s consistent performance in customer experience relies on four key competencies that it embraced in the execution of its strategy: Customer Understanding Capacity, Design Philosophy adopted, Empathetic Culture espoused by each member of the organization and advanced Measurement Systems allowing constant self-control.
The target for abseente rate was 0.014 FY 2020
Sustainability
The world is undergoing a significant social, environmental and economic transformation. Many practices that we know and are familiar with are no longer applicable and capable of fulfilling our needs under the current conditions. In the past decade, we have witnessed a radical change in the expectations of communities from businesses. In the next decade, we will be seeing much more demanding societies that are more aware of their power given these revamped expectations. In the light of these, Garanti BBVA puts responsible and sustainable development in its focus and develops innovative practices to respond to its stakeholders’ expectations.
For the whole world, 2020 has seen habits replaced by radical changes due to the COVID-19 virus that emerged in Wuhan. From March when the first virus case in Turkey was reported until the end of 2020, Garanti BBVA continued to work at full speed on innovative products, services and initiatives in the area of sustainable finance and development amid the pandemic. One of the main enablers of this speed was the digital investments that the Bank has been making for more than 25 years. During this period when the whole world was confined to their homes with the spread of the pandemic, the banking sector witnessed an unprecedented speed in terms of digital transformation.
The Bank continued to mobilize its human and intellectual capitals along with financial capital also in this period in a bid to support responsible and sustainable development, one of its strategic goals. Taking into consideration the effects of the pandemic process that plagued 2020, the Bank strove to understand the conditions surrounding its customers and other stakeholders, and to develop solutions catering to their needs.
Green and sustainable loans/bonds are quite important within the 2030 Agenda that ranks high among material topics. As of year end2020, the total volume of sustainable borrowing market exceeded USD 1.9 trillion. Just in the first half of 2020, the total volume of sustainable bonds and loans reached USD 270 billion despite the pandemic. This figure is reached at USD 655 billion as at the end of the year. Developing innovative financial instruments and solutions such as the green loan and gender loan, Garanti BBVA keeps supporting the expansion of the sustainable bonds and loans volume in Turkey with the steps it has taken.
The Bank collaborates with its peers and the business world at a global level to identify new opportunities, to determine emerging best practices and products, and to remain a leader in sustainable finance and development in Turkey.
In this framework, Garanti BBVA actively takes part in, or holds seats as chair or member on the boards of directors of, 27 initiatives in total, including a number of intermediary platforms such as the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), Principles for Responsible Banking, Global Compact Turkey, and the Turkish Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD Turkey).
Garanti BBVA considers the Principles for Responsible Banking, in the constitution of which it was actively involved, which reached 200 signatories worldwide by end-2020 and was signed by seven banks from Turkey, as a global guide in the projects that it finances. The Bank evaluates the products in its loan book against non-financial criteria that make an environmental, social and/or governance (ESG) risk or impact, as well as financial parameters in the light of these Principles. The Bank, guided by the Principles, aims to set new targets and further improve its performance each time, rather than following the same decisions.
Remaining as a constituent of 10 sustainability indices in total including the Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Index, Garanti BBVA analyzes the sector’s leading practices in environmental and social areas, and originates new areas for continuous improvement. The Bank shows the way for sustainable pathways through being involved in the development of collective policies and position papers of the private sector, which numbered 11 in 2020.
Garanti BBVA diversifies financial instruments provided for low carbon and inclusive growth, and cooperates with international financial institutions for low-cost funding. Drawing on its intellectual capital, the Bank introduces innovative financial resources that incorporate pioneering applications and sustainability criteria, as well as the first social bond issue ever carried out by a private bank in an emerging country.
With the Green Loan it has launched in 2018, Garanti BBVA urge borrowers to improve their sustainability performances throughout the term of the loan. Borrowers may become entitled to advantageous loan interest or commission rates made available against improved performance in environmental, social and corporate governance areas that satisfy the predefined criteria during the term of the loan. The Gender Loan, which was introduced in a similar structure in 2019 by Garanti BBVA, represents a first in the world. Under the Gender Loan, Garanti BBVA grants discount both on cash loan margins and non-cash loan commission for improvements borrowers secure in gender equality.
In 2020, we have seen the effects of the economic and social crisis stemming from the pandemic in every department of life. Notwithstanding, Garanti BBVA kept offering gender loans, sustainability linked loans to encourage its customers to adopt more sustainable business models. Again in 2020, Garanti BBVA authored the world’s first-ever Sustainability linked Syndicated Facility by tying its own borrowing processes to ESG criteria.
