.jpg)
Mesut Polat
Kuveyt Türk Katılım Bankası
Group Head of Strategy
Ahead of his presentation at the Qorus Reinvent Forum Dubai 2025, Mesut Polat, Group Head of Strategy at Kuveyt Türk Participation Bank, sat down with Boris Plantier from Qorus to discuss the major forces shaping the future of banking—from keeping the human touch in an increasingly digital world to AI, cybersecurity, and the race to attract top tech talent. He shares how he approaches these challenges and reveals his vision for the next era of banking.
Can you introduce yourself and also give a brief overview of Kuveyt Türk Participation Bank for those who may not be familiar with banks in the region?
I have been working at Kuveyt Türk Participation Bank since 2013. During my more than 10 years here, my career has been shaped around strategy, and I currently serve as the Group Head of Strategy. It is a significant source of motivation for me to be part of a business family where the institution's strategy is determined, its areas of concentration are decided, and its resources are allocated. During my time here, our bank has faced many different conditions, opportunities, and challenges.
The banking sector in Türkiye is managed by very strict regulations. Under all these conditions, we strive to develop strategies that will ensure our bank progresses on an axis of sustainable growth and profitability. Our corporate governance approach—which prioritizes our bank's reaching the right target in the fastest and safest way with our living strategy vision—and our dedicated work culture play a significant role in implementing our strategy.
Kuveyt Türk is a pioneering participation bank established in Türkiye in 1989, based on interest-free banking principles, adopting a profit-loss sharing model instead of interest in its banking transactions. Established as part of a strong financial structure under the umbrella of Kuwait Finance House (KFH), Kuveyt Türk has reached an asset size of USD 29.3 billion today. We lead participation finance in terms of our asset size, collected funds, and provided financing. We are also positioned as one of Türkiye's top 10 largest banks in terms of asset size. As of today, we offer solutions for all end-to-end financial needs of customers, not just banking, with 12 subsidiaries within the Kuveyt Türk Finance Group.
The foundation of Kuveyt Türk's consistent growth success since its establishment lies in its customer-oriented and innovation-prioritizing management structure. We are one of the first institutions that come to mind when gold banking is mentioned in Türkiye; we have offered our customers the most innovative solutions in gold banking for many years. We are also the pioneering bank that enables our customers to access basic financial services free of charge by adopting a no-fee banking approach. We have taken care to increase our product diversity while adhering to interest-free finance principles. We have always managed to keep the customer experience at the highest level with our success in digitalization and our ability to adapt to technology. Our many innovative banking practices have brought Kuveyt Türk to a leading position in participation finance and positioned it among the largest banks in the sector.
In a world dominated by digital channels, how do you humanize the customer experience, and what role should client advisors play?
The point that digitalization has reached in banking is truly striking. However, no matter how widespread digital channels become, the value of the human touch does not disappear; on the contrary, it becomes even more critical. Customers want speed and convenience, but they are also looking for a counterpart who understands them and listens to their emotions. Our experience also shows that while our customers prefer to use our mobile application or internet branch for simple transactions, they need human communication at important decision-making moments or for complex needs.
To achieve this balance, at Kuveyt Türk, we follow a strategy that blends our digital infrastructure with a human-centric approach. First of all, we try to "understand the human" even in digital channels. The Empatika Neuromarketing Research Center, which we established within our bank in 2024 for this purpose, plays an important role. Empatika, as its name suggests, is inspired by the words "empathy" and "path" (patika); it accepts that every customer journey is unique, and we aim to better understand all stages of this journey. In this center, a first in the banking sector, we analyze our customers' experiences in digital environments using neuroscientific techniques. For example, in research conducted with volunteer participants at Empatika, methods such as brain wave measurement (EEG), eye-tracking, and facial expression analysis are used. Thus, we have the opportunity to understand with objective data where our customers struggle on a mobile application screen or website, what reinforces their sense of trust, and what feelings a campaign evokes in them. The insights we gain allow us to improve our digital touchpoints to appeal to our customers' emotions. In other words, we can design more meaningful digital experiences that touch not only their needs but also their emotions. Indeed, as our Deputy General Manager Dr. Okan Acar stated, we at Kuveyt Türk have developed a service approach that not only "makes decisions based on data" but also "listens to emotion."
The role of customer advisors is also evolving in a world dominated by digital channels. Now, our advisors do not spend most of their time performing routine transactions; instead, they focus on providing value-added consultancy to customers. Like financial coaches, they analyze the customer's financial situation holistically and recommend the most suitable solutions. Of course, we also benefit from technology here: our customer representatives can get customer-specific insights and segmentations from the bank's CRM and analytical systems. As a bank, we also assign our advisors the mission of "understanding the human." In their career development, we prioritize soft skills, such as empathy, active listening, and building trust.
