Our Measures Taken Against Coronavirus

Dear valuable customers,

As Vakıf Katılım family, we have taken preventive measures against coronavirus outbreak which has spread rapidly in many countries in the world. Within the scope of these measures;

Hygiene of Buildings, Branches, Dining Halls and Bus Services;

• We have disinfected the Headquarters building in a detailed and attentive manner at the end of each business day and increased the frequency of cleaning periods during the day.
• We have had the carpets washed and cleaned and made a professional disinfecting company to sterilize our working environment using nano silver ion and similar disinfection products.
• We have disinfected the bus services used by our colleagues and increased the frequency of cleaning periods.
• We have frequently disinfected the ATMs in front of our Branches.
• We have informed our customers that they can receive support from Mobile Branch, Internet Branch, ATM or Customer Communication Center for their banking transactions in order to reduce contact between customers and our staff. In this regard, we have revised ATM daily cash withdrawal limits and increased the daily cash withdrawal limits of Vakıf Katılım’s customers from Vakıf Katılım ATMs to 5.000 TL and the daily cash withdrawal limits from state bank and PTT ATMs to 2.500 TL.
• We have sterilized the dining halls in Headquarters as well. Additionally, we have served the salads, desserts, fruits etc. as packaged.
• We have increased the distances between tables in our dining hall and planned the lunch time by turns.

Employee / Customer Awareness and Interaction;

• We have made our colleagues who have symptoms such as flu, cold etc. and/or who show disease symptoms (breathing/respiratory problems, cough etc.) with temperature above 38 degrees to consult a physician and take a rest.
• We have sent informative e-mail messages to our colleagues and reminded the importance of hygiene rules.
• We have informed all of our colleagues about Covid-19 epidemic using special educative videos that we prepare. We have provided special trainings for our personnel who are responsible for the kitchen, dining hall and cleaning works and raised their awareness against Covid-19.
• We have procured and organized the distribution of sufficient number of masks and gloves for all of our colleagues.
• We have made our staff who are in contact with money to wear gloves and masks.
• We have provided sufficient amount of disinfectant materials at common areas and all of our branches. We have prepared special posters of use for these areas and guided our colleagues to efficiently use such materials.
• We have designed and placed informative images for proper hand washing at all toilets on floors.
• We have made our security staff to welcome our customers and offer cologne to them.
• We have raised the awareness of our colleagues and our customers as well with special printed documents “We Don’t Shake Hands, We Smile” that we have prepared to be placed on the tables of all branch staff.
• We have placed thermometers in our branches and monitored the body temperatures of the individuals with high temperature.
• We have informed our customers that they should stay at home and make their banking transactions from ATMs, Internet/Mobile Branch and Call Center without going to the branches unless it is really necessary.

Employees’ Interaction with Each Other and Outer World;

• We have moved the interview processes to digital environment and planned our face-to-face interviews as online.
• We have conducted online meetings with our external stakeholders (agencies, consulting firms etc.). We have temporarily postponed the meetings which cannot be held online.
• We have postponed our customer visits for a while.
• We have postponed to receive personal visitors.
• We have postponed all in-class trainings, workshops, organizations etc.
• We have supported the access of our branch staff to their workplaces using private bus services and vehicles instead of public transport vehicles.

Contact with Overseas;

• We have postponed our domestic and overseas travels for a while.
• We have made our employees who returned or about to return from overseas travel in the last 14 days to receive a report or to take an administrative leave for 14 days after returning to the country.
• We have determined our colleagues who are in close contact with those returning from abroad (friends, family or customer etc.) and monitored their health. We have given administrative leave to these colleagues and protect them during this process.

Remote Work and Special Circumstances;

• We have created the infrastructure required for our employees who are disabled, pregnant, use legal maternity leave, above the age of 55 and included in the risk group defined by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Turkey to work remotely. Those who cannot work remotely are deemed on administrative leave to make them stay at home.
• Our colleagues who take office in Headquarters and branches have worked remotely at home by turn.
• We have provided convenience for the requests for leave of those who have preschool and/or primary school-age children to make them stay at home with their children.
• Due to difficulty experienced in cleaning of suits and due to hygiene reasons, we have temporarily changed our dress code which is “Business Casual” to “Smart Casual” for all our employees including those who take office in branches.
• We have provided communication benefit to meet the communication needs (internet/call packs) of our colleagues who work remotely.

As Vakıf Katılım family, we would like to emphasize that we keep on taking new measures each passing day to ensure the sustainability of the measures that we have taken against coronavirus outbreak and we wish that this pandemic which have caused critical results throughout the world will disappear as soon as possible. We would like to express our thanks to all of our colleagues who have made great contribution in such a difficult period and to our customers who have always supported us in our decision-making process about the measures that we take.