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Our History

The Origins: 1944 - 2006

Established in 1944 as Turkey’s first retail focused private bank with a nationwide presence, Yapı Kredi has played a significant role in Turkey’s development, setting standards in the sector through its innovative approach, commitment to social responsibility and investment in culture and arts

1940’s-1950’s:

Innovation:
Yapı Kredi gained a strong position as Turkey’s first retail focused private bank with a nationwide presence, distinguishing itself through its customer friendly approach and limitless service understanding

Social responsibility:
Sponsored the first primary school essay contest in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and contributed to development of private theatre in Turkey through sponsorship of children’s theatre

Culture-Arts:
Launched Doğan Kardeş, Turkey’s longest running children’s magazine, sponsored Turkey’s first fully colour film, organised the first painting competition with an international jury and formed a dedicated culture-arts department within the Bank

1960's

Innovation:
Introduced computerisation to the Turkish banking sector and played a pioneering role in developing long-term project finance lending

Social responsibility:
Sponsored Doğan Kardeş children’s novel competition as part of its 20th year celebrations and organised various Turkish folk songwriting contests

Culture-Arts:
Became the first Turkish bank to have an art gallery by establishing the Kazım Taşkent Art Gallery, hosted landmark exhibitions about Turkish folklore and introduced many works of art from the Topkapı Palace archives to the public for the first time

1970's

Innovation:
Led the way in the development of financial and international subsidiaries and became the first bank to be authorised to hold a foreign currency position in Turkey

Social responsibility:
Sponsored various exhibitions, theatre and cinema events as part of the World Children’s Year and supported the development of general knowledge by organising various contests aimed at both children an adults

Culture-Arts:
Presented art lovers with a rich collection of 80,000 rare books, manuscripts and periodicals by opening the Yapı Kredi library and was chosen as the best in its category among libraries in Turkey

1980’s

Innovation:
Introduced individual loans, credit cards, debit cards, ATMs, online banking systems and laid the foundations for today’s corporate banking

Social responsibility:
Sponsored the Second Environment and Childrens Week in cooperation with the Wildlife Conservation Society and organised various related events

Culture-Arts:
Produced a record and later a CD recording of pieces by Münir Nurettin Selçuk, one of the most revered Turkish classical musicians, thereby winning the Ministry of Culture award and brought the Bolshoi Ballet to Turkey as part of its anniversary celebrations

1990's

Innovation:
Initiated the first telephone banking service and introduced an advanced credit card infrastructure with loyalty point awards and installments

Social responsibility:
Sponsored Nasuh Mahruki, the first Turkish mountaineer to successfully climb Everest and later the worlds’ highest seven points and launched a theatre contest named after famous Turkish theatre player Afife Jale

Culture-Arts:
Established Yapı Kredi Cultural Activities, Arts and Publishing to spread culture and arts to a wider audience, organised the first singing competition named after world famous Turkish opera singer Leyla Gencer and supported the Çatalhöyük excavations thereby helping to uncover its 9,000 year history

2000's

Innovation:
Successfully completed its merger with Koçbank in October 2006, the largest merger in the Turkish banking sector, creating a unique retail franchise

Social responsibility:
Formed the Yapı Kredi Volunteers Platform and undertook many projects in the field of education:

Established the Yapı Kredi Girls Technical and Vocational High School
Opened the Yapı Kredi Banking Academy
Started the I Read, I Play Project
Took part in Koç Group’s Vocational Education, A Crucial Matter for the Nation Project

Culture-Arts:
Yapı Kredi Publications set a record in its sector by publishing its 3,000th book, brought Bellini’s Fatih Sultan Mehmet portrait to Istanbul after 500 years and participated in Art Days started by UniCredit Group

Recent History: 2006 - 2010

Following the merger in 2006, Yapı Kredi’s successful execution of a customer oriented strategy delivered consistently strong results

Please see below for further details on the merger:

The largest in the history of the Turkish banking sector, Yapı Kredi merger dates back to exclusive negotiations between Koç Financial Services (KFS – the 50/50 joint venture between Unicredit and Koç Group, which owned Koçbank and other financial subsidiaries) and the Çukurova Group, previous shareholder of Yapı Kredi Bankasi A.S., that started in January 2005 and led to a share purchase agreement that was signed in May 2005 for the acquisition of 57.4% stake in Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi A.S. (held by the Çukurova Group and Saving Deposit Insurance Fund). The closing took place as a result of the transfer of Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi A.S. shares to Koçbank on 28th September 2005. In April 2006, KFS increased its shareholding in Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi A.S. to 67.3% through the acquisition of an additional 9.9% Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi A.S. shares by Koçbank. Shareholders of both Koçbank and Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi A.S. approved the merger of the two banks on 21 September 2006 through their Extraordinary General Assemblies. Finally, on 2 October 2006, the legal merger process was completed. Koçbank was dissolved, and all its rights, receivables, obligations and liabilities were transferred to Yapı Kredi. The new combined legal entity retained the Yapı Kredi name.

Following the merger in October 2006, 80.2% of Yapı Kredi was owned by KFS while minorities’ stake in the Bank was 19.8%. Following the completion of the share exchange between KFS and Yapı Kredi in October 2007 for the transfer of the shares owned by KFS in YK Leasing, YK factoring and YK Azerbaijan to Yapı Kredi, the ownership of KFS in Yapı Kredi increased to 81.8% while the minorities share has changed to 18.2%.

Yapı Kredi is positioned as the fourth largest privately-owned commercial bank by asset size in Turkey, with leading positions in credit cards, assets under management, factoring, private pension funds, leasing, life and non-life insurance. Yapi Kredi, through its 6,2 million active customers⁽¹⁾ and 894 branches⁽¹⁾ across the country, constitutes a premier franchise in retail, corporate, commercial and SME banking offering a broad range of banking products including credit cards, asset management, leasing, factoring, insurance and brokerage.

(1) Bank-only

Update based on 9M11 results.