An employer choosing an OKS provider makes a compliance decision for every auto-enrolled employee at once, which makes it the highest-leverage halal finance decision most Turkish companies ever take. Three providers compete seriously for katilim mandates: Katilim Emeklilik, Garanti BBVA Emeklilik and Bereket Emeklilik. The 2026 rules frame the choice: employees contribute 3% of gross salary, the one-off stay-in state contribution was halved to 500 TL, the ongoing 20% match applies, OKS fund expenses are capped at 1.09% with no entry fees permitted, and employees who do not opt out within 60 days are in.
Ready to compare halal options?
The comparison
| Garanti BBVA | Katilim Emeklilik | Bereket Emeklilik | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published fund fee | 0.85% on all six OKS katilim funds | Within the 1.09% cap; not published per fund | Within the 1.09% cap; not published per fund |
| Fund variants | Six: starter, temkinli, dengeli, dinamik, agresif, standart | OKS katilim fund set | Standard, dynamic, aggressive |
| Committee disclosure | Named (Aktepe, Akyuz, Gayretli), icazet 2021-2025 | Named (Donduren, Dereci, Odabasi), certificates and annual report | Not publicly named |
| Company type | Conventional group, katilim window | Full participation company | Full participation company |
| Distribution fit | Garanti BBVA payroll infrastructure | Albaraka Turk and Kuveyt Turk employer relationships | Agricultural and rural employers, Tarim Kredi ecosystem |
The price argument
Garanti's plan is the only one with a fee table you can read before signing: all six katilim funds at a published 0.85% annual fund operating fee against the 1.09% regulatory cap, with no other plan deductions. That is a 0.24 point saving versus a cap-priced alternative, every year, on every employee's balance. On a workforce's combined savings compounding over decades, published-and-lower beats unpublished-and-capped by real money, and it also signals something about how the provider treats the people who cannot negotiate: OKS employees never chose their provider, so a printed price is the only accountability they get.
The governance argument
Katilim Emeklilik answers with company-level purity: the whole institution is participation-based, the same named committee and published certificates cover OKS as cover the flagship plans, and there is no conventional ecosystem for anything to default into. For employers whose workforce would ask not just is the fund halal but who says so, this is the deepest answer available, and onboarding rides the Albaraka Turk and Kuveyt Turk relationships many katilim-minded employers already have. Bereket makes the same structural claim with weaker paperwork: a full participation company that does not publicly name its committee, which for a compliance-motivated selection is a strange gap to accept when two rivals publish everything.
Our recommendation
- Default pick: Garanti BBVA's katilim OKS plan, on the published fee and five years of icazet certificates. Best execution in the market.
- Values-alignment pick: Katilim Emeklilik, when company-level participation status matters to your workforce and the fee difference is acceptable for the governance depth.
- Ecosystem pick: Bereket, for agricultural processors and cooperatives whose banking already runs through Tarim Kredi and the partner participation banks.
- Whoever you pick: tell employees the plan is katilim, explicitly. The 500 TL stay-in bonus plus the 20% match makes opting out expensive, and knowing the default is interest-free removes the most common reason katilim-minded employees opt out.
What employees should do
If you are auto-enrolled, check the plan type before the 60-day window closes. If your employer chose a katilim plan, staying in is close to free money: 3% of salary matched at 20%, plus the 500 TL bonus, in capped-fee interest-free funds. If your employer chose a conventional plan, you cannot switch providers unilaterally, but you can ask payroll for the participation option, and employers can select katilim plans for willing cohorts. Either way, treat the 3% as a floor; auto-enrolment alone does not fund a retirement, and the voluntary BES layer on top is where real accumulation happens, as we map in our katilim BES comparison. The full mechanics of the system are in our OKS explainer.
Frequently asked questions
Are OKS savings locked until retirement?
The state contributions vest fully only at retirement eligibility (age 56 with 10 years in the system), and early exits surrender the unvested portion. Your own contributions remain yours, subject to tax on gains at early withdrawal. The design intentionally rewards staying in, and for katilim savers there is no religious penalty for doing so: the whole chain, contributions and state match alike, sits in participation funds.
Can an employer run katilim and conventional OKS plans side by side?
Employers select the plan structure with their provider, and cohort arrangements exist in practice; the operational details sit with the provider's corporate desk. If you are an employer with a mixed workforce, ask the three providers above directly, and note that Garanti's published fee applies to the katilim funds specifically, which makes the katilim option easy to justify to any auditor of the selection.
What happened to the 1,000 TL stay-in bonus?
It was halved to 500 TL under the 2026 rules, the same policy round that cut the BES state match from 30% to 20%. The direction of travel is less subsidy, which strengthens rather than weakens the case for fee-disciplined plan selection: when the state adds less, what providers subtract matters more. Our full analysis of the cuts is in the state match explainer.
Compare providers in your region
See side-by-side comparisons of Shariah-compliant products, or let our matcher recommend the best options for your situation.
Do OKS funds perform worse than individual BES funds?
The asset universe is the same participation toolkit, and the OKS expense cap of 1.09% is actually tighter than the caps on individual-side metals and equity funds. What differs is allocation conservatism: OKS defaults lean cautious because the audience never chose to be there. An employee who stays in and actively selects the dinamik or agresif variant gets a real long-horizon allocation at workplace-plan costs, which is a better deal than most savers realize they hold.