The world economy that unprecedentedly shrank with the effect of Covid-19 pandemic which began at the end of 2019 heaved a sigh of relief in 2021, starting to normalize and recover. Following the mitigation of Covid-19 measures and lifting of lockdowns, the economic activities around world revived and support packages and expansion policies of states raised demand.

Global inflation went up rapidly due to the reasons such as the demand and supply gap experienced along with the accelerating growth in 2021, the increase in energy and food prices, setbacks in the global supply chain and the escalating transportation costs, leading to a fragility in the world economies. It is projected that economic growth and normalization will continue in 2022 even though the growth rate will slow down after the demand is balanced.

Türkiye’s record growth

Türkiye, one of the rare countries that managed to grow during the pandemic in 2020 exhibited a record growth in 2021. Turkish economy that expanded in the quarters by 7.3%, 21.9%, 7.5% and 9.1% respectively achieved a high growth rate of 11% at the end of 2021. Driving force of the growth was the export item which stood out with the successive records broken within the year. Despite the challenging pandemic period, Türkiye managed to raise employment.

Following the exchange rate movements in the last quarter of the year and the rising inflation observed in parallel with such movements, the exchange rates were balanced thanks to the measures announced by our President through the end of the year. Positive effect of such measures created an expectation of falling inflation in 2022.

Thriving Private Pension System and life insurance business

The Private Pension System (PPS) that has completed its 18th year and turned into one of the primary saving instruments in Türkiye boosts its contribution to both sustainable economic development and its growing customer group. In 2021, a fund size of TL 227.9 billion, including state contribution was achieved with in PPS over 7 million participants. On the side of PPS plus the Auto-Enrollment System (AES), the fund size, including state contribution increased to TL 244.4 billion while the total number of participants exceeded 14 million. The state contribution makes up more than 10% of the total PPS fund size. Future growth of the fund size will be affected positively by escalation of the state contribution from 25% to 30% as well. The industry enhances its product and service diversity through intensifying competition and digitalization, thereby keeping its progress in our country.

The legal regulation enacted in 2021 which enables the individuals aged under 18 to join the system paved the way for young people to know the saving phenomenon earlier and assuring their future in advance. We also believe that the other new regulations declared in December will enable PPS to reach large masses by making it more appealing. On the other hand, life insurance business in Türkiye started to develop more rapidly with the rising awareness particularly in pandemic. In 2021, the total life premium amount went up by 23%, reaching TL 17.7 billion.

Türkiye’s new insurance giant Türkiye Sigorta and Türkiye Hayat Emeklilik established through the merger of insurance companies in 2020 ended a successful year behind like its namesake Türkiye.

Integration completed through a devoted process

Türkiye’s new insurance giant Türkiye Sigorta and Türkiye Hayat Emeklilik established through the merger of insurance companies in 2020 ended a successful year behind like its namesake Türkiye.

Following the merger of Ziraat Sigorta and Halk Sigorta within Güneş Sigorta with the title of Türkiye Sigorta, and the merger of Ziraat Emeklilik and Halk Emeklilik within Vakıf Emeklilik with the title of Türkiye Hayat Emeklilik, our companies achieved the completion of its integration and reorganization processes in 2021. We kept providing our customers quality and uninterrupted services they deserve, through the synergy of being united with all employees and stakeholders while the changes in the organizational structure and system-related works were considerably completed. Product deduplication, the capability of tracking the reports from a single system and nondependence on the former systems can be listed as the most substantial developments in 2021.

We target sustainable leadership

As Türkiye Hayat Emeklilik, we strongly proceed on our way as the industry leader in life insurance premium production and private pension fund size after the merger. We managed to raise our total assets to TL 61.5 billion, total shareholders’ equity to TL 3.9 billion and net profit to TL 1.7 billion in 2021.

We left 2021 behind by achieving a market share of 21.6% with PPS plus AES fund size (including state contribution) of TL 52.7 billion while realizing a premium production of about TL 4 billion in life insurance with a market share of 22.2%. We prepared our roadmaps for the purpose of making this leading position sustainable and broadening our brand’s sphere of influence internationally in the following term.

In this period when Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted digitalization as a discriminator in competition, Türkiye Hayat Emeklilik increased its investments in this field that it regards as the integral part of its innovation mindset. As part of such customer-centric transformation activities, we completed the works on the background for renewing our business models in the axis of speed, flexibility and instant solution

In 2022, we will keep ideally meeting the needs of our stakeholders and develop the products and practices which fulfill the changing demands of our customers and facilitate their experiences. Furthermore, we target leading the industry in sustainability which we always adopt as a business model, and establishing robust corporate initiatives through an approach that places economic, social and environmental development are at the forefront.

Our greatest assurance in the path to these objectives will be our stakeholders who provide support and count on us unwaveringly, especially the employees of Türkiye Hayat Emeklilik who devotedly render service with the enthusiasm of “being one.” I owe a debt of gratitude to our stakeholders who will make us achieve greater objectives in this journey we set off together.

Yours respectfully

Aziz Murat Uluğ
Chairman of the Board

We ended a year featured by the prevailing uncertainties and ongoing global impacts of the pandemic both on daily life and on the real economy. Despite the rising global risks within the year, Türkiye maintained its powerful stance and concretely demonstrated its success in managing this world-wide transformation and rebalancing process through its robust growth

To keep its stable and sustainable growth in the future as well as in this continuum, it is quite critical for our country to heighten the domestic saving rates. We need to have high saving rates to achieve a sustainable current account balance and to raise investments, and therefore production and employment.