In summary, we love the speed and efficiency of the digital world, but we never neglect the human touch. While we transform our digital experiences to be human-centric through advanced research like Empatika, we also take care to establish sincere, trust-giving, and customer-centric communication with our customer advisors at every touchpoint. In this way, we succeed in offering our customers the best harmony of technology and humanity.
Rooted in purpose: How Şekerbank is digitally empowering Turkey’s real economy
Everyone seems focused on AI these days. Could you share how Kuveyt Türk is using AI and highlight some of the innovative projects you have launched, whether for your clients or your staff?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the areas Kuveyt Türk has strategically prioritized in recent years. We closely follow global best practices and studies analyzing the impact of artificial intelligence on our industry. AI is predicted to be one of the main factors providing a competitive advantage in the banking sector in the coming years. According to PwC's "How AI is Reshaping Banking" report, it is expected that cooperation between humans and artificial intelligence could lead to up to a 50% increase in productivity and speed in back-office processes through scalable, modular, and AI-supported operations. This expectation reveals the strategic importance of our AI investments not only for customer experience but also for operational excellence.
We do not position AI within the bank to solve problems with predefined boundaries. We follow the business processes of the entire bank, identify points that can be supported by AI, and position AI to serve the entire institution. We use AI to bring every area to a better point for both the customer and the bank, from studies supporting the health of credit processes to marketing activities, from efforts making operational processes efficient to fraud prediction models.
First, let me talk about our internal innovation, our AI-supported internal communication assistant named Palmi. Palmi is a digital assistant we developed together with our technology subsidiary, Architecht. Its main purpose is to enable our employees to access internal information quickly, accurately, and simply. Palmi not only answers questions but can also make recommendations to our employees, perform analyses, and generate reports if requested, and even perform some tasks on behalf of employees thanks to its RPA (Robotic
Process Automation) integration. Our Palmi project was deemed worthy of an award at the EX Awards Turkey 2025 program organized in Türkiye in the field of improving employee experience. Palmi has become a good example of how AI can create added value in internal processes and has significantly increased our bank's internal efficiency.
While positioning Palmi as an AI chatbot serving our internal customers, i.e., employees, we serve our external customers with our chatbot assistant, Selim. While Selim has been answering our customers' questions for a long time with a comprehensive library base, we are currently carrying out a project to replace this infrastructure with a comprehensive GenAI language model.
We also integrate AI into our decision support systems. We especially benefit from machine learning algorithms for credit risk scoring and fraud detection. Beyond traditional rule sets, we use the power of AI to detect anomalies or complex patterns in transactions. Machine learning tracks subtle behavioral differences that a human would normally not notice, and if there is a suspicious situation, we are immediately alerted. This way, we can prevent many fraud attempts at the very first step. We are also strengthening our anti-money laundering
(AML) detection systems with artificial intelligence; we more effectively identify connections and risky interactions in customer transaction histories or money transfer networks that are difficult to detect manually.
At this point, I would also like to mention Creditecht. Creditecht is a platform that digitizes Kuveyt Türk's financing processes from end to end and strengthens them with artificial intelligence. It provides both speed and security in the financing allocation process. It performs AI-based pre-assessment in customer applications, conducts risk scoring instantly, checks the accuracy of documents, and automates the process. This significantly reduces waiting times for our customers and lowers our operational costs. This solution enables Kuveyt Türk to pioneer one of the most innovative practices in the sector's banking applications.
As for our AI applications for our customers, we have analytical models that we use in both our digital channels and our branch channel, especially to correctly classify our customers, detect their behavioral differences, and convey our most suitable offers. We are constantly increasing these models and strengthening them with AI. At this point, our AI teams, with their high domain knowledge, can produce outputs faster thanks to the power of our technology subsidiary. Being able to bring the services we offer to our customers together with the right target audience at the right time also improves our customer experience.
To summarize, artificial intelligence is an area we actively use and invest in at Kuveyt Türk, both internally and for our customers. With Palmi, Selim, Creditecht, our advanced analytical models, and other smart assistant solutions, we increase employee productivity while offering fast and life-facilitating solutions supported by AI on the customer side. We see this technology as a tool that adds value to every corner of banking and aim to be a pioneer in the sector with our innovative projects.
