Kenan Bozkurt, Former Halkbank ad Beograd Executive Board President: We Need to Predict Future Needs, Strive for Changes and Treat Adaptability as the Key Requirement of Survival

Kenan Bozkurt, the leaving president of the Executive Board of Halkbank ad Beograd, has been in Belgrade, Serbia, for nearly seven years. As he says, the beginnings were difficult and full of challenges. Still, from a regional bank that was in bankruptcy, with a very weak infrastructure and the lack of basic banking products such as payment cards or ATMs, Halkbank has reached the point where it is one of the rare banks in Serbia that produces all cards “in-house”, that is within Halkbank.

– The advantage of “in-house” card issuing offers extremely big advantages to all our clients, because in the case of losing the card or having it disappear, Halkbank ad Beograd delivers the desired card to the client’s home address within two work days – Bozkurt points out.

He adds that the total number of ATMs in Serbia is 93, and that the latest ATMs also feature the “cash in” option, that is, the option of paying money to the account. From the initial 14 business units, the business network has been expanded to 36 branch offices throughout Serbia.

– I would like to highlight two key words regarding each business operation, which are vision and mission.

My vision was to make a modern bank which would enable an online opening of a current account from the comfort of one’s home, and the fact that we can make contactless payments, using a phone or a keychain, the Halktag product, is fascinating in itself. And the mission was to realize this. Digital transformation is a process in which there should be constant investments and the bank has already presented to its clients new debit cards, credit cards, as well as the advantages of eBanking and mBanking service – says Kenan Bozkurt.

The quickness of technological progress has forced traditionally conservative and not so agile industries, such as banking, to start making more substantial investments in modern technologies in order to remain relevant to their clients and competitive in the market.

– I realized that on time and I am proud of myself and my employees that we are already in the era of digital banking, which entails not just a new business model, but a business philosophy that brings us back to the old Latin saying – everything flows and everything changes (panta rei). We need to project future changes, to strive for changes, and adaptability is treated as the key requirement of survival – Bozkurt believes.

He says that he has been living in Belgrade for seven years, but that, since his arrival to Belgrade, he has never felt like a foreigner:

– Belgrade is my second home. I used to visit Belgrade even before I started working at the head of the bank and each day I find out about some new bohemian corner of Skadarlija, the old Ottoman cobblestone paths at Kalemegdan, the swans of the Danube at the wharf and the cultural connections between Serbia and Turkey. I have acquired a lot of friends and acquaintances in Serbia and I can say that I am delighted with the hospitality that Serbs as a people place great importance on. I love Belgrade, love Serbia, love the beautiful nature of Sumadija, and, as one of the local songs says, I like April in Belgrade the most. Wherever I go, I will carry Belgrade in my heart.

An important chapter in my professional life is closed and the time has come for me to open a new one.

Finally, I would like to state that I am extremely proud of my team and everything we have done together so far. With our slogan “people above all” in mind, I would like to finish this short speech by saying that, at the end of the day, we are all just people, like me. A man above all.

Halkbank AD Beograd

Halkbank ad Beograd

Kenan Bozkurt

payment cards

ATM

inhouse card issuing

money payment to the account

contactless payments

Halktag

digital transformation

debit cards

credit cards

eBanking

mBanking

banking

digital banking