At this point, vital roles in boosting savings of our country fall upon the Private Pension System (PPS). The Private Pension System offers long-term financing capacity to capital markets while allowing people to live a more prosperous life in their retirement period. It contributes to active inclusion of the savings in economic operations by converting the savings into investment via financial system.

For this reason, Private Pension System has become one of the most significant instruments for increasing savings of our country and enriching our capital markets.

PPS progresses in our country with several leaps

2021 was recorded as a very exclusive year for the progress of the Private Pension System in Türkiye after implementation of the long-awaited significant regulations. It is unquestionable that the most exciting development for stakeholders of the industry was the removal of the age limit of 18. With this regulation, a big step was taken in spreading the savings toward the base further by bringing a new target audience to the industry. We believe as a result of the recent practices put into use that the new regulations such as escalation of the state contribution from 25% to 30% since 2013, granting of the state contribution to the collective contribution payments over the years, removal of the age limit of 45 in entering the Auto-Enrollment System (AES), the right of partial withdrawal from the system and transfer of the PPS contracts will bring a dimension to the industry.

In addition, it was allowed for the life and pension companies to offer different products such as retirement, life, personal accident, private health and supplementary health insurance in a package in 2021. Thus, the “Integrated Pension Plans” will pave the way for PPS to touch the lives of the participants in a more integrative manner.

The industry whose progress accelerated through these substantial leaps raised the total fund size, including the state contribution by 44% to TL 244.4 billion as of the year-end while the number of participants in PPS and AES exceeded 14 million. In life insurance branch, premium production rose by about 23% in 2021, reaching TL 17.7 billion.

We maintained our leading position in 2021

As Türkiye Hayat Emeklilik established upon the merger of three deep-rooted companies in private pension and life insurance industry in 2020, we exhibited a strong financial performance in the activity year of 2021. We boosted our total assets by 41% to TL 61.5 billion, and our shareholders’ equity by 35% to TL 3.9 billion. We crowned our sustainable growth with profitability by obtaining a net profit of TL 1.7 billion as of the year-end

Thanks to our robust financial structure and value-focused business models, we accomplished results in our business lines in accord with our objectives. By the year-end, we reached a market share of 21.6% with 4.4 million participants in PPS + AES and a fund size of TL 52.7 billion, including the state contribution, thereby maintaining our leadership.

When we look only AES data closer, the market shares of 31.6% and 54.5% which we achieved in terms of number of participants and fund size, respectively point out the unquestionable leading position of our Company. In life insurance branch, we kept taking the lead in 2021 with a premium production of approximately TL 4 billion and a market share of 22.2%.

We set to work on enhancing saving awareness in our country with a focus on sustainable savings, making PPS the first-preferred saving instrument and creating a quality and sustainable portfolio.

We continuously develop our value creation capacity

Following a successful merger process completed in a record period, we designated 2021 as the year of change and progress. As a company that serves through Türkiye’s widest banking distribution channel composed of the branches of VakıfBank, Ziraat Bank, Halk Bank, Vakıf Katılım, Emlak Katılım and Ziraat Katılım Bank, and agencies, we went through with the infrastructure developments needed to provide service at any level from the same screen by speaking the same language, and to offer our customers the most superior experience.

We set to work on enhancing saving awareness in our country, making PPS the first-preferred saving instrument and creating a quality and sustainable portfolio by taking advantage of the regulations carried into effect in 2021 and focusing on sustainable savings which is one of our strategic objectives. In July, we introduced our product developed for the participation of the young population aged under 18 in the system. We aim to add an alternative product with initial capital, and make the product more advantageous with exclusive additional benefits in 2022. With our active sales and marketing operations, we will raise the visibility of our powerful support for the future of our youth and children aged under 18. As part of the “Integrated Pension Plans” to be applied in the following period, we aim to bring the ideal product combinations in our current portfolio together and generate product packages for different customer segments

Our constantly-developed digital competencies enhance our competitive power

One of the long-term targets of our company is to enable our brand to make its name with technological advancements and innovations on an international scale. To accomplish our targets, we develop trailblazing initiatives to update our infrastructure and all processes with the mentality of data analytics-based digital management. We are transforming into a little more agile and flexible company each passing day as our management units strengthen through our digital competencies improved with the principle of optimization and automation. We perform our activities with a focus on taking part in every moment of our customers’ life cycles, offering them customized solutions meeting their needs, in our contact channels and providing experiences to them. Within this framework, we devise platform-based business models by means of ecosystem corporations as well as implementing the investments which aim at putting multichannel experience into practice ideally. With this understanding, we will put the digital platform into use for our customers in 2022.

Globalization Target

Transition to a platform-based business model brings the ability to operate without physically existing in other countries as well. Under the leadership of our principal shareholder Türkiye Wealth Fund, we aim to commence our operations, especially in the countries that involve Türkiye’s interests, with the different methods such as directly starting operation or acquisition as well as the platform-based business models

In 2022, we will keep working with the sense of responsibility for Türkiye, thereby boosting the added value we have created for our economy. With a focus on customer experience, and our innovative vision, we will continue to make our mark with the pilot applications that shape the industry and catch the era.

All of our stakeholders, particularly our experienced and dynamic employees will be our greatest assurance in reaching these ambitious goals. I would like to thank our stakeholders and our valuable colleagues who go a long way towards this path we have walked together.
Yours respectfully,

Atilla Benli
Vice Chairman and CEO