- The Bank has been recognized as the “Best Trainer of Chinese Professionals” by the prestigious association China Club. The award recognizes the Group’s work to attract talent in the Asian country.
- The appointment of Mehmet Sezgin, formerly from Garanti, as global director for Means of payments at BBVA led to new projects being started. These initiatives are focused on increasing the profitability of the POS network, as well as increasing the penetration of contact-less payment channels, where Garanti is an international benchmark.
- BBVA has obtained authorization from the United Arab Emirates Central Bank to open a representative office in Abu Dhabi where it will serve large corporate and institutional clients. This office represents BBVA’s entry into the Middle East and will provide support mainly to global businesses. Furthermore, the Group has transformed the representative office it has had in Taiwan since 2006 into a commercial branch. This country is considered as one of the most important markets and a key springboard for BBVA’s expansion plans in Asia.
- Garanti successfully completed the biggest Eurobond issue (USD 1,350m) with the lowest coupon by a Turkish bank. While European financial markets have gone through an extraordinarily difficult period, international investors are looking to credit markets in emerging countries and have placed a great deal of confidence in the bank and the Turkish financial sector as a whole.
- The most relevant awards and recognitions received are outlined below:
- Garanti was one of the first Turkish companies to receive an Investors in People (IIP) certification, rising from “Silver” in 2009 to “Gold” status in 2012. This makes it one of the 615 companies with this status out of a sample of over 24,000. The award recognizes the values that it shares with BBVA: superior customer-centric management, a highly qualified team, and efficient management of the organization.
- Garanti was named “Best Turkish Bank”, “Best Central European and Eastern European Bank” and “Best Turkish Trade Finance Bank” by Global Finance. It was also recognized as “Best Turkish Bank” by Euromoney, and is the only bank in Turkey to receive awards in five different categories.
- The outstanding management of Garanti was awarded three new international recognitions in the fourth quarter of 2012. First, it has been chosen “Best Bank in Turkey” for the third year in a row by The Banker, the magazine specialized in international banking and part of the FT Business Group. Second, in the area of environmental protection, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has granted the Turkish bank the Carbon Performance Leadership Award. Finally, Garanti’s 2011 Annual Interactive Report received a Platinum Spotlight Award from the League of American Communication Professionals.
- Likewise, the Garanti’s MoneyCard loyalty program has been named “Visa Best Customer Experience”.
- The Garanti Securities subsidiary took the awards for “Best Investment Bank of 2011” granted by World Finance and “Best Equity House of 2012” by EMEA Finance.
- BBVA Portugal has been named for the second year in a row by the magazine Euromoney as one of the best providers of cash management services for companies in Portugal. The results reflect BBVA’s capacity to offer solutions adapted to customer needs in what is an increasingly competitive and specialized market.
- Garanti was chosen together with BBVA by the Chinese company UnionPay as a founding member of UnionPay International, a subsidiary created with the aim of expanding this company’s payment channels internationally. Currently it has a market share of around 30% of all credit cards issued worldwide. The alliance will allow Garanti and BBVA to participate actively in part of the administration and creation of the rules and standards needed to expand this business.
- Garanti has renewed its alliance with Turkish Airlines to issue the airline’s official credit card linked to its customer loyalty program for another five years.
- In 2012, Garanti has marketed or renewed its various mobile applications for Iphone, Ipad, Blackberry and Android and incorporated new functions. It has also developed an application for all of the above devices called e-trader, which allows customers to monitor their portfolios and movements in the markets in real time. The result of these innovations has been a 141% increase, from the start of 2012 to September, in the number of users of Garanti mobile banking. In addition, from the beginning of the year until the third quarter, market shares in the mobile segment have risen significantly, both in terms of number of customers (from 32.0% to 36.5%) and in financial transactions (from 41.5% to 45.0%).
- Another field in which the Turkish bank has carried out major developments is in the services rendered through the social media, in line with the strategy for attracting business from the youngest segment of the population. Customers can apply for loans by simply providing some personal and contact details through Garanti’s Facebook page or using the Garanti Kredi application.
Highlights
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