Driving a new era of financial crime prevention through AI-powered insights and data analytics
What challenges lie ahead between now and 2030 in terms of protection against bank fraud?
Unfortunately, as technology advances, financial fraud methods become more sophisticated. One of the biggest tests awaiting us on the road to 2030 will be AI-powered fraud techniques. "Deepfake" technologies, which we have started to hear about frequently in recent years, are becoming a serious threat in the financial sector. It has become much easier and cheaper to imitate a person's face or voice with artificial intelligence compared to previous years. A report by FinCEN, which monitors financial crimes in the US, states that AI-generated fake identity documents and deepfake videos are on the rise and financial institutions must be vigilant against them.
Another challenge for banks in the coming period is the changing dimension of cyber-attacks and data breaches. Our attack surface is expanding with the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and being always connected to the internet. It is not enough just to protect the bank; we also have to think about our customers' devices and networks. Therefore, the concept of end-to-end security (endpoint security) will become much more important as we move towards 2030.
We, as bankers, must be prepared for these threats. As Kuveyt Türk, we adopt a multi-faceted defense strategy in this regard:
• First, we use the "AI for good" approach. In other words, if criminals abuse AI, we must use AI for detection and protection. Indeed, we are researching and implementing technologies in our bank such as machine learning-based models for anomaly detection and deepfake detection tools.
• Second, customer awareness. No matter how much technology develops, the human factor continues to be seen as the weakest link by fraudsters. We must constantly inform and warn our customers about new fraud methods. We conduct regular warning campaigns against phishing emails, fake calls, and deepfake videos. We try to make our customers part of our defense line through both warning messages in digital banking and social media notifications. We will intensify such awareness activities even more by 2030.
• Third, sectoral collaboration and regulatory support. Combating fraud is not something a single institution can handle; all stakeholders, including the entire financial sector and even telecommunication companies and security forces, must join hands. It is important that our regulators also take steps to encourage this collaborative environment. At Kuveyt Türk, we proactively follow regulatory developments and gain experience now by participating in pilot applications when necessary.
Finally, I must emphasize this: despite all these technological measures, human expertise is still very critical. In 2030, we will still need experienced cybersecurity experts and fraud analysts. We also attach importance to training our own human resources against future threats. We strengthen our team with regular training and certifications.
In summary, when I look at the 2030 horizon, I see the biggest challenge in the fight against bank fraud as always staying one step ahead of next-generation fraud strengthened by artificial intelligence. At Kuveyt Türk, we are prepared for this fight both technologically and humanly, and we will remain constantly vigilant.
Why technology alone isn’t enough: Maybank’s vision for the future
Banks are becoming more and more tech-oriented companies, creating HR challenges. How do you support this change?
Today, banks operate almost like financial technology companies. With digital banking, mobile applications, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and big data, the banking sector has evolved into an area that employs more engineers, software developers, and data scientists. This transformation is, of course, reshaping our human resources strategies as well. At Kuveyt Türk, we are making intensive efforts in several areas to support the new-generation banking journey:
• Attracting the right talent and talent management: Our greatest capital in the new world is our human resources. Therefore, while trying to attract the best software developers and data scientists to our bank, we also invest in developing the competencies of our existing employees. We are in contact with young talents through many channels such as university cooperation programs, Teknopark events, and hackathon sponsorships. For many years, we have been starting many new graduates in our bank as MTs (management trainees) annually, and in this program, we provide training not only in banking knowledge but also in data analytics and artificial intelligence awareness. We also have a comprehensive career-long training approach for our existing employees. We continuously offer training content on topics such as artificial intelligence, cloud technologies, data analysis, and agile methodology on our e-learning platforms. Kuveyt Türk Academy has become a brand in the sector and reinforced this success with "The Best" award at the BEST Awards organized by the Association for Talent Development, one of the world's most respected talent development organizations. In short, Kuveyt Türk is one of the best banks in the sector for working with the best talent and ensuring that its employees' skills always remain up to date.
• Cultural transformation and agile working: Being technology-oriented requires not only human resources but also a cultural transformation. At Kuveyt Türk, we have made changes in recent years to make our organizational structure more agile. Instead of traditional hierarchical structures, we are forming project-based teams that can make quick decisions. We are currently implementing this agile working model in some areas within our bank, and as we get positive results, we are expanding it. We are all learning together in this organizational transformation; we are adopting a leadership style that opens the way for teams and removes obstacles, rather than the classic "command-and-control" approach.
