SME Banker of the Year 2025 nominee: Okay Yıldırım
We are introducing the nominees for the SME Banker of the Year 2025 Award – dynamic and inventive leaders who have dedicated themselves to serving SMEs. Their unwavering commitment to the SME sector has left a considerable impact on this crucial segment of the economy, positioning them as outstanding leaders in the realm of SME banking. Take the opportunity to learn more about these exceptional nominees and be inspired by their steadfast dedication to serving SMEs!
Okay graduated from Ankara University’s Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Finance. He began his banking career at Garanti Bank as a Management Trainee. He has held various managerial positions in Commercial Banking, SME Banking, Retail Banking, Cash Management, and Foreign Trade Units at TEB and QNB Finansbank. In 2018, he was appointed as the General Manager of QNB eSolutions, QNB Group’s e-transformation fintech.
Okay Yıldırım also serves as he executive responsible for the Digital Bridge and Banking-as-a-Service teams within QNB Group, Board Member at QNB Factoring, QNB eSolutions and QNBpay.
In the course of your career, what have you seen change in terms of demands/needs of SME clients? And what role should a bank play in meeting these demands?
In the past, banks offered SMEs a limited range of products for many years. In fact, for a certain period, working with SMEs was considered a privilege granted by banks.
Today, the product range has expanded and diversified significantly. Both internal and external banking channels have increased day by day. Banks had to adapt to all these evolving internal and external channels. Collaborating with various fintechs, reaching customers instantly through every channel—not only via digital banking but also through models like BaaS—has become a critical role for banks.
At the same time, banks should position themselves as trusted partners for SMEs, just as we do with our Dijital Köprü platform. Beyond banking services, they should provide SMEs with fundamental education, support, and solutions to meet their broader business needs.
For instance, through the QNB Dijital Köprü platform, we offer 23 solutions that address companies' managerial, financial, e-transformation, and e-commerce needs, in collaboration with fintech partners. Additionally, we provide training through Dijital Köprü Akademi to empower businesses further.
In the past, banks offered SMEs a limited range of products for many years. In fact, for a certain period, working with SMEs was considered a privilege granted by banks.
Today, the product range has expanded and diversified significantly. Both internal and external banking channels have increased day by day. Banks had to adapt to all these evolving internal and external channels. Collaborating with various fintechs, reaching customers instantly through every channel—not only via digital banking but also through models like BaaS—has become a critical role for banks.
At the same time, banks should position themselves as trusted partners for SMEs, just as we do with our Dijital Köprü platform. Beyond banking services, they should provide SMEs with fundamental education, support, and solutions to meet their broader business needs.
For instance, through the QNB Dijital Köprü platform, we offer 23 solutions that address companies' managerial, financial, e-transformation, and e-commerce needs, in collaboration with fintech partners. Additionally, we provide training through Dijital Köprü Akademi to empower businesses further.
What have you found to be effective in leading your SME banking team/in your leadership position?
In the past, as bankers, we would first develop products and then offer them to SMEs. However, today, we start by listening to SMEs' needs and then develop products tailored to those needs, ensuring that we truly support them. As bankers, we stand alongside SMEs in their growth journey.
Briefly describe, what would be your top 3 achievements/ projects delivered by your bank for SME customers?
A. As QNB Türkiye, we established a subsidiary that provides e-transformation solutions, named QNB eSolutions. This subsidiary evolved into a fintech that enables companies to use e-transformation products, that is mandatory in Türkiye, at affordable costs without any prerequisites, seamlessly integrating with their existing infrastructure. Later, we enhanced these e-transformation products by incorporating various financial solutions.
B. Rather than waiting for SMEs to digitalize on their own, we took on the role of a bank that actively supports and drives their digital transformation. With this mission, we developed the Dijital Köprü platform.
C. Within the Dijital Köprü platform, we created a dedicated section for open banking. Considering SMEs' needs for multi-bank and multi-account management, we designed a solution that allows them to easily monitor and transact across all their bank accounts. This SME-specific feature is called MyBanks (All My Bank Accounts).
What would be the most significant business case that you've applied and learned the most out of it? Both positively or negatively?
In September 2019, as the Corporate/SME Digital Transformation team, we launched Dijital Köprü to drive SMEs’ digitalization.
At first, SMEs were not very eager to embrace digitalization; they were hesitant. The first products that gained traction in their digital transformation journey were e-transformation solutions, as they were legally mandated.
In March 2020, due to the pandemic, the demand for digitalization surged far beyond our expectations. We always knew digitalization was inevitable, but the pandemic significantly accelerated the process. Since we had positioned ourselves in advance, QNB Türkiye was able to differentiate itself positively through Dijital Köprü.
Of course, we also had a product where we faced challenges. We developed a dynamic discounting solution called Neoterm. However, we learned an important lesson: no matter how well a digital product meets a market need, it cannot succeed without a strong marketing investment. Without sufficient advertising, customer education, and product communication—without allocating at least as much budget to marketing as to product development—a digital product is unlikely to reach its full potential. Identifying the right need is crucial, designing the right product is essential, but ensuring a well-planned marketing budget in the initial phase is just as critical.
SME Banking community
With Qorus memberships, you gain access to exclusive innovation best practices and tailored matchmaking opportunities with executives who share your challenges.