DenizBank General Manager Hakan Ateş shared the developments in 2022 and his expectations from 2023 in terms of the banking sector and DenizBank.
Stating that they were going through a difficult period to predict, Ateş stated that a strong recovery in the global economy, an increase in indebtedness and an increase in inflation are expected after the epidemic, but the expected strong 2022 did not come with the start of the Russia-Ukraine war and China’s implementation of the zero Kovid-19 policy.
Ateş stated that inflation has risen much higher with these developments and many central banks have had to increase the severity of tightening in monetary policy. ‘ he said.
Pointing out that international institutions have lowered their future growth forecasts with each revision and updated their inflation expectations upwards, Ateş said:
“My expectation is that once the uncertainty regarding the global inflationary process disappears in the first half of 2023, expectations will turn positive, and the effect of the tightening in monetary policy will begin to be seen clearly in the second half. In parallel, I believe that a global growth of around 3 percent will be possible with the support of developing countries. “There is a different process going on in Turkey. A policy set is being implemented in which growth and employment are prioritized and economic activity is tried to be kept alive. We expect the growth figure, which exceeded 11 percent last year, to continue its strong course in 2022 and remain above 5 percent.”
‘THEY WILL HELP THE COSTS DOWN’
Hakan Ateş stated that the current account deficit became more evident as the high inflation and the Russia-Ukraine war pushed energy prices up, and the demand in Europe, where the expectations for recession increased, slowed down and said that these are not unsolvable problems even though they have a negative impact on the economy.
Foreseeing that inflation will continue to decline with the stabilization of the exchange rate and the introduction of the base effect in the coming period, Ateş said, “With the retreat in energy prices and the improvement in commodity prices, lower costs will also help this process.”
Ateş stated that a good season, which will generate around 45 billion dollars in revenue in the tourism sector, is over and they expect the next year to be even stronger.
Emphasizing that all these will ensure that the current account deficit, which is considered a risk, will remain at sustainable levels, Ateş said, “However, it will be difficult for us to maintain the current strong growth in parallel with the slowdown in the global economy, the problems caused by inflation and the shrinkage in funding opportunities. ‘ he evaluated.
‘FUNDAMENTAL COST CAN INCREASED’
DenizBank General Manager Ateş stated that the Turkish banking sector maintains its strong structure and banking indicators continue to remain at levels in line with international criteria.
Noting that the capital adequacy ratio of banks is over 19 percent, Ateş pointed out that there is no deterioration in asset quality.
Ateş emphasized that the non-performing loan ratio maintains its stable course at the level of 2 percent, and deposits continue to be the most important funding source of banks with a share of 56 percent, and said:
“Credit growth lags around 50 percent and lags behind annual inflation, with the effect of the withdrawal in foreign currency loans. In other words, we cannot talk about a real loan growth for this year. On the other hand, the withdrawal in policy rates in 2022 and inflation-indexed bonds supported bank profits. We anticipate that annual inflation will decline rapidly towards 40 percent in the first half of the year due to the base effect, and loans will be in an upward trend parallel to inflation. The slow course of external funding inflows and the increase in deposit competition may lead to higher funding costs. In addition to the developments in deposits, commercial trade due to the regulations The decline in loan rates creates a narrowing effect on the net interest margin.
‘CAUTIOUS GROWTH’
Hakan Ateş also made evaluations about DenizBank’s 2022 performance and said that they strengthened their business model with the motto “Forward is the Sea” and renewed their communication strategies, and continued without deviating from their targets.
Emphasizing that as DenizBank, they continue their prudent growth in assets, loans and deposits, Ateş said, “We are delighted to have SMEs and retail banking in the leading roles. The balance sheets for the whole year have not been disclosed yet. If we look at our performance in the first three quarters, our assets are 598.1 billion TL on a consolidated basis and 503 billion on an unconsolidated basis. TL time deposits, which increased as savings turned towards the Turkish lira, were instrumental in our total customer deposits reaching TL 397.7 billion on a consolidated basis and TL 312.8 billion on an unconsolidated basis. he said.
Ateş stated that they continued to transfer the resources they collected in the nine months of the year to the economy, and that they reached 414 billion liras in cash and non-cash loan volume on a consolidated basis.
Stating that in this period, shareholders’ equity increased to 47.5 billion liras on a consolidated basis, and their net profits were realized as 14 billion 289 million liras on a consolidated basis, Ateş continued as follows:
“In addition to our financial successes, we also closely follow and care about the developments in the world. We see it as our duty to contribute to the fight against the effects of climate change. We are aware of the guiding effects of the financial sector on diminishing resources and the consequences of climate change. Therefore, we support production and producers both nationally and globally. We see it as our duty.
In addition to our farmers and the agricultural industry, we take care to facilitate access to finance for companies in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency. We ensure sustainable growth with our business model, in which we consider our environmental and social impacts in all our activities, products and services.”
Ateş stated that the innovation competition in the sector will continue in the next period, and that the financial sector has made a very rapid progress in digitalization with the epidemic, and that customer acquisition has become completely digital as well as products and transactions.
Emphasizing that they also attach great importance to the paradigm shift in banking with digital and mobile technologies, Ateş said, “As DenizBank, we have increased our investments in this direction and allocated a very important part of our resources to digitalization in 2022. This rate will increase every year.” said.
Ateş also mentioned that DenizBank gained 150,000 customers per month through remote customer acquisition, which was implemented in May 2021, and said:
“In 2022, we focused on enabling our customers to make transactions easily and securely digitally without going to a branch, end-to-end digitization of investment products and transactions, and applications for insurance and loan products. Today, our customers can easily access insurance products that fit their needs through our digital channels, meet their cash needs instantly, and a wide range of investment products. It directs its savings with its range and can easily perform transactions such as mobile phone change, limit and SIM blocking, which were previously done at the branch, from MobilDeniz.
On the other hand, with the legal introduction of the Open Banking concept into our lives, the capabilities of banks became available through technology called API. As DenizBank, we have been the institution with the widest and most functional API set in open banking for 3 years. We adopt a digital-first strategy and constantly move our services forward by using technologies such as data science and machine learning.”
‘WE HAVE LEADERSHIP IN INVESTMENT BANKING’
Hakan Ateş stated that as of 2022, 8 out of every 10 financial transactions made under DenizBank were made through digital channels, almost all investment accounts were opened digitally, and 7 out of 10 individual loans were made available through digital channels.
Emphasizing that they consider digitalization not as a strategy but as a corporate culture under the umbrella of DenizBank, Ateş concluded his speech as follows:
“We know that those who do not make digital and mobile channels a part of their lives, from their SMEs to their farmers, are out of the game. In addition to making the digital journey of our customers easier and more practical, we also keep niche issues such as the digitalization of our SMEs and the integration of smart technologies into agriculture on our agenda.
Another goal for us is to increase the digital customer acquisition processes that we are already performing well. On the other hand, our goal is to provide the best investment banking service. For this reason, we strive to offer an easy and understandable set of investment products and transactions that are suitable not only for large, but also for small and medium investors. We have a leadership claim in this field with the widest investment product range and the best customer experience.”