No. Garanti BBVA, İş Bankası, Akbank, Yapı Kredi and Halkbank cannot open you a participation account, because Turkey's Banking Law No. 5411 licenses deposit banks and participation banks as separate institutions and the BDDK lists them separately: 35 deposit banks and 10 participation banks on 6 October 2026. There is no Islamic window inside a Turkish deposit bank the way there is at Maybank in Malaysia or Lloyds in the UK. What these groups do sell is katılım through sister companies: Garanti BBVA Emeklilik and Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik run interest-free pension plans with their own advisory committees, and the state banks sit next to Ziraat Katılım, Vakıf Katılım and Emlak Katılım. This guide maps what is halal where, and what a Garanti or İş customer should move.
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Why Turkey has no Islamic windows: Law 5411 and the BDDK licence
Banking Law No. 5411 defines three kinds of bank. A deposit bank (mevduat bankası) takes deposits and lends. A participation bank (katılım bankası) collects funds into participation accounts and finances through trade, lease and partnership contracts. A development and investment bank does neither. Each needs its own BDDK licence, and the licence is for one type only. That is why the BDDK's institution list on 6 October 2026 showed Türkiye Garanti Bankası, Türkiye İş Bankası, Akbank, Yapı ve Kredi Bankası, Türkiye Halk Bankası, T.C. Ziraat Bankası and Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası under Mevduat Bankaları (35), and Kuveyt Türk, Albaraka Türk, Türkiye Finans, Ziraat Katılım, Vakıf Katılım, Emlak Katılım, Dünya Katılım, Hayat Finans, TOM Bank and Adil Katılım under Katılım Bankaları (10).
The practical result is that a deposit bank's current account, time deposit, consumer loan and credit card all run on interest, and the bank has no legal route to offer a kâr payı product alongside them. Groups that wanted a participation business had to found a separate bank: Ziraat Bankası's group set up Ziraat Katılım, and the General Directorate of Foundations founded Vakıf Katılım. Garanti BBVA, İş Bankası and Akbank never did. Our halal banking guide explains the participation model itself, and the state of play review covers how the ten licensed banks differ.
What "garanti bbva katılım" actually refers to
When people search for Garanti BBVA katılım they are usually looking at the pension company, not the bank. Garanti BBVA Emeklilik publishes a page titled Katılım Emeklilik Faaliyetleri that names a three-person advisory committee, Prof. Dr. İsak Emin Aktepe, Prof. Dr. Vecdi Akyüz and Dr. Mehmet Gayretli, and links a single PDF of icazet certificates covering its individual pension (BES) plans, auto-enrolment (OKS) plans and katılım funds. The funds are managed under the Katılım Esasları Çerçevesinde Sigortacılık ve Bireysel Emeklilik Faaliyetlerine İlişkin Yönetmelik, the 2020 regulation that governs interest-free pensions. Our Garanti BBVA Emeklilik Katılım review rates the documentation as the best in the sector.
That certificate covers the pension contract and the funds inside it. It does not reach the Garanti BBVA current account that pays your salary, the Bonus credit card or a Garanti time deposit. A Garanti customer can therefore hold a halal pension through Garanti BBVA Emeklilik while every lira in the bank account next to it is in an interest-based product. The pension is halal. The bank is not a participation bank and does not claim to be.
Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik: which bank it belongs to and what its katılım plans cover
Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik answers the other common brand search. Its Hakkımızda page on 6 October 2026 described the company as a Türkiye İş Bankası subsidiary listed on Borsa İstanbul under ANHYT, with a capital table of 64 percent Türkiye İş Bankası, 20 percent Anadolu Anonim Türk Sigorta Şirketi, 15 percent public float and 1 percent Milli Reasürans, and a note that the free float is 17 percent after İş Bankası bought 1.92 percent of it in February 2023. So the answer to "Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik hangi bankaya ait" is İş Bankası, and the plans are sold through İş Bankası branches.
Its Katılım Emeklilik Faaliyetleri page lists icazet certificates for katılım plans numbered 401 to 440, including a Katılım Geleceğe Yatırım plan, a Katılım Ev Hanımları plan and a Katılım TSK Mensupları plan, and names an advisory committee drawn from İSFA İslami Finans Danışmanlık: Mustafa Dereci as chair, Prof. Dr. Osman Güman and Doç. Dr. M. Salih Kumaş. It also publishes a Katılım Esaslarına Uygunluk Raporu. Our Anadolu Hayat Katılım review goes through the plan fees. As with Garanti, the certificate stops at the pension contract; an İş Bankası Maximum card or vadeli hesap is outside it.
