All banks invest heavily in their digital products and services, but the return on that investment can vary widely.
One bank that has got it right, offering a successful model for other banks in central and eastern Europe, and beyond, is Turkey’s Akbank.
While a domestic champion, the level of sophistication in Akbank’s products across business lines is such that there are very few banks across the region that can match it.
Indeed, based on the bank’s year-on-year digital customer engagement and growth numbers alone, the firm stands out from its CEE peers.
Its active digital customer base hit 11.2 million last year, up 2.4 million on 2022. More than 60% of its new-to-bank customers in 2023 were acquired via digital onboarding, now its primary acquisition channel. The bank’s mobile login frequency hit a record high of 37 times a month. Its young adult customer base (18 to 26 year olds) grew by over 40% year on year.
These are just the headline numbers. Other key figures, such as digital share of products and digital migration, tell a similar story.
This success is not just about investing in digital. It is also about strategy and making the cultural adjustments needed to build a different bank. For Akbank, this started in 2015 when it launched its Next Generation Akbank digital transformation drive that asked: what would the bank do differently if it was established today?
“This perspective on digitalization has allowed us to reshape the bank from the ground up,” says Burcu Civelek Yüce, executive vice-president, consumer banking and digital solutions at Akbank. “We have redefined our infrastructure, design and innovation culture, as well as our mobile banking, human resources, branches, and ATMs. For us, digital is not merely an addition to our core business; it is our business. This mindset has enabled us to achieve exponential growth in both customer numbers and transactions, rather than just linear increases.”
Digital product and service innovation is a critical component of driving growth and engagement, and Akbank is one of the most innovative in the region.
Digital product and service innovation is a critical component of driving growth and engagement, and Akbank is one of the most innovative in the region
It has integrated its AI chatbot assistant into customer service across platforms – including the bank’s coffee machines in a pioneering collaboration between AI and internet-of-things technologies – launching the country’s first digital discretionary portfolio-management product on its mobile app. This provides corporate clients with enhanced access to cash-management products, and expands the capabilities small and medium-sized enterprises have to better understand and analyse their financial health.
At the core of the proposition is Akbank Lab, its digital innovation unit, which serves as a bridge between the bank’s business units and technology startups, fintechs and larger global tech companies. The bank forms partnerships with these firms to develop new ideas – it ran seven proofs of concept in 2023 – and launch new services.
In a first for Turkey, Akbank developed a new payment service last year with Huawei’s smart watches, enabling customers to pay contactless with this wearable technology.
“Through Akbank Lab, we stay ahead of new trends and rapidly adapt to emerging technologies,” says Yüce. “Today, AI and generative AI are at the forefront of all sectors, and Akbank has been a pioneer in implementing AI technologies in our digital channels since 2019.”