As climate change continues to be one of the most significant global crises in the 21st century, responsible finance approach is molded to address climate change issues in addition to societal challenges such as fostering employment through supporting SMEs in growing their businesses. Having allocated 100% of its project finance support for greenfield energy investments to renewables in recent years, and thus increasing the total lending to this area to date above USD 5.3 billion. Garanti BBVA’s support to green and environmentally-sensitive energy continues with the use of 100% renewable energy for electricity in all of its branches and buildings outfitted with compatible infrastructure. Garanti BBVA considers its systematic and long-lived initiatives carried out within the scope of its community investment programs as a key element of its responsible business concept.
The Bank identifies its strategic priorities in this framework in line with the social sensitivities in the country and the world, BBVA Group priorities, stakeholders’ expectations and necessity areas.
Accordingly, the Bank creates shared value through its strategic community investment programs focusing on material topics such as quality education, culture and arts, entrepreneurship, and environment.
It is among the various goals of Garanti BBVA to support the growth and resilience of SMEs, women entrepreneurs and startups, who are key to sustainable development of the economy, and help them improve their environmental, social and ethical performance, besides producing solutions for their financial needs.
Through Garanti BBVA Partners Acceleration Program, the Bank helps flourish the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Turkey, and aims to support and accelerate early startups and initiatives with the potential to attract investment and grow.
The Bank facilitates women entrepreneurs’ access to financing, encourages them to realize their full potentials through Turkey’s Woman Entrepreneur Competition, and executes free-of charge educational collaborations to ensure sustainability such as the Women Entrepreneurs Executive School. Through Women Entrepreneurs Meetings, the Bank targets to help women entrepreneurs build new collaborations and penetrate new markets through experience and information sharing that they need.
Carried out by the Teachers Academy Foundation (ÖRAV) founded and sponsored by Garanti BBVA, the 5 Pebbles: Social and Financial Leadership Program is intended to build on teachers’ knowledge of social and financial literacy and to enable them to teach these skills to their students as well. ÖRAV’s support to teachers is ongoing during the formidable pandemic that is affecting the whole world via innovative online activities. The Foundation’s initiative to this end launched in 2020 with the support of Garanti BBVA is the web seminars series named Teachers without Distance.
Culture and art make another area in which Garanti BBVA intensifies its initiatives within the scope of the Community Investment Programs. Regarding active participation in cultural life, the development of individual and collective cultural liberties among the core components of personal and also sustainable societal development, Garanti BBVA founded SALT in 2011. SALT reaches the society through SALT Beyoğlu, SALT Galata locations and SALT Ankara Office; being an archetype and constantly evolving cultural institution, it plays a major part in the creation of the memory of Turkey’s cultural heritage and in raising awareness of it.
Making it a priority to assume responsibility and take action in emergencies prevailing in the countries where it operates, Garanti BBVA took big steps in fighting the coronavirus pandemic throughout 2020. After making donations for provision of equipment and supplies for state university hospitals, the Bank procured 500 ventilators to be delivered to the Turkish Ministry of Health. Last but not least, the Bank donated 45 thousand saplings for reforestation efforts in Hatay that suffered from forest fires.
By focusing on responsible and sustainable development, the Bank actively contributes to Sustainable Development Goal 1:No Poverty, Goal 3: Good Health and Well Being, Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 5: Gender Equality, Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, Goal 7:Affordable and Clean Energy, Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Goal 9:Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Goal 10:Reduced Inequalities, Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13: Climate Action, Goal 14: Life Below Water, Goal 15: Life on Land, Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals.
Reaching More Customers
As digitalization changes the way companies do business, it is also rapidly transforming customer demands and consumption model. The fact that people spend most of their time on mobile platforms paves the way for companies to scheme their businesses on a mobile-to-mobile format. Therefore, mobile banking platforms come to the fore as the key channel of customer interaction for banks. As the way of doing business and products are digitalized, the resulting customer experience is also completely digitalized. Strictly focused on offering a better experience on digital channels at all times and a follower of omni-channel strategy, Garanti BBVA aims to reach the users at the right time with the right message. Since the banking business requires an intensive set of functions, it becomes more and more important to balance it with a simple user experience. Garanti BBVA puts emphasis on creating unrivalled user experience through thorough analysis of data, and determines any deficiencies by way of regular usability surveys, thus ensuring sustainability of perfect experience. The Bank acts with the consciousness that “human” is at the center of each and every service or design.
Smart decision techniques are employed to approach customers through the best-fitting channel. Technology is utilized to upgrade customer experience; developments continue on every possible platform based on the Bank’s vision of being accessible by customers anywhere they need banking services.
Furthermore the Bank transforms digital channels into an environment where customers can receive financial advisory. The Bank also contributes to its customers’ preparation for the digital future by developing financial tools supporting digital transformation. Taking digital channels way beyond being merely a platform for transacting and product applications, the Bank acts with the vision of delivering an experience that interacts smartly with the customers at every point and that establishes a true bond of trust.
