A first in Turkey, Akbank launched a comprehensive SME Movement. The SMEs have an important place in the economy through employment, production, exports and value added.
SMEs, which are the lifeblood of the economy, want to speed up their business by overcoming the effects of the pandemic. In order to support of this ambition, Akbank launched “SME Movement” to accelerate and empower SMEs.
Designing products and services suitable for the needs of its customers by going beyond traditional banking definitions and classifications, the bank offers these products, as well as packages that include non-banking advantages through Akbank Mobile. In doing so, Akbank responds to all the possible needs of SMEs from a single source. Akbank aims to digitize all financial processes of SMEs and enable them to run their businesses without interruptions with this implementation.
The bank offers many advantages to its customers in this scope. New customers or customers who have started to work actively with our Bank again can perform money orders, EFT, swift, check and promissory notes transactions free of charge for the first three months. New customers through Akbank Mobile can benefit from commercial loans with a term of up to 50 thousand TRY and 36 months in equal monthly installments, free of charge.
There is also a new initiative, which includes the Women's SME Package and various trainings to digitize SMEs and empower them financially. Supported by the EBRD and CGF (Credit Guarantee Fund), this new initiative helps women business owners and women entrepreneurs by providing easy access to funding. The new program offers various training programs to support business owners through financial and digital transformation with modern and customized training programs, networking and collaborations.
“We started a very comprehensive SME Movement for the first time in Turkey”
Speaking at the launch meeting of SME Movement with Akbank and stating that they started a very comprehensive SME Movement as a bank for the first time in Turkey under the leadership of Akbank’s CEO Hakan Binbasgil, Akbank SME Banking EVP Bülent Oğuz mentioned that they monitor the needs of their customers closely, as a bank that keeps the pulse of the market, and said, “We combine our banking experience with the information we have gathered and we produce customized solutions for our SMEs”.
Stating that after the pandemic, SMEs, like many other companies, feel motivated to speed up their businesses, Oğuz said: “By supporting our SMEs in speeding up their businesses and saving time, we want them to know and feel that we are with them on this journey. Within the scope of the SME Movement with Akbank, we aimed to create packages containing banking products and non-banking advantages according to the needs of our SMEs. We provide these packages with a fast experience through the mobile channel via self-service. In this context, at the first stage, we offer our SMEs Welcome to E-Commerce and Turn Your Time into Cash Packages. We will continue to offer the remaining packages gradually throughout the year.
Additionally, I would like to talk about another cooperation that is very important for us. As Akbank, we have taken action together with the EBRD and the CGF to support our SMEs founded or managed by women, and to facilitate their access to funding. Within the scope of the “Financing and Consulting Support Program for Women's Businesses” supported by the European Union and the Ministry of Treasury and Finance of Turkey, with 50 million dollars of EBRD resources and 80% CGF guarantee support, we offer women-owned SMEs who have difficulty in creating guarantees within the scope of the "Women SME Package". We offer commercial loans in installments up to 12 million TRY with a grace period of up to 12 months. In addition, our SMEs benefitting from the loan can make money transfers free of charge for 1 year. We offer advantageous commission rates to our new POS customers, 50 percent discount in POS service fees, and chip-money opportunities to our new commercial card customers within the scope of the package.”
Stating that they also provide the required mentoring, consultancy and training services free of charge after the financing needs are met with this loan, Oğuz said, “We are aware of the importance of women’s active participation in the economy for sustainable economic and social development. We will continue to support our women-owned SMEs with different collaborations” and gave the following information about their forthcoming projects: “I would like to talk about another issue, which is still very new.. As Akbank, we have created the Akbank Transformation Academy with the goal of digitizing our SMEs and empowering them financially. With this new structure, where we offer our SMEs the opportunity to take action for financial and digital transformation with seminars, customized training programs, networking and collaborations that allow them to stay up to date, we will ensure that all of our SMEs benefit from various training programs. Therefore, we welcome our SMEs who want to increase their trade volume, develop business, gain a place in the global market and accelerate digital transformation in their commercial activities at Akbank in the coming days.”
“With Akbank Mobile, businesses make their banking transactions faster”
Burcu Civelek Yüce, Executive Vice President of Akbank Retail Banking and Digital Solutions, underlined that as Akbank, the transformation into mobile banking, which they initiated in order to provide the fastest service to the needs of individual customers, made a difference in the sector and that they are now starting a new transformation to accelerate and empower the SMEs. At the meeting, she talked about the following details:
“With the SME Movement with Akbank, we have designed products and services for our SME customers that go beyond the usual definitions of SME banking. With the products and services we offer, our primary goal is to be able to see the needs of our customers before they are formed and to answer those needs quickly. We aimed to become our customers' financial assistant with financial management services, smart warning mechanisms and insights. In addition to the banking needs of our SME customers, we have also increased our cooperation in many areas such as accounting, e-commerce integration and HR solutions that they need in their daily operations. We want to accelerate their business and accompany them on this journey by providing financing to all SMEs who want to grow their business or start a new business, by meeting their banking and non-banking needs.”
Underlining that customers can complete their applications for packages containing POS, commercial credit cards, Artı Para and POS Plus insurance products from Akbank Mobile in as little as 7-8 minutes, Yüce added that with easy switching between accounts without the need to login with a username and password twice, they provide the possibility to switch between individual and company accounts.
Akbank also offers many innovative and value-added services to SMEs to help with these goals. One of them is Business Finance Management For Your Business (BFM). Within the scope of BFM, the Bank will provide its customers with simple and user-friendly panels, financial analysis, financial calendar, transaction planning and tracking opportunities where they can view the balances of their accounts and cards, cash flows with graphs. It will also offer non-banking services such as marketplace integrators and pre-accounting programs, together with its third-party business partners, to help its customers who set up new companies or aim to expand their young companies, increase their productivity and grow their businesses.