Vakıf Katılım is 5 Years Old

Having been established in 2016 to bring a fresh breath to the participation finance sector, Vakıf Katılım celebrated its 5th anniversary. Vakıf Katılım, which has the strongest paid-in capital in the participation finance sector, aims to achieve a growth of 50% until the end of this year.

Öztürk Oran, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vakıf Katılım, stated that they took important steps to bring dynamism to the sector and take the participation finance model to the levels it deserves, always with an approach to carry the ancestral foundation culture to the future generations.

İkram Göktaş, the General Manager of Vakıf Katılım, stated that "Although we are relatively young in the sector, we have achieved great things in a very short time with the strength that we take from the hundreds of years of experience in the foundational culture and the powerful vision of Turkey and reached the strongest paid-in capital level in the participation finance sector."

Having brought together the sharing culture of foundations with public power and brought a breath of fresh air to participation finance world, Vakıf Katılım held a press conference for the celebration of its 5th anniversary in the sector. In this meeting which was held online and hosted by Öztürk Oran, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vakıf Katılım, and İkram Göktaş, the General Manager of Vakıf Katılım, the values created by Vakıf Katılım for the sector development & national economy and future objectives were shared.

Öztürk Oran: “Participation finance has a 7.2% share in the banking sector in our country”

Öztürk Oran, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vakıf Katılım, stated in his speech at the meeting that “The participation finance model catered to not only Muslim societies but to the whole of humanity is the only system that could prevent global economic crises”. Talking about how the sector contributed to the country's economy with its more balanced structure and activities to ensure a fairer income distribution, Mr. Oran stated that the importance of the values that the model embraced were proved once again during the pandemic and added: "The participation finance model shares both the risk and the revenue. It advocates that not only individual but also social growth and development are necessary.

Saying that the participation finance sector in Turkey now ranks 9th in the world with assets worth $63 billion according to the ICD Report, Mr. Oran pointed out that: “Turkey has serious attempts and important advantages to become the center of the participation finance sector. Our country stands out to be the center of Islamic Finance with its central geographical position in the world, on the main transfer route of the East's energy to the West, and its duty as a role model with the important steps it takes for the development of the participation finance system. I would also like to emphasize the support of the political authorities to develop the participation finance system in our country. The fact that the public sector is now an active player in the participation finance sector is one of the most important indicators of this. By the end of 2020, our sector grew by 60.7% in the extended funds compared to the end of 2019, contributed to the markets with a TRY 240,133 billion, and reached TRY 437,092 billion increasing by 53.7% in asset size. And this increased the share taken from the banking sector to 7.2%. Right now, 17,000 people are employed in our sector" Mr. Oran added.

“There is nothing in Turkey's path to prevent it from becoming the participation finance center of the world”

Emphasizing how the global shareholder economy-oriented new searches, people-oriented, and sustainable growth approaches are increasingly adopted and that this approach should be turned into an advantage for the participation finance model, Mr. Oran said, “We can seize new opportunities with bigger steps towards meeting innovative and various issues such as green, sustainable, and hybrid sukuk.”

“As a country, we have an amazing potential. We are right in the middle of the global financial markets of Asia and Europe. We are meeting a majority of the criteria to be the participation finance center of the world with our cultural heritage, geopolitical location, economic size, and hinterland. We need to continue our activities on the topics of Sectoral Strategy and Coordination, Product Diversity and Development, Advisory Boards, Education, HR and Certification, Corporate Communication, Perception and Reputation, all of which were mentioned in the Participation Banking Strategy Document. We can develop and improve participation finance model in a sound and sustainable way with activities revolving around these topics and become the center of the world in this area".

İkram Göktaş: “Our asset size increased by 75.2% in 2020”

İkram Göktaş, the General Manager of Vakıf Katılım, said that "Although we are relatively young in the sector, we have achieved great things in a very short time with the strength that we take from the hundreds of years of experience in the foundational culture and the powerful vision of Turkey and reached the strongest paid-in capital level in the participation finance sector”.

Reminding that Vakıf Katılım's total paid-in capital increased up to TRY 5.720.000.000 on the eve of its 5th anniversary, Mr. Göktaş said they are pleased that this increase in the capital brought about an important growth in their total business volume and enabled them to provide more inclusive opportunities.

Mr. Göktaş also talked about the 2020 financial outcomes of Vakıf Katılım and their future goals and added that:

"We carried on our activities with great determination during the pandemic and took all the necessary measures in our units to prevent any interruption in our economic activities and country's production. We actively took part in the Economic Stability Shield Package, which was implemented for the sake of our country's financial stability. We catered to the needs of every segment of society with the financing packages that we offered. Also, we stood by our SMEs and individual customers with Credit Guarantee Fund supported credits. We achieved the highest amount of domestic TRY lease certificate issuance in one day with our sukuk issuances, contributing to the development of participation finance capital markets.”

“All our activities allowed us to reach an asset size of TRY 53.2 billion in 2020 with a 75.2% increase compared to the previous year, and our collected funds reached TRY 39.6 billion with an increase of 72.4%.”

“We increased our support to the real sector with both strong funding resources and equity by 58.8% compared to the previous year and provided a total of TRY 43.1 billion in cash and non-cash funds. As part of our strategy to get closer to our customers, we opened more branches, leading up to 117 branches in 43 cities, and increased the number of our employees to around 1,700”.

“We have a transaction volume of approximately 160 tons of gold and 415 tons of silver”

Stating that their transaction volume in the Precious Metals And Diamond Markets of Istanbul Stock Exchange reached approximately 160 tons of gold and 415 tons of silver as part of their projections to be the National Gold Institution of Turkey, Mr. Göktaş also expressed that they continued their digital transformation journey and 61% of their customers were using their digital banking platform and 87% of their fundamental banking transactions were performed through digital channels in the last quarter of 2020.

“We extended a total of TRY 15.8 billion cash and non-cash financing to our SMEs”

"We extended a total of TRY 15.8 billion cash and non-cash financing to our SMEs by the end of 2020. And we have successfully completed the issuance of lease certificates of approximately TRY 27.4 billion in 123 series in total since June 2017. With this capital increase, our institution will contribute more to the needs of the tradespeople, industrialists, and individual customers from now on." Mr. Göktaş said.

“We aim to achieve a growth of 50% in 2021”

Stating that they will continue to utilize new opportunities meticulously in line with their aim of profitable and sustainable growth, Mr. Göktaş added, “We will focus on working and producing this year, as we have always done, which will focus on the fight against the pandemic and economic reforms. We aim to achieve a growth of 40-50% in almost every item at the end of the year and to increase our success at every step. We will never refrain from taking responsibility for our country in the upcoming period."