It was established during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid Ziraat Bank is the oldest and largest bank in Turkey

Since its establishment during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II in the last quarter of the 19th century, Ziraat Bank continues to grow within the Turkish borders, maintaining being the largest bank in Turkey with 1,727 branches throughout Turkey, in addition to 25 branches around the world.

Ziraat Bankası is one of the 3 public governmental banks operating in Turkey, and it is a continuation of the "homeland funds" established by Midhat Pasha in 1863 during the Ottoman Empire era, which took its name mainly from the wooden boxes that peasants used to keep their money and account books 

Since its establishment on August 15, 1888, during the rule of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II, Ziraat Bank continues to shape the Turkish banking sector today as it did in the past during the era of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent wars of independence and liberation, which ended with the establishment of the modern Turkish Republic and its entry into its best and most prolific period. The agricultural sector with the help of the Bank, which is still continuing to advance in the Turkish agricultural sector.

As of this month, February 2022, there are 51 banks with Turkish or foreign capital operating on Turkish territory, 35 of which are deposit banks (including 3 government banks and 6 joint banks operating according to the Islamic banking system), in addition to 16 others operating as development and investment banks, in addition to To 6 participating banks operating according to the Islamic banking system.

The origin of the story

In the first half of the nineteenth century, foreign banks began to operate within the territory of the Ottoman Empire, adopting Western models of trade and finance. At that time, there was not enough capital accumulation to establish a national banking system in the country, which added to the suffering of Turkish farmers, who constituted the majority of the working population, and who were in constant need of loans in order to cultivate their land.

At the same time, the lenders were various merchants and artisans, such as merchants, exporters, brokers, and village grocers who sold agricultural equipment, while the annual interest rate was as high as 900%, which prompted farmers who sometimes faced great difficulty in paying their debts to sell their products to Lenders before harvest.

While Midhat Pasha, the governor of Niš, now in Serbia, was closely observing the difficult conditions of the farmers, he concluded through his research that regulation in this area is necessary and that state assistance is necessary to save farmers from usurers. Thus, thanks to the resources created by the peasants, he launched in 1863 the organization called “The Homeland Funds”, which was established by the state under the leadership of Midhat Pasha as the first example of national banking services and this initiative formed the basis of the “Ziraat Bank” that continues to the present day.

Turkish bank with Ottoman roots

In the wake of the success of the "national funds", and later the "interest funds" that were also established in 1883, in providing their services to all citizens, Ziraat Bank was officially established on August 15, 1888 (the period of the rule of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II extending between 1876 and 1909). As a modern financial institution to replace the fund system whose branches have been transformed into special branches of Ziraat Bank, which is still in charge of the Turkish agricultural credit whose roots go back to the Ottoman era.

With the end of the First World War, which witnessed the occupation of most of the territory of the Ottoman Empire by the Allied forces, the Greeks who occupied the middle of 1919 transferred the city of Izmir, located in western Anatolia, the main center of the Agricultural Bank to Izmir, but this did not last long, as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who was founded in In 1920, the Turkish Supreme National Council (Turkish Parliament) all branches of the Agricultural Bank in the main branch located in the capital, Ankara, and in 1922 the two branches of Istanbul and Izmir were also attached to the main center in Ankara.

After the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the number of Ziraat Bank branches, which was responsible for helping agricultural workers, increased from 110 to 300. During this period, a capital of approximately 2 million Turkish liras was provided to the bank, and the bank began granting large-scale loans, especially to the areas of the homeland that had been liberated from the enemy.

Ziraat Bank is considered the largest bank in Turkey in terms of the number of branches. It currently owns about 1727 branches in all Turkish states and about 25 branches around the world, such as New York, Jeddah, Bulgaria, Georgia, Baghdad and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The oldest bank in Turkey continues to develop and grow by providing job opportunities for nearly 26,000 people, as well as providing electronic branches service on the Internet and a call center as well as banking services through smart phones. The bank's revenues in 2020 amounted to approximately 75.5 billion Turkish liras.

In 2015, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan participated in the opening ceremony of the first branch of the Islamic “Ziraat Katılım Bankası” bank in Istanbul, which today has about 97 branches inside Turkey.