Every digital bank in the world has the same weakness: cash. TOM Bank solved it with groceries. T.O.M. Katilim Bankasi is the digital participation bank of Aydin Holding, the family group behind the A101 discount retail chain, and its masterstroke is using thousands of A101 stores nationwide as a free cash deposit and withdrawal network. For the large share of Turkish households that earn or spend in cash, this makes TOM the first app-only bank that can genuinely serve as a primary account. The BDDK granted its establishment permit on 4 August 2022 with 1.5 billion lira in capital and its operating license on 30 March 2023. Dubai Islamic Bank invested in the group and holds board seats, including DIB Group CEO Adnan Chilwan, which gives a young Turkish digital bank an unusual line to global Islamic banking governance.
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The icazet: a Shariah certificate you can actually read
TOM's retail brand, TOM Bank Hadi, does something no other Turkish bank does: it publishes a product-level icazet, a Shariah compliance certificate, for its participation account. Every participation bank has an Advisory Committee that approves products internally; TOM alone shows you the paper. Its committee, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Abdulkadir Atar (chair), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Muhammed Fatih Turan and Dr. Mehmet Gayretli, met 24 times in 2025, backed by a dedicated Participation Compliance Directorate. For a saver who wants to verify rather than trust, this is the sector's best per-product governance artifact, and we explain why it matters in our icazet and oversight explainer.
The deposit shelf
The Hadi Vadeli Katilma Hesabi runs in lira, dollars and euros. Before opening, the app shows reference return rates derived from past pool distributions, honest framing for a profit-share product, and mid-term partial withdrawal is allowed with the remaining balance continuing to term. Auto-renewal reprices at the renewal-date ratio, and the TMSF 1.2 million lira insurance line is printed. The Mega Gunluk Hesap adds daily participation earnings on parked balances. The structural criticism is the flip side of the app-first model: ratios render in-app only, with no printed public grid, so comparison shopping requires downloading the app, and the public record the printed-grid banks create simply does not exist here. No gold shelf, either.
Free daily banking, and the merchant question
The vadesiz current account is free, transfers are free 24/7, IBAN-free sends work by contact, bill automation is built in, and A101 cash in and out is free within limits. As a zero-cost daily banking hub this is as good as the sector gets. Credit is where the ecosystem shows its shape: Hadi Deferred Payment gives two-month grace at group merchants, and Installment Payment Credit runs to 24 months at A101, English Home and Eve, with a Hadi Black credit card on top. Halal installment purchasing at everyday stores genuinely replaces card revolving for many households, which we like. But the credit products steer spending toward group chains, and you should read the ecosystem for what it is: retail distribution and banking reinforcing each other. There is no home or vehicle financing; households needing big-ticket finance pair TOM with a branch bank from our home financing or car financing comparisons.
The regulatory record, for the file
T.O.M. Katilim Bankasi A.S. received BDDK establishment permission by decision 10282 of 4 August 2022 with 1.5 billion lira in founding capital, and its operating license by decision 10561 of 30 March 2023, the same window in which Hayat Finans was licensed. The founding shareholders come from the Aydin family and group management, the general manager is Onur Ozkan, and in December 2024 the bank added an SPK order-transmission authorization, which is what lets Hadi Yatirim route customers into funds and equities from the same app. As with every participation bank, it operates an Advisory Committee under the BDDK's 2019 interest-free banking communique and TKBB Central Advisory Board standards, with TMSF insuring participation funds to 1.2 million lira per person.
Who TOM Bank is actually for
- Cash-earning households: the A101 network makes this the one digital bank that works without a nearby branch or ATM arrangement.
- First-account openers: zero fees, free transfers and simple app onboarding lower every barrier, from Marmara to Eastern Anatolia.
- Verification-minded savers: the published icazet is the sector's only product-level certificate.
- Not for: rate maximizers (in-app reference rates competed below Hayat's 99 and Vakif's 98/2 headlines at review), gold savers (no shelf), and anyone needing property or vehicle finance.
Strengths and weaknesses
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Free cash access through A101 stores nationwide | Deposit ratios in-app, not printed publicly |
| Only per-product icazet certificate in Turkey | No gold shelf, no home or vehicle financing |
| Free 24/7 transfers and IBAN-free sends | Merchant-locked credit favors group chains |
| Dubai Islamic Bank board presence | Young bank with a retail-ecosystem ambition |
| Committee met 24 times in 2025, dedicated compliance unit | Reference rates require the app to view |
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.
Verdict
TOM Bank scores A- in our Halal Money Index, with the rate-not-published flag as the cost of its app-only disclosure. As a financial inclusion machine it is the standout in the sector: free banking with real cash access and the only Shariah certificate you can read before you deposit. As a savings destination it is beatable on the split, and it does not pretend otherwise. Our recommendation: use TOM as the daily hub and cash bridge, hold your yield-seeking deposits where the printed numbers are better, and watch whether the icazet practice pressures the rest of the sector into product-level disclosure. It should. Compare everything on our bank accounts page.