In 2021, the struggle against the difficulties enforced by the pandemic continued all over the world, while business processes were realigned with the evolved market conditions upon normalization. In this process triggered by the implications of the pandemic, rapid betterments took place in numerous areas thanks to hope-instilling events, primarily the development and proliferation of the vaccine, and the measures implemented.
During 2021, what was a challenging year for the financial markets, the Turkish economy displayed a successful performance and secured a fast growth despite the global risks. The Turkish banking sector once again demonstrated the resilient and solid infrastructure it possesses with its performance that defied the pandemic-imposed negativities and uncertainties. On the back of its robust balance sheet, liquidity and equity structure, coupled with its advanced technology, the sector expanded and kept contributing to the national economy in 2021 in spite of the global market conditions.
At TEB, we have quickly adjusted to the developments in 2021 which we ended in line with our projections, and we were rewarded for having successfully come through this ordeal. As we backed sustainable growth by contributing to the national economy with our banking activities, we kept working to contribute value to all our stakeholders and to make a positive impact on the society in keeping with our notion of being a “good and exemplary” bank.
According to our financial results for the year ended 31 December 2021, our Bank registered TL 194.1 billion in total assets and booked TL 1,913 million in net profit. Loans, which represent the most important indicator of our support to the economy and our customers, accounted for 54% of our total assets. Giving priority to risk management and asset quality as always, our Bank’s total lending amounted to TL 104.5 billion, with total deposits worth TL 131.8 billion. We maintained our consistent growth on the back of our solid capital structure in 2021, and increased our profitability sustainably. While our Bank’s shareholders’ equity was worth TL 13.6 billion, capital adequacy ratio was 18.05%, well above the target ratio of 12%.
At TEB, we did not face any issues in accessing international finance in 2021 and continued to support the real sector with the funds we secured. We undersigned the first sustainability themed syndicated loan which was participated by 22 banks from the US, EU and the Middle East. While we aim to support the foreign trade finance of the real sector with the USD 380 million facility, we have also confirmed the confidence held in our Bank and in the Turkish banking sector by the international markets once again.
Throughout the year, we sustained our support to firms that help our country thrive. In this context, we made two new agreements with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). We signed an agreement for securing a loan in the amount of USD 58 million right at the onset of 2021 for the financing package set up to fight the negative impacts the pandemic had on the economy, and we realized a new collaboration for USD 50 million in the third quarter of the year for funding the continuity of foreign trade and firms’ needs for foreign trade transactions.
In 2021, we, at TEB, spent efforts aimed at further strengthening our liquidity and to increase its stability by creating broad-based customer deposits. We quickly aligned ourselves with the measures adopted for exchange rates and the new instruments launched for that purpose in our country and introduced new products and services in this vein. With our products that highlight saving up, we sought to protect our customers with savings against the currency risk and to encourage our customers having foreign currency deposits to convert to the Turkish lira. We captured a strong growth on the deposit front with our key product, Marifetli Account. We sustained our support to our customers with our consumer loans that entailed deferment and alternative term options.
The investments we have made in digital banking, our longtime area of focus, and our robust technology allowed us to take actions swiftly, and cater to our customers’ needs with a practical and solution-oriented understanding. The long-awaited Remote Customer Acquisition framework that allows customer acquisition completely digitally was enforced in the reporting period, and we have successfully introduced this application. The application not only increased the speed of our customer acquisition and product sales, but also presented us with the opportunity to touch our customers’ lives more closely.
Within the scope of the digital transformation process, we espoused a working format integrated with technology that also seeks to utilize resources economically. During the year, we opened TEB Turbo Pratik points, which we have developed for offering faster and innovative service to our clients opting to come to a physical branch, for service in different locations and expanded them.
Our efforts targeted at helping the start-up ecosystem flourish and strengthen, which is a key area of focus for our Bank, continued in a variety of aspects. We signed our name under new partnerships in order to contribute to empowering women entrepreneurs alongside technology start-ups, and to help them scale up to achieve global success. In line with our vision of automation and digitalization of banking processes, we carried on with our support to the SMEs with the goal of offering the best customer experience. During this period when institutional companies and financial institutions turned towards diversification of funds, we made international borrowing instruments available for use by our customers, and brought them together with international investors.
In terms of capital structure, liquidity, and maturity structure of its lending, our Bank enjoys a highly strong position and possesses a high asset quality and capital adequacy ratio. In the period ahead, we will carry on with our activities with the goal of being the most preferred bank in Turkey in all branches of banking by focusing on adapting to the process, on healthy growth and proper management of our balance sheet. As we put emphasis on our efforts aimed at expanding our customer portfolio and on achieving growth, we will continue to utilize the advancing technology in digital banking where we are already strong drawing on our experience in this field, and we will keep building on our banking business models and service channels with our customer-oriented approach.
As we contribute to the national economy and sustainable growth with our products and services, at TEB, we are undertaking efforts and initiatives that add value to all our stakeholders encompassing our employees, customers, shareholders and the society, that bear a positive impact on the community, and that are taken as reference by other institutions. We act with the awareness that we, being a bank, have responsibilities for carrying the society to a better future, and in this vein, we back initiatives that help create a sustainable economy, society and environment. In the coming period, we will continue to focus on projects that produce positive impacts and benefits for the society in a wide variety of areas ranging from a higher extent of female inclusion in the economy to supporting start-ups, from raising increased awareness of financial literacy within the society at large to proliferation of social entrepreneurship.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank, first and foremost, our employees who made the 2021 performance of TEB possible, and all our stakeholders for their valuable contributions.
Yours sincerely, Ümit LEBLEBİCİ CEO
