2023 Evaluation 

First and foremost, in this special year when we commemorate the 100th anniversary of our Republic, we once again pay our respects and gratitude to all our heroes, especially Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who bequeathed this country to us. As you all know, 2023, when we celebrated the 100th anniversary of our Republic, unfortunately began with the devastating earthquake that left deep sorrow in all of our hearts. As someone whose family was affected by the earthquake, I once again extend my condolences to all citizens who lost their lives. May God grant patience to those left behind, and may we never experience such pain again. 

2023 was a fantastic year in which Architecht continued its steady growth. Compared to 2022, we achieved significant growth both financially and in human resources. We closed 2023 with a financial growth of 400% compared to the previous year. Our team, which consisted of 600 people at the beginning of the year, grew to 720 by the end of the year. In 2023, we started by joining forces with Kuveyt Türk's Information Technologies Group; strengthened our organizational structure; made new product investments; opened our third office at Teknopark Istanbul, one of Turkey's most important technology development centers; initiated technology modernization, and continued new bank establishments at full speed, making it a productive year. 

After the merger, we quickly rolled out our agile working framework, which we had previously adapted to our company culture, called The Architecht Model, to all our teams. As Architecht, our goal is not only to achieve agility at the individual and team levels but also to transform the entire company into a scalable, high-performance, agile organization. This approach strengthens our teams and allows us to provide better service to our customers. 

While successfully implementing The Architecht Model, we continued to invest in new products in the first half of the year. In this context, we launched our end-to-end card payment systems product, BOA Card, in May. We also achieved great things in our core focus area, the banking platform. Turkey’s first licensed digital bank, Hayat Finans, started operations this year using our core banking platform. Soon, TOM Bank will begin operations in the same way. Thus, 10 of the 61 banks in our country are now operating with our core banking solution. During this period, we also expanded our cooperation with investment banks. By the end of the last quarter, with the addition of Asır Bank, the number of investment banks we serve increased to five. Therefore, 5 of the 8 investment banks that have been granted licenses since 2020 continue their journey with us. In addition to these services, we also have the mission of meeting all the technology needs of our primary shareholder, Kuveyt Türk. In this regard, we are an important partner in achieving the strategic goals of our bank. 

One of the important topics of 2023 was compliance with the new regulation issued by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) regarding remote identification and transaction security. In this area, we completed our work on making our PowerFactor mobile application and transaction security product fully compliant with the regulation. Soon, we aim to obtain an important license in this area. As we have mentioned in various platforms before, we aim to become the market leader with PowerFactor in 2024. 

In addition to all these developments, we continue to modernize our systems with the most up-to-date and robust technologies. In this context, we are modernizing the infrastructure of our BOA Core Banking and Technology Platform with Microsoft .NET Core technology, enhancing the user experience of our BOA One Web Platform with Microfrontend technologies, launching our OBA Cloud Native Microservices Banking Platform, and providing easier integration with our API-first strategy while supporting workforce efficiency with technology. In 2024, we will continue these modernization efforts at full speed, transforming our systems into a more flexible, stable, and modern structure. With this approach, we will provide our customers with a high-performance and efficient banking experience. 

As with our focus on products and technology, we continue to do our best in the field of human resources. Our teams are growing incredibly fast. We are a technology company that attracts significant interest from young talents graduating from the best schools in our country. Undoubtedly, a large part of this is due to our “People First, Employees First” principle. Thanks to our human-centered approaches in all our processes, we have been among the best employers in Turkey for the last four years, and this year we were selected as the best technology company in our country and even the first technology company to make it to the European lists. Success brings good practices with it. In 2023, we implemented pioneering practices such as Sepetim and Gelişim Mutfağı, making them available to our colleagues. As we always say, we will continue to invest in our most valuable asset: people. 

In 2023, we also carried out excellent talent-focused projects with a sense of social responsibility. Our Train&Work program, designed to employ graduates from different disciplines outside of engineering, made a significant impact in our sector. In our Train&Work program, which attracted thousands of young applicants, we provided comprehensive technical training to software developer candidates for six months. Moreover, we paid them regular salaries during this period. We hired 20 participants who successfully completed the program as full-time employees at Architecht. We will continue to develop such programs that aim to bring qualified software developers to our sector. 

2024 Expectations 

As I mentioned earlier, one of our main focuses in 2024 will be updating our technological infrastructure to make it more flexible, stable, and modern. Along with this, we will continue to invest in new products. At Architecht, we are committed to developing products and services that provide solutions to the specific needs of the financial sector. In this context, in 2024, we will create new service channels such as financial cloud, cybersecurity, education, and consulting. In addition to all these efforts, we will make our products and services more modular and easier to integrate with our API-First strategy, which promotes the widespread use of internal and external APIs. This approach will enable our BOA Core Banking and Technology Platform to offer a wider range of products in the market. We place great importance not only on technological infrastructure but also on the efficient and effective use of our human resources. In this regard, we are intensifying our research on low-code and no-code platforms. We will integrate advanced technologies such as ChatGPT and Copilot into our development platform, optimizing software development processes and increasing our efficiency. We are closely following all developments related to Generative AI (GenAI)worldwide. We are entering a period in which we will enhance our products and systems with generative AI. 

We plan to become the market leader with our PowerFactor product in the upcoming period. We see 2024 as a year in which we will increase our sales activities with our BOA Card product, which offers end-to-end services in the card payment systems field. We also aim to expand the use of our Airapi open banking and API management platform across different sectors. In our core focus area, Core Banking Platforms, we believe that we will remain the strongest technology provider in 2024. In addition, we plan to expand our global market by serving more banks and financial institutions internationally. We will continue our sales activities focused on Airapi and PowerFactor in the MENA region, Europe, and Turkic Republics. Furthermore, we aim to continue our digital transformation journey with KT Bank AG in Germany, providing solutions to various banks in the European market. 

In summary, we will continue our efforts to maintain our leadership in the sector, improve customer experience by making it more scalable, high-performing, modern, and efficient, and continue to add value to the banking and financial sector by using the most up-to-date and robust technologies.