Page 43 - Annual Report 2023

ANNUAL REPORT 2023 43

In the course of controls and mitigations actions, our regulates the activity of the Bank with its stakeholders
Bank consistently engages in proactively monitoring and clients. In this regard, due to improvement of the
24/7 by investigating suspicious activities and the real- bank’s processes and with the aim of establishing the
time generated alerts related to potential suspicious best standards, we have updated and formalized all
activities happening within our internal perimeter; Corporate Loan Contracts and the various Guarantee
continues performing Penetration tests activities; Agreements.
restricting or blocking different web sites with not
good reputation or indicated as compromised; restricts In the framework of the development of the Bank and
emails sent/received outside the organization for the new products that were intended to be offered to
some staff categories; removes all admin rights and of the Client, the legal risk analysis, and the designing
domain users on workstations; removes the access of of the product in accordance with the applicable
removable storage devices for all network end points; legislation, has been one of the main activities. The
improves strong authentication methods for different follow-up of the NPL files and court litigation related to,
systems, increases and sophisticates the controls but not only, were in the focus of the Legal Department
implemented for network access form outside; adds with the aim of recovering the unpaid debt or any
protection filters for external systems etc. losses suffered.

We have continued working hard in enhancing Bank’s Through the Association of Banks, an active role has
staff awareness by face to face training sessions been exercised in the discussions on the approval of
and meetings with management level for explaining draft-laws and bylaws, which have a significant effect
how crucial their collaboration is in safeguarding the on the Bank’s activities, as well as on addressing issues
security perimeter of the bank and, unequivocally, the that require a commitment at the level of the banking
information of our clients by continuously enriching system. It is worth emphasizing the collaboration
the existing security structure and aligning closely with the state institutions in order to establish the
the internal regulatory requirements and adhering application of best practices in the implementation of
rigorously best international standards and practices the applicable legislation.
regarding information security.
Throughout this year as well, the Bank has offered
On legal risk mitigation, there was continued monitoring innovative ways of conducting business deployed
of legislative changes in order to ensure that the Bank in line with legal requirements, while also catering to
conducts its activities in compliance with the legal Bank clients’ needs. It is worth to mention the bank’s
norms in force. Even during this year’s special focus developments on offering products through online
has been on the transparency of banking products channels as well as digitization.
and services, as one of the essential aspects that