Developing financial technology solutions for banking, Architecht has focused on artificial intelligent agents that will understand the customer. Architect's General Manager Ökkeş Emin Balçiçek says, "We have 50 engineers working only on artificial intelligence".

ÜRÜN DİRİER/ Arising from Kuveyt Türk's information technology department in 2015, Architecht has currently become one of the pioneering financial technology companies in Türkiye with more than 800 employees. The company, which offers core banking infrastructure to 12 different banks in our country, also provides various fintech products to more than 20 financial institutions. Architecht has become one of the rapidly growing technology companies in recent years with both its financial and human resource investments.

Architecht, a major technology provider in the field of banking technologies in Türkiye, is an active player in the field of digital banking and investment banking. It increases its flexibility in the sector by providing R&D and software support specific to each bank with the "dedicated engineer team model" it offers to institutions. This approach is not common in Türkiye but an effective one.

Apart from its 3 offices in Teknopark Istanbul, Architecht also continues its activities in the Konya office. The company's engineering staff consists of graduates from Türkiye's most successful universities and experts in their field. As of currently, Architecht, which offers active services to 12 banks in Türkiye and 8 banks abroad through its strategic business partners, is developing infrastructures that can reach more than 8 million users.

Stating that Architecht’s customer portfolio is diverse not only in Türkiye but also in the international market, Architecht General Manager Ökkeş Emin Balçiçek says, “The company provides infrastructure services to participation banks such as Vakıf Katılım, Emlak Katılım, TOM Bank, Hayat Finans, and Kuveyt Türk, as well as investment banks such as Destek Bank, Golden Global, Misyon Bank, Tera Bank, and Asır Bank. Architecht has also completed the installation of five of the seven banks it has agreements with through KT Bank AG in Europe and ITS in the MENA region."

Impediments to Artificial Intelligence in Türkiye

We are in an era where artificial intelligence applications can understand everything and respond like a human. However, smart assistant of banks and telephone operators still have difficulty to understand us fully. To questions such as, "Why is that so? Why is technology not developing simultaneously?", Balçiçek answers as follows:

"Artificial intelligence is a trend that is currently pressuring us. I use the word pressure since user expectations, just like you said, are at the highest level. We are moving forward two steps and backward one. The main reason is actually economic. Even ChatGPT's initial investment was 13 billion dollars. They continue to invest 10-20 billion dollars every year. We do not have such a source. On the other hand, you cannot use ChatGPT in banking in terms of regulation. Why? It is prohibited. We face privacy and copyright issues due to regulations. You cannot develop rapidly like ChatGPT and Gemini when it comes to banking. We need anonymized data and we have been working on data anonymization for a long time. There are 50 engineers just working on generative artificial intelligence in our company. My prediction is that banks' smart assistants will be much better than today's in a year's time. That it what we are working towards."

Architecht does not limit its work in this field to product development alone. Balçiçek says that there are two main impediments to the integration of generative artificial intelligence into banking processes in Türkiye:

"Strict regulations and the need for high hardware investment. Restrictions on data transfer to external servers in particular are increasing the importance of on-prem infrastructure. Architecht has therefore accelerated its hardware investments and created dedicated artificial intelligence teams. The company integrates artificial intelligence into its business processes within ethical boundaries through data anonymization efforts.

Architecht organizes hackathons, masterclasses and focused training within the company to integrate artificial intelligence technologies. This culture enables continuous development of employees and rapid productization of the latest technologies. Furthermore, in ongoing R&D studies, artificial intelligence is not merely a decision support tool, but also plays an active role in software development processes as a direct producer. AI detects missing functions, analyzes them, suggests improvements, and integrates them into systems with human approval. This controlled approach ensures both efficiency and security."

In terms of security and sustainability, Architecht's infrastructures are also prepared for crisis scenarios. Various levels of backup, data storage, and recovery plans are in place for emergencies like earthquakes, wars, and cyberattacks. In this way, the continuity of secure digital services can be ensured in Türkiye's financial system.

2025 Second Half Agenda

In its 10th year, Architecht's focus is on strengthening its leading position in the local market and accelerating global growth. Accelerating the digital transformation process of KT Bank AG in Europe, the company established the systems of 5 banks in the MENA region through ITS. In addition, the company aims to expand solutions such as multi-factor authentication, mobile application security, open banking and API management in the European and Middle Eastern markets.

Stating that they have made significant investments in artificial intelligence, Balçiçek says, "Architecht employs more than 50 engineers in this field alone. By closely following the latest developments around the world and disseminating the most up-to-date tools developed in the field of productive artificial intelligence within the company, it is initiating a significant transformation process in the work culture. It aims to become a technology provider that makes a difference in the financial sector with its generative AI-based products and services."

Goals for 2026

Balçiçek, who indicates that Architecht's primary goal in 2026 is to expand its global footprint by reaching more banks in Europe and MENA regions, concludes his remarks as follows:

"BOA and OBA platforms in the product portfolio will be offered to more financial institutions with licensing models. At the same time, artificial intelligence-supported solutions will be productized to enhance the digital customer experience. All these steps are designed to support Architecht's vision of becoming a global brand originating from Türkiye as a technology provider.

In line with this vision, opening local offices in global markets is also among the goals being evaluated soon. Architecht will continue to increase its worldwide popularity both as a product and a brand.

Architecht's Featured Products for the Financial World

BOA Banking and Technology Platform: It is a banking software platform approved by the Turkish Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) and the German banking regulator agency BaFin. It enables banks to perform all the functions they need on a single platform. The BOA Platform is not just a static product; it is a dynamic software infrastructure that is constantly updated by Architecht and modernized according to the sector's changing needs.

BOA Card Payment Systems: This is a infrastructure solution that manages card payment systems, merchants and POS products from end to end. It is possible to easily manage all card payment systems, from bank cards to virtual cards, and design new card products. Architecht targets a wider market by focusing not only on banks but also on payment institutions and other financial institutions in card payment systems.

Digital Banking Platform: It is an easily scalable core banking software package with a modular architecture that allows the functions required for Digital Banking to run on a single platform.

Investment Banking Platform: It offers all the technological infrastructure needed by institutions that want to provide service in this field on a single platform from end to end. It is specially prepared for investment banks and consists of main components such as financing, treasury, foreign trade, accounting, customer management, receivables management and international banking.

Besides this, OBA Suite platform which is positioned as Architecht's new generation technology infrastructure is also among the products that offer innovative infrastructure solutions to the sector.