While the Istanbul Financial Center (IFC) continued to attract the attention of financial technology (fintech) companies, the fintech ecosystem in Turkey also continued to develop in 2021 with more than $64 million in investments pouring into the sector, an official report showed on Thursday.
"A strong banking sector and technological infrastructure provide a basis for the increase in the digitalization rate of individual and corporate customers in the financial sector," said the report, released by the Presidential Finance Office.
There are nearly 70.3 million active retail digital banking users in Turkey, as well as 1.7 million POS terminals, 52,000 ATMs, 82.8 million credit cards and 54.4 million prepaid cards, it showed.
"The contactless payment rate, increased with the pandemic, reached the level of 48%," it also noted.
It said that though the fintech ecosystem in Turkey had a total 520 active fintech companies, exits from the sector were just $48 million in 2021.
The report also underlined plans to open the Istanbul Finance and Technology Base, the country's first fintech-focused science park, in the IFC.
It said the IFC would include a regulatory sandbox where fintech firms could "develop their products and services in a controlled environment under the regulator's supervision."
Investments are expected to continue to swell next year amid regulatory progress and the falling effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Efforts to publish a National Fintech Strategy Document for the country, an action plan for the fintech ecosystem between 2022 and 2025, are ongoing, the report added.
The document, scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2022, will serve as a roadmap for the sector's development.
The fintech venture Colendi on September had raised $30 million in the Series A investment round, $12 million of which came from Re-Pie, Turkey’s first alternative asset management company that targets startups with the potential to become unicorns.
