Garanti BBVA

What Garanti BBVA says about its journey towards integrated reporting

To meet the challenges of the 21st century and respond to stakeholders’ expectations for greater accountability and better corporate reporting, that addresses both financial and not yet financial information material to businesses, we as Garanti BBVA adopted integrated reporting. Through this process, we are able to present our impact for all stakeholders, and this has led us to further our integrated thinking and create more sustainable value.

Garanti BBVA’s journey towards integrated reporting began in 2014 when we took part in the IIRC’s Pilot Programme. In 2015, we became a participant of the Business Network, and in 2018, we became the first Bank in Turkey to disclose our long-term sustainable value creation for the economy and society as an Integrated Annual Report for our legal reporting for 2017.

Our long history of reporting on sustainability information led us to move towards integrated thinking and reporting. The process has been led by our investor relations team – trying to understand the needs of all our stakeholders has always been deeply rooted in our culture. Addressing investors’ need for a more comprehensive risk and opportunity analysis allowed us to gain a better understanding of the wider environmental and social context in our operations.

Reporting on our material issues – the basis of our strategy and business model – led to stronger linkages and the integration of financial and non-financial value creation. This, in turn, helped us integrate sustainability, one of our strategic priorities, across the Bank more broadly to ensure better informed decision making, greater trust and credibility, and sustainable funding.

Providing a holistic assessment rather than standalone sustainability and financial reporting targeted at selective stakeholders, integrated reporting enables Garanti BBVA to:

Communicate our total value creation story in a clear and comprehensive way to all stakeholders,
Establish consistency and balance in reporting and to create greater connectivity of information on material matters, strategic priorities, business model and relevant KPIs,
Explain how we mold our business model in the light of mega trends, material matters and stakeholder expectations to contribute to responsible and sustainable development,
Convey how we manage current and future risks & opportunities with our effective corporate governance and risk management.

As a demonstration of our commitment to integrated reporting, Garanti BBVA became a founding member of the Integrated Reporting Turkey Network (ERTA) which was established to raise awareness on integrated thinking and reporting throughout Turkey. Towards this purpose, as a member of the Executive Board and the Awareness Committee, we back ERTA in its cooperation with both public and private sectors to:

Have integrated thinking and reporting adopted across Turkey’s reporting landscape,
Empower businesses in their reporting journeys,
Ensure that good practices and experiences are shared to provide guidance.

Garanti BBVA’s Integrated Annual Reports

We frame each of our integrated annual reports within a thematic concept that speaks to the key developments in our strategy, business model, governance, and relevant KPIs, making sure to produce reports that are as transparent, clear and concise as they are engaging and refreshing for the readers.

For example, in our 2018 report titled “Garanti BBVA Empathy”, we positioned employee-customer engagement as a key communication tool by sharing Garanti BBVA’s employees’ true stories with our customers to convey our customer-centric approach that enabled us to achieve the highest NPS (net promoter score) among our peers.

The Empathy Stories, voiced by Garanti BBVA employees, are available here.
We adopted a similar approach with our 2019 report titled “Next Decade” with a focus on mega trends, risks and opportunities of the next decade, and Garanti BBVA’s forward-looking strategy from an operational, data and technology perspective. The Report features a global best-practice, an AI-based Digital Report Assistant, that can communicate in English and in Turkish with report readers verbally and in writing for swift and easy access to material information. The Digital Report Assistant is available on the dedicated report website along with the 2030 Outlook podcasts of Garanti BBVA Management, where they share the megatrends, how these shape the business model and the impact on their respective lines of business.

The Next Decade Podcasts are available here.

In an unprecedented year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to a dedicated chapter on this material issue and how we create responsible and sustainable value for all stakeholders in uncertain and dire times, we issued our Integrated Annual Report 2020 with the concept “The Meaning We Attach to Words”, which integrates the real life reflections of our commitments to the society alongside economic indicators for our legal annual reporting.

In the report, a group of 50 individuals ranging from Garanti BBVA Board members to senior management, executives from subsidiaries to directors of business lines, region and branch managers share what all these words mean for them, and the commitments they make. They express as video messages what the words trust, pioneer, sustainability, responsibility, agility, success, digitalization, experience, empathy and transparency signify for both Garanti BBVA and themselves, how they bring these words into life in their respective lines of business, and the value they create by honoring their commitments. In so doing, Garanti BBVA adds a new dimension to corporate reporting, recording another first globally.

The report’s video and video messages of executives and board members on select words are here.
With many firsts in its 76-year history, the actions taken and the commitments delivered, Garanti BBVA published its Integrated Annual Report 2021 with the concept “How Does a Bank Create Value?” under the theme of inspiring questions and answers inviting to action. To inspire and lead the way for its stakeholders and the society, disclosing its actions alongside economic indicators, Garanti BBVA invites all its stakeholders to turn statements into action through its Integrated Annual Report.

Garanti BBVA raises 12 questions and shares key concepts and actions taken in response to these questions in the report through video messages by the members of the Board of Directors, the CEO and Executive Vice Presidents.

Recording a first by disclosing its precise contribution to 16 Sustainable Development Goals and 59 Sustainable Development Targets, Garanti BBVA presents its Integrated Annual Report 2021 via its website www.garantibbvaannualreport.com to all its stakeholders. Garanti BBVA by establishing SDGs’ and targets’ connectivity to Material Topics, Strategic Priorities and Capitals, aims to avoid greenwashing in its reporting and strengthens its commitment to transparently share its impact on global sustainable development.

The Report remains as Turkey’s only integrated annual report disclosed to the public simultaneously as an interactive pdf and website in both Turkish and English. AI-based Digital Report Assistant, continues to enhance reporting experience through responding bilingually to visitors about the report content and referring them to relevant sections.

You may visit Garanti BBVA’s 2021 Integrated Annual Report website here. To access the report’s video and executives and board members’ video messages, please click here.

About Garanti BBVA

Established in 1946, Garanti BBVA is Turkey’s second largest private bank with consolidated assets of close to TL 849 billion (USD 64.9 billion) as of December 31, 2021. Garanti BBVA is an integrated financial services group operating in every segment of the banking sector including corporate, commercial, SME, payment systems, retail, private and investment banking together with its subsidiaries in pension and life insurance, leasing, factoring, brokerage and asset management, besides international subsidiaries in the Netherlands and Romania.

The Bank provides a wide range of financial services to its over 20 million customers with 18.354 employees through an extensive distribution network of domestic and international branches and globally award-winning digital banking channels.