Awards for Excellence 2020
Banking small and medium-sized enterprises is challenging in any market, particularly at the smaller end of the scale. It is even more so in Turkey, where the market is distorted by the predominance of large state-owned banks focused more on pumping up the economy with cheap credit than on commercial imperatives.
Nevertheless, QNB Finansbank has devised a business model for the segment that has proved both profitable for the bank and attractive to Turkish SMEs.
Ranked fifth among private-sector banks in Turkey by total assets, the Qatari-owned lender is number four in SME banking and has increased its market share in the segment in each of the last three years.
It has proved particularly popular among companies with turnover below TL3 million ($438 million).
Erkin Aydin, head of retail and SME banking, says this success has been built on QNB Finansbank’s combination of a strong retail franchise with corporate expertise. The lender was one of the first in Turkey to serve SMEs with a retail-based model rather than as part of corporate banking.