About

Akbank was founded as a privately-owned commercial bank in 1948, established originally with the aim of providing funding to local cotton growers. Today it is the country’s second-largest bank by market value. Chief legal officer Hasan Esen leads an in-house legal department which deals with pivotal projects in the country. One recent example of these was when the bank signed a new US $980m syndicated loan agreement in a deal seen as crucial by senior management. Akbank also recently reported that 250,000 customers have signed up to facial recognition technology as a means to unlock their mobile banking app, with this new roll out, Akbank is the first bank in Turkey to deploy facial recognition technology. The legal team has helped facilitate this nationwide highly-anticipated technological innovation, strengthening the bank’s reputation as a first-class digital innovator, whilst continuously working on the legal matters involving the overall improvement of the bank’s user experience.