Internal Control Center and Compliance Department
Reporting directly to the Board of Directors/Audit Committee, the Internal Control Center and Compliance Department is in charge of making sure that the Group's activities are carried out efficiently and productively in compliance with national legislation and in-house regulations, reducing operational and other risks, and ensuring the reliability and integration of accounting, financial reporting and IT systems.
The internal control and compliance efforts consist of control and reporting activities carried out independently at certain intervals by internal control and compliance employees at the Head Office and/or at branches, with a view to assessing the compliance, adequacy and efficiency of operations. The units are also responsible for ensuring coordination with domestic and foreign subsidiaries regarding internal control and compliance and routine report flow.
The Internal Control Center and Compliance Department performs its activities within the framework of national legislation, regulations, communiqués, as well as in-house codes. Once every three months, the Audit Committee is informed about the activities, agenda and organization of the Internal Control Center and Compliance Department.
Internal Control Activities
The Branches Financial Control Department carries out the accounting analysis and control of activities that have an impact on the Bank's profit and loss by transaction and customer. Besides, the department controls the reports prepared by various departments to be sent to public agencies such as the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, the Central Bank of Turkey and the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund.
The Branches Internal Control Department produces six-monthly control plans with a risk-focused perspective, and carries out control activities concerning all business lines across the branches. By way of branch visits, the Branches Internal Control Department controls the compliance of transactions with laws and in-house regulations, searches for any deficiencies in the internal control function, shares its findings with the relevant branches and business lines, and follows up future developments.
In accordance with the type of control planned at each branch, the Central Controls Department carries out centralized controls concerning possible abuses and transactions of the Private Banking Centers.
The Fund Management Internal Control Department is in charge of controlling transactions carried out by Fund Management and relevant operational departments, in financial and operational terms.
The Basic Controls and Support Department organizes the processes of reporting and coordination inside the Internal Control Center and Compliance Department, and executes the controls of support activities and subsidiaries during the performance of administrative and organizational duties.
The Control Assessment and IT Control Department carries out information technology controls over IT activities supporting the Bank's operations, communication channels, IT systems, and IT security policies, and oversees the harmony between IT security policies, standards and guides in accordance with the Cobit framework.
Finally, the Loans and Credit Cards Control Department performs periodical controls to ensure that the loan and credit card payment transactions undertaken by the Bank are in compliance with laws, regulations and the Bank's internal procedures.
Compliance Activities
The Compliance Group performs its duties via the following departments:
- Corporate Compliance Department
- Anti-Money Laundering Department
The Corporate Compliance Department is responsible for setting basic compliance rules, overseeing the coordination of compliance risk management, ensuring compliance with the Group standards and local regulations, organizing compliance-related information flow and reporting procedures among the subsidiaries, as well as integrating DenizBank subsidiaries within the current Corporate Compliance system.
The Anti-Money Laundering Department’s duties include monitoring customer transactions within the scope of Law No. 5549 on the Prevention of the Laundering of Proceeds of Crime and Law No. 6415 on the Prevention of the Financing of Terrorism, giving its opinion or approval for transactions concerning risk-bearing sectors and countries, controlling correspondent banks, identifying and monitoring suspicious transactions, reporting these to the public authorities and organizing classroom and online training seminars among Bank personnel on the “Prevention of Laundering of Criminal Proceeds and Financing Terrorism”.