Your Mobile Phone is also Your Credit Card Qorus-Infosys Finacle Banking Innovation Awards 2024

In Turkey, the majority of shopping is done via credit cards. Low average income levels, a strong desire for increased consumption, and the ongoing inflationary environment have led individuals to make purchases with credit cards and consume their future earnings through installment payments. This behavior has been established for years. Consequently, competition in the retail banking sector in Turkey is driven by credit card loyalty programs.

We have been operating our card issuing business for 35 years. In the competitive field of retail banking, our most significant tool for both customer acquisition and retention, as well as deepening relationships with other retail banking products besides cards, is our Maximum Card loyalty program. Under Maximum Card loyalty program, we have been offering a wide range of rich benefits for 23 years, alongside classic credit card services. These include installment purchases at merchants, earning and instant redemption of points, deferred payment options for purchases, and cashback rewards. Particularly, since 2001, we have been offering Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services to our credit card customers, which has become a global trend post-pandemic. We instantly convert total purchases made at merchants into installments, reflected in credit card statements, for both physical and online transactions. 20% of our total individual card transaction volume is conducted through installment payments.

We continuously evolve our card experience based on evolving technologies and changing customer expectations, particularly towards speed and convenience, in addition to the strong value propositions of our loyalty program. Contactless, mobile contactless, and QR payment technologies, which we have been offering to our customers for years, simplify life. Thanks to these innovations, as of the year-end 2023 data, we are ranked first in total contactless payments in the banking sector in Turkey.

This year marks our 100th anniversary. Last year, İşbank committed to focusing on seamless, end-to-end digital experiences and social benefits under our vision of “The Bank of the Future” as we entered our centennial. With this focus, we launched the “Your mobile phone is also your credit card” project, enabling customers to experience the entire journey from application to payments and cash withdrawals seamlessly on their mobile devices.

Prior to this innovative experience, our customers were able to make contactless or QR payments and withdraw cash from our ATMs without taking their physical cards out of their wallets. With our newly designed digital card experience, we have gone beyond the current state by seamlessly transferring the entire experience to mobile, encompassing all the services traditionally offered by a physical card.

• We made physical cards optional at the initial application stage and transitioned to an exclusively digital service structure. This experience was a first in Turkey.

• We designed persuasion journeys for our existing cardholders to convince them to renew their cards digitally without physically printing them.

• In our branches, we communicate those physical cards, which have long awaited delivery, can now be downloaded to customers' mobile phones, allowing them to instantly benefit from the advantages of the Maximum Card program without waiting for physical delivery.

• For customers who are not already Maximum Card holders but wish to take advantage of our promotions and offers at relevant merchants, we enable them to instantly become cardholders via mobile, downloading their cards to their phones and allowing them to make payments with Maximum benefits during check-out. For example, those who wish to benefit from the cashback we offer on all restaurant expenses in Turkey and around the world can sit at their tables and immediately become cardholders through our mobile app, making restaurant payments with a 20% discount.

• To reduce our customers' dependency on physical cards and fully move them to digital, we reward payments made via mobile phones with extra miles, points, or discounts.