İşbank is a commercial bank in Turkey. It was the largest private bank in the country by the size of assets and equity, as well as by the number of branches and employees as of 30 June 2019. It was the first bank founded by the Turkish Republic. İşbank was ranked 96th in a survey of "The World's Biggest 1000 Banks”. It was ranked and 447 on the Forbes Global 2000 list for 2015. It had a gross profit for 2015 of TRY 3.023 billion and US$6.8 billion in Tier I Capital, as defined by Basel's Bank for International Settlements. , Istanbul The bank operates 1,354 branches domestically, giving it one of the largest branch networks in Turkey. İşbank's international network comprises 16 branches in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, two branches in each of Iraq, Kosovo and the United Kingdom, and one branch each in Bahrain, Cairo and Shanghai. İşbank's German banking subsidiary has 13 branches in Germany and one branch each in the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Bulgaria. İşbank's Russian banking subsidiary has 11 branches in Russia. There is also a subsidiary in Georgia with branches in Tbilisi and Batumi.
History
Following the culmination of World War I in 1918 and the subsequent dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, Turkey was declared a republic and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was elected by parliament as the first president of Turkey. Atatürk was quick to realise that the government needed a national bank to rebuild Turkey's economy following the debacle of the war. Türkiye İş Bankası, the first truly national bank in the Turkish Republic was founded on 26 August 1924 at the First Economy Congress in İzmir. Atatürk appointed Celâl Bayar, his close aide and then the Minister of Exchange Construction and Settlement as the president of the newly formed bank. İşbank began operations with two branches and 37 staff under the leadership of Celal Bayar, its first general manager. The bank was established with a capital of 1 TL Million of which 250'000 TL was covered by Atatürk, and the rest by private investors. In 1927 the capital was raised by 2 Million TL so it could be merged with the National Credit Bank as equal partners.
Deployment of Netmatik machines, to enable online banking among clients without access to a computer.
Introduction of mobile banking on WAP enabled GSM phones.
Bankamatik which allows the money to be put directly to the account of the client.
Introduction of Maximum Cash Point which allows clients to draw cash from POS machine where there is no ATM available.
Financial operations
In May 1998, 12.3% of the Bank's total shares previously held by the Turkish Treasury have been sold to national and international investors in a public offering. The states Pension Fund has brokered the offering of stock options to employees and retired staff in the company which has reached 41.5%. As of February 2019 41.5% of Isbank shares are held by Isbank's own Pension Fund, 28.1% are represented by Republican People's Party and 30.4% are free float. In February 2019 the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that he advocated of transferring the shares held be the CHP to the treasury. The shares are listed on the Istanbul and London Stock Exchanges. As of February 2019, İş Bank's market value was 26.04 Billion Lira.