• Technology subsidiaries and collaborations: We have a technology subsidiary named Architecht, which we established to increase our technology development capacity within the bank. Architecht works as a fintech company for Kuveyt Türk; it carries out some of our bank's IT projects and develops software products for the sector. This structure provides us with a significant advantage: we can employ exceptionally talented technology experts in an environment suitable for this culture. Architecht, which maintains the start-up spirit but offers bank assurance, is highly successful in attracting talent from the market.
In summary, we determine our bank's human resources strategy with the awareness that our greatest strength is still the human element. Equipping our employees with the most up-to-date competencies, providing the right environment, and motivating them are among our primary tactics for managing technological transformation. We also carefully plan each employee's career journey and make personal development plans for them to adapt to technology. In this way, we both prepare our existing talents for the future and give the message to outside talents, “Working at Kuveyt Türk offers you both technology and banking together.” In conclusion, I believe that organizations that establish a good balance between technology and people will emerge victorious from this transformation, and we are trying to strike this balance.
What is your vision for banking in 2030?
When I look at 2030, I believe that despite the changing conditions in banking, the most crucial factor will continue to be trust. At Kuveyt Türk Finance Group, our route to 2030 is to be the solution partner that customers first think of for all their potential financial needs, consult without hesitation, and apply to with peace of mind. I can summarize this under a few headings:
• To be the main bank for our customers: The comprehensiveness of our services and customer deepening are our key focus points to be the first-choice solution partner for all our customers' financial needs. In 2030, banks will probably not be institutions that only offer banking products; they will also function as platforms. Our goal is to transform Kuveyt Türk into a financial ecosystem orchestra that can offer value to our customers in every area of their lives and to establish a long-term relationship as their main bank. Making the customer experience simple and seamless on the way to becoming our customers' financial solution partner has been set as our key performance indicator.
• To use the most up-to-date technologies effectively: One of our main strategies is to use the most current technologies in the most efficient way to increase the impact of digital banking, which has a significant effect on our success. We will continue to leverage the power of data, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics in decision-making and operational processes. By 2030, artificial intelligence will move out of the back office and into every moment of the customer journey. AI-supported solutions will go beyond chatbots and become facilitators of personalized experiences extending to personal financial consultancy. With this awareness, we use our technology subsidiary effectively, improve our natural language processing capacity, and prepare our infrastructure for cloud-based banking.
• To work with dynamic and competent teams: One of our main goals on the road to 2030 is to work with dynamic teams with high adaptation ability who already possess the competencies of the future. With this vision, we both constantly update our talent acquisition processes and organize training programs for our employees to achieve their competency transformation. It is possible to define Kuveyt Türk not only as a bank but also as a training center where its employees continue their career-long development and acquire the competencies of the future today. In this way, our teammates are always ready for changing conditions, technological transformation, and opportunities or threats we do not yet know.
• Sustainability and social responsibility: A very important dimension of our 2030 vision is sustainable banking. The banks of the future must be institutions that not only profit but also make a positive contribution to society and our world. We at Kuveyt Türk have already started taking steps in sustainable finance. As we go towards 2030, we plan to optimize our loan portfolio according to environmental and social risks and allocate more resources to green projects. Turkish banking regulations also require banks to monitor and report their green assets. With our social responsibility projects, we focus on both social opportunity inequalities and biodiversity projects that will increase our environmental contribution. In 2030, we want our bank to be an exemplary bank in the field of sustainability, effectively managing and minimizing our environmental impact.
• Carrying our values into the future: No matter how much technology advances, banking is fundamentally a business of trust and has a human-to-human relationship dimension. We believe this fact will not change in 2030. Yes, artificial intelligence and automation will be able to perform many transactions for the customer, but customers will want to talk to "a person they trust" at critical moments. Our primary mission is to carry the trust we have built by adhering strictly to our values since our establishment to future generations. We believe that offering a simple and seamless customer experience by using the most up-to-date technologies without compromising our interest-free finance principles will be our strongest driving force leading us to 2030.
In conclusion, Kuveyt Türk's 2030 vision is shaped around a holistic approach that can be summarized as "being the preferred solution partner." We want to offer our customers effortless, fast, and efficient banking services using all the possibilities of technology; and while doing this, we want to make them feel the human warmth at every touchpoint. Thus, we want our customers to see us as a natural stakeholder in all their financial decisions, beyond just a bank.
I believe that when we reach 2030, Kuveyt Türk will be known as an institution that is a leader in innovation, a reference in customer experience, uses the most up-to-date technologies efficiently, works with dynamic teams, contributes to sustainable development, and shapes the sector. We continue to work with all our strength today for this.