Conventional groups and their katılım products, side by side
| Group | Bank licence (BDDK list, 6 Oct 2026) | Katılım product in the group | Where the certificate stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garanti BBVA | Deposit bank | Garanti BBVA Emeklilik katılım BES and OKS plans, katılım funds, three-member advisory committee | Pension and funds only; bank accounts and cards are interest-based |
| İş Bankası | Deposit bank | Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik katılım plans 401 to 440, İSFA advisory committee, compliance report | Pension only; İş Bankası accounts are conventional |
| Akbank | Deposit bank | None found on an official katılım page during our check | No katılım certificate to point to |
| Yapı Kredi | Deposit bank | None found on an official katılım page during our check | No katılım certificate to point to |
| Ziraat group | Deposit bank plus Ziraat Katılım (separate licence) | Ziraat Katılım accounts, financing, cards | Ziraat Bankası itself remains conventional |
| Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü | Vakıf Katılım (separate licence, founded 2015, operating since 24 Feb 2016) | Vakıf Katılım accounts, financing, cards | VakıfBank is a separate deposit bank, not the founder |
| State (Emlak) | Emlak Katılım (licensed 2019 as the revived Emlak Bank) | Emlak Katılım accounts, gold, financing | Halkbank has no participation sister bank of its own |
Two ownership details matter because the brand pairs mislead. Vakıf Katılım's own Hakkımızda page says its founder is the Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü, the General Directorate of Foundations, under a BDDK establishment permit dated 27 February 2015 and an operating licence of 11 February 2016; it is not a VakıfBank subsidiary. Emlak Katılım's history page traces it to the Emlak ve Eytam Bankası of 1926, re-established as a participation bank by a 2018 decision with its licence in 2019; it is state-owned but not part of Halkbank. Our comparison of the three state participation banks covers how they differ in practice.
Why the deposit account itself stays interest-bearing, and what to do with the balance
The Diyanet's Din İşleri Yüksek Kurulu has two rulings that settle this for a Garanti or Akbank customer. On time deposits (vadeli mevduat), it says Muslims should not knowingly place money in interest-bearing deposits, that the return is interest and haram whether the rate is above or below inflation, and that any interest already received may not be used for oneself or one's dependants but must be given to those in need without expecting reward. On demand deposits (vadesiz mevduat), it says a non-interest current account is not in the same category, but because the bank may use the balance in interest-based business, keeping money there is not religiously appropriate while legitimate alternatives exist, except in necessity.
Read together, that gives a clear order of operations. Close or empty any vadeli hesap first and give away the accrued interest; our guide to purifying interest income explains the Diyanet's rules on who may receive it. Then move the working balance to a participation bank's cari hesap or katılma hesabı. Turkey now has ten participation banks, three of them app-only, and our participation bank accounts hub lists the options by product and shows which banks publish their profit shares.
How to move salary, savings and BES without losing anything
- Open the participation account first, using the mobile onboarding at Kuveyt Türk, Vakıf Katılım, Ziraat Katılım or a digital bank, so the IBAN exists before you change anything at work.
- Give your employer the new IBAN for salary; Turkish payroll does not require that salary land at a particular bank unless your employer has a maaş protokolü, in which case ask HR whether the protocol can be extended or whether a standing order is acceptable.
- Move automatic payments (fatura talimatı) and card autopay to the new account before closing the old one, then let the old account run one more cycle to catch stragglers.
- Do not cash out a BES contract to move it. Ask the receiving company for an aktarım (transfer) between pension companies; the state contribution and vesting stay with the contract on transfer, while early exit forfeits the unvested share. The waiting period and any transfer fee are in your plan's information form.
- If your pension is already with Garanti BBVA Emeklilik or Anadolu Hayat and you only want the funds to be halal, you may be able to switch into their katılım plan or katılım funds without leaving the company; ask for a plan change (plan değişikliği) rather than a new contract so the contract date is preserved.
- Empty the vadeli hesap at maturity rather than breaking it early, and give away the interest; keep a note of the amount for your own records.
