Turkey’s most extensive fintech ecosystem


Aktif Bank, Turkey’s largest privately-held investment bank, continues to serve as a the most extensive fintech ecosystem of Turkey, thanks to its innovative business models and technology investments that redefine investment banking.


Guided by its customer-oriented approach, Aktif Bank, together with its fintech ventures and business partners, provides 360-degree services to over 12 million customers across more than 10 lines of business, from banking products to insurance, transportation to payment systems, and technology to entertainment.


With 13 branches across Turkey, it focuses primarily on corporate banking, investment banking and private banking services. The Bank offers a branchless and seamless end-to-end banking experience to retail customers via its digital banking branch, N Kolay. The Bank aims to position N Kolay, which it continued to expand in 2022 with the addition of new products and services, as the leading, most popular, and most inclusive digital bank in Turkey.


To date, Aktif Bank’s alternative digital channels and platforms reached 140,000 annual retail loan transactions, 8,651,000 prepaid, debit, and credit cards, around 850,000 overseas money transfers, approximately 60 million bill payments, and an annual public transit market volume of TRY 2 billion.


In 2022, Aktif Bank was once again the naming sponsor of the Istanbul Marathon with its N Kolay brand. The dynamism of the N Kolay brand and its egalitarian and lean service model continues to complement the spirit of Istanbul Marathon, one of the leading sporting events of its kind around the globe, to create a harmonious collaboration. Digital bank N Kolay, which is always by the side of its users for their financial needs, also supports the culture and art sector. N Kolay was the naming sponsor of Harbiye concerts in 2022, and continued to contribute to the film, theater, and music festivals organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV).


Meanwhile, the Bank continues to offer convenient access to sporting and cultural events alike with its other key brand in digital, the Passo mobile application. Passo serves 11 million users in total.


Taking inspiration from global trends, Aktif Bank enriched Passo by analyzing the interests of its users, aiming to transform the application into a “lifestyle superapp” with a comprehensive experience.


In 2022, Aktif Bank became the first Turkish bank to establish a presence in the Metaverse and started designing its presence in this universe.  The Bank has been recognized with awards from national and international organizations for its projects in the Metaverse, where it develops projects on the popular Decentraland platform. 


One key development for the Bank in 2022 was being included in the 2022 edition of “Turkey’s Top 100 Most Valuable Brands” list by the independent research firm Brand Finance.


In 2022, Aktif Bank added two new subsidiaries to its group of leading companies in their respective sectors. In addition to launching Aktif Ventures as a “fintech startup developer”, Aktif Bank also aims provide financial support to entrepreneurs via venture funds, and establish key business partnerships in the area of service banking with Apilion, Turkey’s first service banking platform.


Established in 2022 with an innovative approach to payment and ticketing system software, Aktif Tech offers high value-added software solutions and end-to-end operation services to its customers. Boasting an experienced team and a suite of modern software technologies, Aktif Tech is committed to developing card payment software with the SaaS model alongside operations, system monitoring, fraud monitoring, project development, and processing services. Aktif Tech aims to rise to a prominent position in its target markets of Balkans, Africa, Turkic Republics, and the CIS region.


The Bank’s subsidiary UPT, a global player, continued its growth with licenses in European and CIS countries, and opened offices in Berlin and Dubai at the end of 2022. UPT, which mediates money transfers in 176 different countries abroad through the advanced infrastructure and strong partnerships of the global money transfer application UPTION, continued to progress towards becoming a brand that transcends national borders.


Aktif Bank subsidiary E-Kent, which offers public transportation solutions used in Turkey's major cities in local and international markets, brings its technology and expertise together with clubs and federations abroad. Providing technological systems for key stadiums in Africa and Qatar, E-Kent installed access control solutions for the Al Thumama Stadium during the 2022 World Cup, and more than 320,000 fans entered the stadiums using these systems. In 2022, Aktif Bank’s InsurTech brand Sigortayeri renewed its comparison platform, positioning itself as a reliable advisor that makes customers' lives easier and offering access to insurance services with the same simplicity across all communication channels.


The bank expanded the customer portfolio of its payment-leading affiliate N Kolay Payment and Electronic Money Company with enterprises in 2022 in order to expand the range of its digital services for the SME segment. Meanwhile, the “Pay N Kolay” platform was launched in 2022 to meet the financial needs of commercial businesses.


During the year, PAVO obtained “Operator” and “Private Integrator” licenses by quickly adapting to technological developments and regulatory changes. PAVO continues its activities as a fintech company offering end-to-end next-generation payment and collection solutions for all types of businesses.


Aktif Portföy, known for its ability to accurately evaluate needs and create market-leading funds, continued its growth in 2022. 

In 2022, Aktif Bank launched the “Women Active in the Economy” corporate social responsibility and impact investment project, aiming to increase financial inclusivity, contribute to sustainable development, and support gender equality. The project, carried out in collaboration with Grameen Bank and Experian, aims to assist low-income micro-entrepreneur women without any access to banking services utilize the financial system, grow their businesses, and make their income-generating activities sustainable.


The Bank continued to carry out several crucial transformation and infrastructure development efforts in 2022 to improve its organizational models and processes and to strengthen its agile organizational structure. Aktif Bank’s accomplishments were reflected in the awards it received as well as its business results. The Bank won several new accolades in 2022, bringing the total number of international awards to over 200.