Known as a leader in
banking innovation and technology, Turkey’s largest lender by
assets, Garanti Bank, is expecting to report further impressive
growth in 2011. Garanti Bank’s executive vice-president, retail
banking, Ali Fuat Erbil, talks to Duygu Tavan about 2010 and his
targets for the year ahead.
Go deeper with GlobalData
With an innovative
retail banking strategy and ambitious plans for 2011, Garanti Bank
executive vice-president, retail banking, Ali Fuat Erbil ends the
year in optimistic mood.
He told RBI that
Garanti’s distribution channels will continue to be the focus of
its retail banking initiatives in the next year.
Garanti has not yet enjoyed a
boom in mobile banking according to Erbil, but he is “certain”
channel use will explode in 2011 and beyond.
Erbil added he expects
internet and mobile banking “to merge” and said that the bank
already saw a hint of these two channels merging in
2010.
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By GlobalData“By the end of 2011, mobile
and internet banking will be one,” he said.
This would make Garanti even
stronger, considering it had a 40% market share in transactions
carried out via online banking in Turkey at the end of
2009.
As for its self-service
channel, Garanti currently has about 2,950 ATMs across Turkey and
Erbil said that it aims to increase the number to 3,000 within the
next year.
One of the most successful
products of this year was the bank’s Cep Sifrematik service, a
device that creates one-off PINs for online banking.
Erbil said that Garanti
recently launched a Cep Sifrematik application for the iPhone, the
first such banking service for a smartphone, he added.
“Since its launch about four
weeks ago, it has been downloaded more than 40,000 times,” he
said.
The bank also launched an
iPad application, the Garanti e-Trader, with which the user can
purchase stocks and conduct transactions.
The user can manage their
portfolio, follow financial news and buy and sell stocks listed on
the Istanbul Stock Exchange.
It also features the CepBank
Money Transfer service and a Mobile Branch with which the user can
manage all their transactions.
But Erbil said that the
bank’s general mobile service was WAP-based, “because it is more
user friendly”, especially for customers without a
smartphone.
Another successful product of
2010 was Garanti Bank’s contactless payment service, Trink. The
bank recorded itsmth customer at the end of November.
Contactless
extended
In early December,
Garanti extended its contactless payment service with the launch of
its first near field communication (NFC) based mobile payment
service in co-operation with Turkish mobile phone operator Avea,
MasterCard and Gemalto.
The NFC mobile payment
solution, called BonusluAvea, is supported by MasterCard’s PayPass
technology and will be promoted by Avea and Garanti.
Garanti said it wants to
extend PayPass enabled, contactless transactions to mobile
phones.
Trink card holders will have
to purchase a specially adapted SIM card from a participating Avea
store to replace their current SIM card. This will enable consumers
to use their mobile phone for MasterCard Tap&Go payments at
over 35,000 PayPass merchant in Turkey and at 265,000 locations
around the world.
In Turkey, contactless
transactions cover public transport ticketing and access to sports
stadiums.
But the bank said that it
wants to extend the contactless transactions to other traditionally
cash-dependent services, such as vending machines and for payment
of the Istanbul KGS toll, (the local traffic congestion
charge).
BonusluAvea customers will
also receive digital coupons on their phones to earn instant
discounts and gifts.
Another successful
distribution hit was the launch of Garanti’s new
website.
Erbil said the bank recorded
“a 15 to 20% increase in website hits” and added that the amount of
time spent on the website had “more than doubled” since it was
rolled out.
Overall, the bank aims and
expects to grow in 2011, “not just in terms of branch and ATM
network, but also in terms of net profits and assets”, Erbil
said.
He also revealed the bank was
“working on new products” for 2011.
“I cannot talk about upcoming products in detail, but
there are plans to introduce something new for the mobile banking,
online banking and ATM channels in the New Year.”