What "katılım" on a conventional bank's fund shelf means, and does not mean
İş Bankası, Garanti BBVA and Akbank customers can buy katılım funds through their investment accounts because TEFAS, the Turkey Electronic Fund Trading Platform, lets any distributor sell funds from any manager. A fund with katılım in its name is a Sermaye Piyasası Kurulu participation fund, which means its information form names the advisory body that screens its holdings and it cannot hold interest-bearing instruments. Buying such a fund through a conventional bank does not make the fund less halal. The fund is the same unit whether you buy it at Kuveyt Türk or at Akbank.
What the label does not change is the account around it. The cash waiting in your İş Bankası investment account before and after the trade sits in a conventional current account, and any dividend the bank sweeps into a vadeli hesap becomes interest. Settlement cash is usually a day or two, which falls under the necessity the Diyanet allows, but it should not become a parking place. Our guide to building a halal portfolio on TEFAS shows how to run the whole process from a participation bank account instead, and explains why the same fund can cost different amounts through different distributors.
Who should do what
If you are a Garanti BBVA or İş Bankası customer with a katılım BES, keep the pension and move the bank account. The pension is certified by a named advisory committee under the 2020 participation pension regulation; the current account and card are not, and there is no document that could make them so. If you are at Akbank or Yapı Kredi and want anything halal, there is nothing to keep: open a participation account, transfer the pension to a katılım plan at one of the companies that publishes certificates, and treat the move as a clean break. If you are at Ziraat Bankası, VakıfBank or Halkbank because your salary protocol requires it, the participation sister banks are a real option for the savings side, but the salary account itself remains conventional until the employer changes the protocol.
In every case, the test is the licence, not the logo. Turkey made that test easy by writing it into Law 5411: a bank is either on the BDDK's deposit list or on its participation list, and only the second can take your money into a katılma hesabı. The pension companies and fund managers inside a conventional group can be genuinely interest-free; the bank at the centre of the group cannot. Facts checked against bddk.org.tr, garantibbvaemeklilik.com.tr, anadoluhayat.com.tr, vakifkatilim.com.tr, emlakkatilim.com.tr, kurul.diyanet.gov.tr on 6 October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Does Garanti BBVA have a katılım hesabı?
No. Türkiye Garanti Bankası is licensed as a deposit bank under Banking Law 5411 and appears on the BDDK's Mevduat Bankaları list, so it cannot offer a participation account. The katılım products in the Garanti BBVA group are the pension plans and funds at Garanti BBVA Emeklilik, which publishes an advisory committee and icazet certificates for its katılım BES and OKS plans.
Which bank owns Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik?
Türkiye İş Bankası. Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik's own page describes it as an İş Bankası subsidiary listed on Borsa İstanbul as ANHYT, with İş Bankası holding 64 percent, Anadolu Sigorta 20 percent, Milli Reasürans 1 percent and the rest in public hands. Its katılım plans are numbered 401 to 440 and are certified by an advisory committee from İSFA İslami Finans Danışmanlık.
Is İş Bankası's or Akbank's vadesiz hesap halal?
The Diyanet's ruling on demand deposits says a non-interest current account is not treated like an interest-bearing time deposit, but because the bank may use the balance in interest-based business, keeping money there is not appropriate while legitimate alternatives exist, except in necessity. With ten participation banks available in Turkey, the alternatives exist, so the ruling points to moving the balance.
Is Vakıf Katılım part of VakıfBank?
No. Vakıf Katılım's Hakkımızda page names its founder as the Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü, the General Directorate of Foundations, with a BDDK establishment permit of 27 February 2015 and an operating licence of 11 February 2016; operations began on 24 February 2016. VakıfBank is a separate deposit bank. The two share a word, not a licence.
Can I keep my BES at Garanti BBVA Emeklilik and still bank halal?
Yes. The pension contract is certified separately from the bank. Keep the katılım plan, move your current account and savings to a participation bank, and check that your contributions are in katılım funds rather than conventional ones. Our Garanti BBVA Emeklilik Katılım review explains how to read the certificate PDF and which funds it covers.
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What should I do with interest already paid into my Garanti or Akbank deposit?
Give it away. The Diyanet's time deposit ruling says interest received may not be used for yourself or your dependants and must be given to those in need without expecting reward; its December 2024 ruling on illegitimate income adds that such money may not be spent on mosques. Keep the principal, give the interest, and close the account at maturity.
