Turkish banks and asset exchange
There are about fifty banks operating in Turkey; most of them are deposit, investment, state-owned, and private. The Central Bank of Turkey was formed in 1930, and its range of activities includes maintaining price stability and the financial system in general, issuing banknotes, supervising payment systems, and controlling external reserves.
The best Turkish banks
The following top 6 most popular and demanded banks with TRY in the country can be distinguished.
Ziraat Bank
The most significant bank in Turkey in terms of assets. Founded in 1863, the main office is in Ankara. It has products and services available for retail, small and medium-sized companies, and corporate users in Turkey and abroad.
The bank was initially founded in Serbia, then part of the Ottoman Empire. Now, it has 1800+ branches in 18 countries around the world. The main focus is on real estate and retail banking enquiries.
VakıfBank
The second-largest bank in Turkey by assets was established in 1954. It has 930+ branches, 4,100+ ATMs, 963,062 POS terminals. VakıfBank has four international branches — New York, Bahrain, Erbil and Qatar. It also operates in Austria through its subsidiary VakıfBank International AG, which has branches in Vienna and Cologne.
VakıfBank offers commercial loans, retail loans — consumer loans, car loans, and mortgages.
Garanti Bank
The bank has been operating since 1946 and is headquartered in Istanbul. Gives access to various financial products and services such as SME banking, commercial/corporate solutions, and personalized banking services.
Garanti has 930+ branches in Turkey, another 8 outside Turkey, and three representative offices abroad. The number of customers is almost 14 million. Just under 50% of Garanti is owned by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (Spain).
Isbank
The first officially state-owned bank was formed in the Republic of Turkey in 1924. It provides commercial banking services to large-scale corporations, small and medium-sized businesses, other companies of various sizes, and retail customers.
Isbank was ranked top 100 in the "World's 1000 Largest Banks" survey. It has 1300+ branches in 23 countries, not including Turkey. Mobile banking is fully supported.
AKBank
Awarded the title of "Turkey's Most Valuable Banking Brand" seven times in a row. Established in 1948, with 800 branches in Turkey and one international branch, 14 million customers.
The institution offers consumer, commercial, investment (corporate level), private banking, credit cards, mortgages and other services. There are 4,550 ATMs and 510,000 POS terminals of this bank throughout Turkey.
Yapi Kredi Bank
The fifth-largest bank in Turkey by assets was formed in 1944. Yapı Kredi was one of the first commercial banks in the state. In addition, it serves customers from the Netherlands, Azerbaijan, Russia and Malta. It is jointly owned by Koc Holding and UniCredit.
The bank can be used through 930 branches in Turkey + one foreign branch. There are 4300+ ATMs, 4 call centres,544 000 POS terminals. The bank operates through several subsidiaries.
Current situation of the Turkish economy and TRY
Turkey's economy grew by 11% in 2021, the highest among G20 countries. However, there was a decline in growth in 2022 due to the military conflict in Eastern Europe.
The monetary stimulus that fuelled growth in 2021 later led to a deterioration in macro-financial conditions. The lira depreciated to record lows and inflation rose to record highs.
Exchanging TRY online
If you are in Turkey and have a local bank card, we recommend using exchangers for fast and convenient exchange with other banks, payment systems, cryptocurrencies.
Our service will help you to find exchangers that support work with Turkish lira in different directions — both for buying and selling. In addition to the banks listed in the article, any other banking institutions of the country can be involved.