Garanti BBVA aims to maintain its leadership in digital channels by continued monitoring and implementation of new technologies putting mobile channels at the heart of this experience.
Garanti BBVA takes care to listen to the needs of its customers on every channel they are present and to develop fitting solutions.
With “Garanti BBVA’ya Sor” (Ask Garanti BBVA), which is the first 24/7 social media customer satisfaction channel in the Turkish banking sector, the Bank offers an efficient customer satisfaction service. On social network platforms, Garanti BBVA carries out initiatives that contribute to business results by offering a description of products and services supporting its corporate image, and that are intended to make customers’ lives easier with contents on financial and digital literacy, which are at the same time aligned with the entertaining and dynamic nature of social networks.
On average, 45 thousand related content is followed up and an average of 7 thousand customers are responded to every month. With the growing use of social media platforms by users, the number of customers contacting the Bank via Ask Garanti BBVA increases every year. The usage of social media channels is increasing visibly within all communication channels of the Bank. While social platforms had 7.6% share within total complaints received by the Bank in 2015, this ratio is around 20% today. Rapid responses provided to customer suggestions, comments and complaints contribute to customer satisfaction.
In view of the number of platforms it makes use of for social network interactions, Garanti BBVA boasts the most comprehensive complaint handling capability in the financial services sector.
The Executive Vice President in charge of digital banking responsible for digital channels, customer contact center, customer analytics, innovation and product development, customer experience and satisfaction, together with the Executive Vice President in charge of technology, operations, organization and process development, leads digital transformation within the Bank, in collaboration with the senior management team. Furthermore, the Board of Directors closely monitors the progress and the performance.
Operational Excellence
For Garanti BBVA, financial performance is at the core of value creation process and is both the cause and effect in delivering sustainable growth. The Bank has a direct and indirect impact on the economy, by making its products available to customers, investing in its facilities and constantly improving its business model and processes with an operational and environmental efficiency point of view.
Aiming to use capital effectively to maximize the value created, Garanti BBVA focuses on disciplined and sustainable growth on the basis of a true banking principle with strict adherence to solid asset quality and prudent stance. Combining this approach to unconditional customer satisfaction with its robust capitalization and a focus on efficiency, Garanti BBVA sustains its contribution to the economy through effective balance sheet management.
In 2020,Garanti BBVA increased its consolidated total assets by 26% on an annual basis, bringing it to TL 541 billion, attained 29% growth in total performing loans and increased the percentage of interest-earning assets to total assets from 82% to 84%. Standing by its customers at all times, Garanti BBVA brought the share of loans within total assets from 60% to 62%. Today, Garanti BBVA pioneers the sector across various segments from retail banking to payment systems, mortgages to auto loans, SMEs to project finance, transaction banking to digital banking.
Garanti BBVA preserved its liquid balance sheet composition with the help of its prosperous dual currency balance sheet management in 2020 that was characterized by high volatility induced by the pandemic. Diversified and dynamic funding base of the Bank continued to be largely composed of customer driven deposits. Growth rate in customer deposits base was 30%, parallel to the expansion in lending, which helped Garanti BBVA keep its loan to deposit ratio (LDR) at 94% on a consolidated basis. Garanti BBVA’s strength in consumer deposits is the outcome of its innovative business model, which places customers’ needs and satisfaction at the core of its business.
Lending rates relatively decreased as a result of the financial support packages made available to the sector because of the pandemic. The plunged currency followed by expansionary policies, in conjunction with stronger domestic demand triggered inflation. The CBRT began implementing tight monetary policy due to inflationist pressures, resulting in higher funding costs in the second half of the year. In spite of the growing pressure of funding costs and declined lending rates, Garanti BBVA succeeded in expanding its Net Interest Margin (NIM) as compared to yearend 2019 thanks to its diversified funding structure, increased share of demand deposits in total deposits, and income on CPI linkers. Garanti BBVA was able to increase its NIM including swap costs by 21 basis points on a year-over-year basis, and with 5.4%, continued to have the highest NIM level among its peers.
Garanti BBVA follows a prudent and risk-return focused lending strategy. The Bank displays a proactive and consistent approach to risk assessment that ensures preservation of its solid asset quality. In the reporting period, provisions remained high for maintaining the prudent stance due to negative effects stemming from the pandemic, decelerated economic activity and increased unemployment. Net cost of risk, excluding currency impact, was 2.3% in 2020. Since the Bank maintains on-balance sheet FX long positions against currency impact on provisions, increased provisions resulting from devaluated currency does not have an effect upon bottom line profit. Payment deferral was introduced in an effort to support the sector players against the pandemic-related challenges in 2020, and the time allowed for loans to remain unpaid before they are classified as NPL was doubled to 180 days from 90 days. Therefore, net new Non-Performing Loans (NPL) remained on the negative side. Due to this arrangement, the NPL ratio went down from 6.8% in 2019 to 4.5% in 2020 with the effect of the strong growth in lending and loans written down.
