Hakan Binbasgil

Hakan Binbasgil is the CEO of Akbank, one of Turkey's largest and most respected private banks, controlled by the Sabanci Group — one of Turkey's most prominent industrial conglomerates. Akbank serves millions of retail and corporate customers through a nationwide branch network and digital banking platforms, with significant operations in corporate lending, trade finance, treasury, and retail banking. Binbasgil has led Akbank through one of the most extraordinary macroeconomic environments any banker in a G20 country has faced. Turkey experienced triple-digit inflation (peaking above 85% in 2022), massive lira depreciation (the currency lost over 80% of its value against the dollar between 2021-2024), and unconventional monetary policy under President Erdogan's pressure to keep interest rates low despite soaring prices. Turkish banks navigated this through CPI-linked securities (inflation-indexed bonds), aggressive pricing of lira loans, and managing the complex "KKM" lira-protected deposit scheme introduced by the government. His key decisions involve credit risk management in a high-inflation environment, managing the CPI-linker portfolio, digital banking investment (Akbank has been one of Turkey's most digitally advanced banks), capital adequacy maintenance, and positioning for the potential normalization of monetary policy under the post-2023 economic team that has begun raising interest rates toward orthodox levels.