Garanti BBVA’s diversified and actively managed funding base, its capital adequacy ratio of 16.9% excluding BRSA’s temporary measures, its growing deposits with approximately 19 million customers’ trust, and continuous access to foreign funding sources bolster the Bank’s business model and long-term sustainable growth.
Its business model, along with its well-diversified fee sources and its further digitalized processes, support the Bank’s ability to generate sustainable income. All of them combined secure the highest net interest margin, and the highest net fees and commissions base among its peers. Furthermore, Garanti BBVA maintains its focus on efficiency and effectively manages its operating costs to foster sustainable value creation
Data and Technology
Agility means agile transformation of the entire organization at Garanti BBVA. So far, 100% of technology and 70% of business lines of the entire organization have been reorganized with agile disciplines. While the agile journey contributed substantial improvement to Garanti BBVA on the technology front, service levels and quality, it also secured a considerable increase in employee satisfaction. End-to-end coherence is secured between the technology organization and business lines. Teams charging ahead together toward a shared goal are able to progress and deliver results rapidly. As planning, decision-making and prioritization take place in the internal processes of teams, the organization’s motivation increases, and conversion into competent, autonomous and responsible teams takes place. Nearly 235 teams work with the agile methodology within the technology organization. Improvement activities underlying the agile philosophy molded according to feedbacks from the projects that arise with the transformation will make the most important agenda for Garanti BBVA in the period ahead.
With its continuous and uninterrupted investments in technology, Garanti BBVA has erected its digital transformation strategy on offering a full-scale and integrated banking platform encompassing simple, accessible and personalized banking transactions and services. In this context, it is always a priority for the Bank to listen to customers’ needs and respond to them in a prompt manner. While continuing to constantly invest in Information Technology systems guaranteeing information security, Garanti BBVA also takes precautions against all risks that could prevent secure and uninterrupted service, and measures the results within the context of customer satisfaction on digital platforms.
For Garanti BBVA, digitalization is a key material topic given focus by both internal and external stakeholders. Therefore, technology is an integral part in the decisionmaking mechanism, which supports process efficiencies and continuously drives the Bank forward. With a single source of data and common understanding, technology is used within Garanti BBVA as an enabler for top-down fast decision-making and strong communication. It is reflected in the way the Bank does business, from CRM applications and segmentation, to innovative products and services, and to a paperless banking environment.
The pandemic has acted as a significant accelerator for digital transformation. The leading company in digitalization in the financial services sector, Garanti BBVA teams already had sufficient teleworking capabilities. Particularly employees assigned to central operations and central functions were provided with equipment possessing mobile capabilities. Under the new service model, branch employees were also given tablet PCs, which allowed teleworking. The primary goal here was to create a working environment for bringing the service to wherever the customer is, concurrently with customer visit to the branch. In this way, all branch employees became able to work from home. During the pandemic when customer visits were halted and isolation was imposed, they kept performing transactions, making phone calls, keeping in touch with the customers and offering seamless service from home. While making headway in digitalizing all services end-to-end, the transformation also brought the need for integration in many areas such as regulations, age challenges, etc., and has turned out to be a period when business continuity tests were transferred to the real-life environment and challenged. Garanti BBVA succeeded in teleworking with its entire organization and the full set of its processes. The Bank will keep reflecting all its learnings and experiences in its business models with a development focus, and keep working to bring the age of opportunity to everyone.
The Best and Most Engaged Team
In line with its priority to set up the best and most engaged team, employee centricity lies at the center of each and every HR practice at Garanti BBVA.
Managing all of its activities in this context under the heading “Talent and Culture”, Garanti BBVA aims to create a culture that every employee will be proud to be a part of.
Garanti BBVA’s Talent and Culture activities this year were formulated under the headings Employee Health, Employee Development and Adapting to a Transforming World.
There are regular focused training on the risk management principles for Garanti BBVA employees. As of 31.12.2020, 52,727 employees completed the following trainings: Laundering Proceeds of Crime (3,344), Information Security (13,210), Privacy Classification of Data (11,304), Protection From Phishing Attacks (3), Personal Data Protection Law (12,943), Information Security for Mobile Devices (91), External Frauds (8), Ethics and Anti-Corruption (3,987), ISO 27001 Information Security (3), Anti Fraud Exam 2020 (7,581), Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime (253).
